This post is comprised of an excerpt (and photo) from the article “Shedding the Myths and Misconceptions About Immigration” which was originally posted in Guelph Today on October 12, 2018. To read the full article, click here.

Guelph panelists (photo from Guelph Today)“A common complaint by those critical of Canada’s immigration and refugee policies is that immigrants take jobs away from people who were born here, but Guelph business owner Jim Estill says that is not the case in Guelph.

“I will tell you right now that there is an unlimited number of blue collar jobs in Guelph,” said Estill. “I get calls and emails everyday from companies that want to hire blue-collar workers.”

Dispelling many of the common myths about immigration was the focus of a panel discussion at the Italian Canadian Club earlier this week.

The event was organized by the office of Guelph MP Lloyd Longfield as part of Citizenship Week.

Longfield reminded the approximately 50 people in attendance that Guelph has benefited from a long history of welcoming immigrants and refugees…

He said he regularly hears concerns from people that immigrants are taking Canadian jobs, that they aren’t contributing to the country and they haven’t paid their dues the way the people born here have.

“Sometimes it is immigrants themselves that are saying, ‘It took me this long to get here and now you are opening the doors to refugees and asylum seekers’,” said Longfield.

“We made a conscious decision to bring in 50,000 refugees from Syria and now we are continuing with somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 per year from different parts of the world.”…”

To read the rest of the article, click here