From a distance, its easy to just wax on eloquently on the benefits of diversity, to be the open-minded one, to balk at the crass racism one sees elsewhere. Moving to the GTA (Greater Toronto Area), I travelled an hour north on Hurontario through Mississauga to get to work, riding the bus, passengers getting on and off – this area they were all east Indian, this intersection Pakistani, the next 3 men with pure white turbans and wearing robes, elegant and majestic, this street all Chinese, the next 3 women in Burkas trailing a gaggle of children, it was a trip around the world.

But that was there, that was the GTA. When I moved back to my hometown a few years back, I will say with all honesty that I was entirely shocked to walk into the south end Walmart and find the overweight women with hair curlers with their stained t-shirt and sweatpants replaced with turbans and hijabs, burkas and sari’s. I seriously stopped dead in my tracks. It really was kind of weird to see such a fundamental change, and in only 10 years.

I suppose it shouldn’t have surprised me when a girlfriend a few days ago pointed out how almost 80% of the people at the ServiceOntario centre they went to for her daughters drive test were, well, not white.

So, my hometown is changing, as more and more people immigrate to Canada and have fanned out across the country, to smaller towns, and the locals are, em, noticing the shift.

Given native-born Americans’ relatively low birth rates, immigrants and their children now provide essentially all the net prime-age population growth in the United States.

BROOKINGS | A dozen facts about immigration |

I said to her that the only real difference is the colour of their skin, that Canada has had waves of immigrants in the past, just in the past the only difference was their accent, not their skin colour.

She was a bit sheepish, but Sue doesn’t do sheepish for long, and we got into a long chat about it.

I told her how statistically immigration is economically good for a country, as the influx of new bodies gives a jolt to the economy – you know, getting their license, buying a car, paying tuition to University, new school clothes, TV’s, furniture, and all the western accoutrements of life. The vast majority of those who immigrate to Canada have jobs, careers, are generally middle class, hardworking, proud, and looking for what every one of us have wanted since our ancient ancestors climbed out of the trees on the savannas of Africa – something better, more land, more food, more opportunities.

… immigrants generally have positive impacts on both government finances and the innovation that leads to productivity growth.

IBID

Anywho, and so of course of late the dear snowflake down yonder is upset with negative press, so what does he turn to? Like a binky, a comfort, a warm embrace from his base – immigration. He knows with that topic his base will be ignited and slather up the news cycle with trolly comments, baiting the libtards they abhor.

Oh, well then of course the media trots out the economic virtuoso, and their wordy erudite knowledge, flying right over the heads of the many out there in the real world. Trump knows it will create just the media storm he desires, to change the headlines away from whatever stupid, rotten, no-good, ignoramus thing he’s done, said, or otherwise.

I mean, half the stuff he says, most of the things, made for TV snow-jobs; a tactic he picked up from Putin, and of which he excels.

Fact 11: Immigrants contribute positively to government finances over the long run, and high-skilled immigrants make especially large contributions.

IBID

And it works, because many, even here in the Great White North, there is a belief among many that brown people somehow suck the air out of the room, take jobs, and basically somehow destroy the fabric of society.

Popular as that idea may be, it is statistically not accurate. Quite the opposite in fact – immigration stimulates the economy.

One thing to first keep in mind, and that is that the boomers are a gigantic group in many countries in the Western world. Currently, in ratio, they are a much larger group than the folks who are paying for their pensions and social security.

Demographers and economists have been warning that the aging baby-boomer population presents a serious challenge to the nation’s finances, as the ratio of seniors to working-age adults—the age-dependency ratio—rises.

{…}

In 2011, the first members of the baby-boom generation (people born between 1946 and 1964) turned sixty-five. By 2017, the age-dependency ratio had risen to twenty-five per cent—an increase of four percentage points in just seven years. In the coming decades, it is expected to rise even more sharply. By 2030, “the ratio would climb to 35 retiree-age Americans for every 100 of working age . . . and 42 by 2060,” the Journal (WSJ) story said, citing projections released earlier this year.

THE NEW YORKER | Why the United States Needs More Immigrants | By John Cassidy
June 22, 2018

Ah, yes, the immigrant, the favourite boogeyman through time, laid at their feet all the ills of the people they come to live beside, as they turn their jealous eyes on these newcomers, these strangers, the great and suspicious OTHER.

But, what is the RIGHT thing to do? Is it to turn your backs on those seeking the same exact things your ancestors desired for themselves? Because they don’t look like you? Deny those basic needs, of opportunity, of possibilities, of a different future than the one they saw before them? Nothing different from many of our own ancestors, wanting a better life for their children.

I know my own families stories, those I found, and those I was told. There are all the stories I’ve heard over the years from all across the country, stuff like arriving after a long boat ride at Ellis Island with $5 in their pocket, even have myself an ancestor I traced right back to Jamestown, Virginia from the late 1600s.

Across the educational categories, the foreign-born population is estimated to have a slightly more-positive fiscal impact in nearly every category. For the foreign-born population as a whole, per capita expenditure on cash welfare assistance, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP; formerly known as the Food Stamp Program), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security are all lower than for native-born individuals, even when restricting the comparison to age- and income-eligible individuals (Nowrasteh and Orr 2018).

BROOKINGS

Statistics only say the why, the bare facts, the truths. They don’t tell the stories, of Rajaie “Roger” El Shorafa here in town whose was beaten so bad he spent a couple weeks in hospital, and the community around that store rallied around him, created a GoFundMe campaign and hosted a benefit concert for him, he was a part of the fabric of the place, and they respected him, cared about him, and he was beaten so bad it took months for him to recover, and so lost his livelihood because of this brutal assault.

They don’t tell you about the Raptors Superfan, Nav Bhatia, a native of India, who spends more than $300,000 a year on Toronto Raptors tickets and gives away many to youths. Meeting President Obama in 2017…

“I told President Obama that I sort of bring the world together through the game of basketball,” Bhatia said. “He was very happy about that, of course. I’m not a player. I’m just a common guy, and here I am with the 44th President of America and I’m a big fan of him. I am so blessed. When I went into my car, I sat for a few minutes and had to take that all in.”

AUTOMOTIVE NEWS CANADA | Meet the ‘famous’ Raptors superfan who happens to be a top Hyundai dealer | January 18, 2018