Muslim Immigrants to Canada facing Discrimination & social problems

by Tahir Mahmood


There is still considerable discrimination in Canada against newcomers.

Many employers demand “Canadian experience” from job applicants, a not-very-subtle way of telling newcomers, especially colored ones that they are not wanted.

Few white people, on the other hand, face this problem.

White doctors from South Africa are immediately given jobs; non-white doctors have had to go through endless bureaucratic procedures. Even after passing all the required exams, they are denied residency in order to qualify to get a license to practice.

Engineers and computer-programmers face similar problems. Many of those who acquired immigration to Canada were careful not to resign their jobs in the Middle East.

Thus, after spending a few frustrating months in Canada looking for a job, they have left their families and themselves returned to continue to work in the Middle East. Over the years, a pattern has emerged. People have a tendency to congregate with those they are familiar with. Some of these “Middle Eastern” families settled in apartment buildings in Mississauga, a western suburb of Toronto. Others followed suit. Now there is an entire locality in Mississauga where buildings are literally full of wives and children but no husbands or fathers. The locality has been appropriately dubbed “Begumpura”! (City of Wives).

Again, the absence of husbands and fathers is leading to social problems. Many children are becoming unruly and developing anti-social habits. Unfortunately, the environment in many Canadian schools is not conducive to proper upbringing, and in the absence of any community institutions there is no place these families can turn to for help.

Unfortunately, parents who have been traversing the world in search of a better future for their children are beginning to discover that they are losing them just when they thought they had found the promised land. And there is no place to return to from Canada because they find themselves misfits in Pakistan, where life is undoubtedly much harsher unless one happens to be both well-connected and extremely rich.