Diversity is strength alert!
This isn’t supposed to be happening in welcoming Canada!
Aren’t we led to believe that poor and oppressed minority people feel for each other, that there couldn’t possibly be racism when neither side is white European?
“It’s further colonization,” Wirch said of refugee resettlement. “We [Indigenous people] are further being displaced from our lands, from our food, from our waters. And it’s wrong.”
Here is a bit of the story at Refugees Deeply where the author is working really hard to get the message out that the two minority groups (Indigenous people and refugees) are working on their tensions.
CANADA HAS A reputation as a welcoming haven for refugees. But for some Indigenous Canadians, public support and funding for displaced people stands in stark contrast to their own communities, which remain impoverished and overlooked.
Notice how the author immediately has to get a whack in at Donald Trump!
Last year the nation welcomed 300,000 newcomers, including about 43,500 refugees and asylum seekers. Faced with President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration policies, thousands of migrants have left the United States to seek asylum in Canada.
Many arrived in Manitoba, whose capital Winnipeg has the largest Indigenous population of any Canadian city. The city also faces problems with violence, drugs and homelessness. [So of course it is the perfect place to insert Middle Eastern refugees!—-ed]
Refugees compete with the local low income people for government services. Where have I heard this before?
Refugees in Winnipeg often settle in low-income and predominantly Indigenous neighborhoods. Many of the residents fear they will be forced to compete with their new neighbors for resources that are already scarce.
Last year, a group of Indigenous children pepper-sprayed a group of young refugees outside an Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM) housing facility in the mainly Indigenous Centennial neighborhood of Winnipeg.
[….]
Jenna Wirch, 26, an Indigenous woman from Winnipeg and a community development worker at IRCOM, works with both communities. She is also the youth engagement coordinator for Aboriginal Youth Opportunities, an organization working in Winnipeg’s North End.
“It’s further colonization,” Wirch said of refugee resettlement. “We [Indigenous people] are further being displaced from our lands, from our food, from our waters. And it’s wrong.”
Keep reading, there is much more about how this grand experiment in creating a multicultural dream land is not going so well.