Child poverty: why the immigrant background is kept secret

Fear of the PPC

A good two thirds of child poverty in Canada is imported. It is a direct consequence of immigration policy. Social researchers as well as the politicians in Ottawa know that. But nobody likes to express it in public – for fear of the PPC, according to a draft report to the Standing Committee on Health.

It is sometimes said that history does not repeat itself. But some sequences of political doom scenarios show amazing parallels: if the failure of the political ruling class becomes apparent, then those decision-makers whose hours are numbered rarely react creatively, but rather with the reflex of burying their heads in the sand in order to deal with the unpleasant aspects and not having to perceive reality anymore. That seems to immunize you against the requirement to admit your own mistakes. Or even to draw conclusions from it.

Anita Bhaju, who wrote a study on child poverty for the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health, excels: “In our factsheet, we deliberately refrained from differentiating according to immigration status, as we do not think it makes sense. Nevertheless, we of course know that children with an immigrant background are more often affected by poverty.”  The report also cited a 2017 article by a “Social Justice Reporter” that refers to a study stating that half of Toronto’s child poverty comes from immigrants who have been in Canada less than five years.  That increases to two thirds when looking at immigrants in general.

Two MPs on the Committee from the NDP and LPC, in an email exchange, assumed that this aspect was ignored in order not to play into the hands of the PPC.

Despite all this, politicians, opinion polls, sociologists and journalists are irritated by the loss of confidence that they are experiencing in ever-increasing sections of the Canadian population. And journalists who spread their questionable view of the world are horrified when they are confronted with evil slogans during demonstrations, such as: “Fake News Media!”

This is hypocritical: if you cheat all the time, you don’t need to act indignantly when caught.