The problem posed by Roxham Road reminds us that the primary beneficiaries of irregular immigration are not the immigrants themselves, but those who smuggle them, at exorbitant prices, and those who then employ them, at derisory prices. .
Immigration is not about charity, to say the least. With its merit-based point system, modestly called “Comprehensive Ranking System”, where education, work experience, language spoken and income take all their weight, Canada is in the forefront of the most demanding countries, with Australia.
It is perhaps no coincidence that in 2017, the then American President, a certain Donald Trump, introduced a bill aimed at reforming the American immigration system… based on the Canadian model.1 ! The project had been rejected by the House of Representatives with a Democratic majority, which considered it too elitist.
Not enough thought has been given to the ethical issues raised by the Canadian immigration system. On the one hand, recruitment based on merit, which attracts engineers, doctors, investors and nurses, is carried out at the expense of countries which are thus deprived of part of their elite. These trained individuals are of great value, and Canada knows it.
Also, aiming to increase the number of immigrants to unprecedented levels, to 500,000 or 1 million per year, is tantamount to plundering the human resources of other countries ever more intensely. On an individual basis, we understand that immigrants want to improve their lot, especially when fleeing unstable or dangerous situations.
But the brain drain to the benefit of a rich country like Canada has collective implications for the poor countries concerned: it mortgages their future, their very possibilities of development, by depriving them of their educated youth.
The other ethical issue concerns the promises made to the immigrants that we are trying to recruit: we demand of them diplomas, experience, language proficiency. And yet, in many cases, talent is wasted.
How many examples of immigrants whose diplomas are not recognized and who have to start all over again, returning to university? Faced with the magnitude of the task, many fall back on jobs for which they are overqualified, and pin their hopes on their children.
These people work and pay taxes, play their role, but integration has a bitter taste for many. They are required to speak English even though they had been recruited for their mastery of French; a professional order blocks them when their profession is experiencing a labor shortage.
The case of the engineer or the professor having to drive a taxi is not anecdotal: in Canada, only a quarter of immigrants work in their field of training2.
If the authorities are in no hurry to close Roxham Road, it is because they know – without being able to admit it – that these arrivals who entered by irregular means are filling a demand for poorly paid jobs, including no “natives”. does not want.
According to estimates, there are 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States working in construction, domestic services, agriculture, including – and especially – in states like Florida or Texas, which play border control toughs as they take full advantage of this cheap labour.
In Canada, governments do not have the slightest idea of the situation, the number of undocumented migrants varying according to the studies between 20,000 and 500,000.
The Roxham Road represents for the country the equivalent of a return of the repressed: along this path pass people who, perhaps, would not win the race on merit, or who do not have the means to cross the maze particularly opaque public administration.
We must of course ask ourselves if our society is able to welcome and integrate all these people who dream of a better life. But we must also ask ourselves whether, by keeping things vague about temporary and irregular immigration, by turning a blind eye to the inconsistencies in their own system, our governments are not contributing, here as elsewhere, to training of a new social class, inferior to all the others, the equivalent of the metics of ancient Greece, these foreigners who had neither the same rights nor the same status as citizens.
No coincidence that the word – metic – ended up being confused with an insult. When we buy our fruits and vegetables, have our houses cleaned, opt for home delivery, perhaps we are unknowingly taking advantage of this human capital, this anonymous labor force which nonetheless suffers.