Canada’s Millennial Youth Are the New “Les Miserables”
I am a 23 year-old Canadian-born male of Italian ancestry. I live in Toronto. Throughout my life, I was told by my teachers and parents, that if I studied hard, stayed in school, and got good marks. that I would be rewarded with a solid career and a good salary.
I followed their advice. I graduated from high school in 2007 and just recently completed a 4-year practical college program. While in college, I used all of my ‘’off time’’ to make myself a better fit for any future jobs.
When I graduated in December 2012, I knew that I was well qualified and ready —even though I had a student loan of $12,000 and another $4000 debt for related certifications and licenses.
The day after I received that $12,000 degree , I visited my career services department which gave me a list of available jobs within the City of Toronto in my field of study. The counselor advised me that positions were filling quickly and that I’d better apply very soon. By the very next day, I had fired off resumes to nearly 100 places. Soon I was up to 320.
But after two weeks, I noticed I had not had a single reply. I asked myself if I could possibly be doing something wrong. Then I remembered a career presentation at my college just months before graduation. One speaker had suggested that we make follow-up phone calls to the employers several days after applying for a position. He advised that we be tactful, but keen.
Only about 30% of the employers actually listed the name and phone number of the recruiter or HR person, but I started phoning. The general response I got was that several thousand other people had applied for the same position and that it would take several hours or even days to dig up my resume from the ‘’pile’’. I was shocked by how many people were applying to employers who were looking to hire maybe 1 or 2 people. I was especially shocked to hear employers say that so many newcomers land in Canada and need jobs immediately that this floods the job market and makes the entire hiring process much more lengthy.
Four months after graduating, I had a few telephone interviews but no job in my field of study. But I still had hope. I decided to call a few of my college buddies whom I had lost contact with.
I was hoping that they were doing better than I was on the job hunt and could perhaps lend me some advice. One of the guys who graduated with honors had a job as a sales associate at a Rogers Plus store. Another classmate was working at a new Boston Pizza as a server while another continued to work at Lowe’s. None were making any more then $14.00 per hour while having large student loans and a degree which had yet to serve any real purpose.
Two of these three graduates were 2-3 years older than I was, wanted to get engaged, married, move out of their parents home and eventually start a family. Yet, they couldn’t afford to do so until they were able to land better paying work. The question we all had was : When will that happen?
From what employers had told me, I suggested to these three former classmates of mine that much of this was due to mass, unnecessary immigration. I said that it was completely senseless to constantly import hundreds of thousands of workers every year (regular immigrants and TFW’s) when Canada’s own graduates had to rely on tips at a restaurant to pay their student loans. Sure enough, all 3 of these guys completely agreed.
One of these friends realized that just speaking of this issue amongst the four of us wasn’t going to change much and would just feed our frustrations.
He decided to book an in-person meeting with his MP, Ted Opitz. He explained to Ted his situation and how much of this was linked to mass importation of workers from other countries. Ted wasn’t very helpful. He said things like : ‘’Immigration is good for the economy, grows businesses, and will make Canada very wealthy. Without immigration, Canada would just be an empty country, etc., etc.”
Ted Opitz was actually a member of Canada’s Standing Committee on Immigration, so, of all MP’s, he should have known that he was spouting utter nonsense to my friend. But apparently, Opitz actually believed what he was saying!!!
Ted then came forward with a ‘’conclusion’’. He suggested that my friend expand the job search to Alberta since, according to Ted, there were thousands of low-skilled and professional jobs there that Canadians in more populated parts of Canada (such as Ontario) weren’t willing to take because they didn’t want to relocate. Ted added that this was another reason why Canada needs to constantly import people.
Sure enough, my friend took Ted up on his advice. He attended several job fairs here in Toronto with Alberta employers. But that didn’t turn out to be as promising as Ted had suggested. At one fair, there were about 700 jobs, but nearly 15,000 applicants. My friend was one of the 14,300 who did not get jobs, not one of the miniscule 700 who did.
My friend tried to contact Ted, but Ted didn’t answer.
I, my friend and many others have reached several conclusions :
1. As in the U.S., there is no real labour shortage in Canada. The Canadian unemployment rate for people aged 15 to 24 has been rising steadily, hitting 14.5 per cent in April. It is really well over 20%. That means hundreds of thousands of other Canadian youths (our college and university graduates in particular) are jobless or underemployed.
2. Most of those at all three levels of government are betraying us. They continue to grovel for immigrant votes. Most are afraid to call for a major reduction in Canada’s average 250,000 immigration intake of the past 22+ years. This goes on despite the fact that nearly half of young people in Canada seem now employed permanently (not temporarily as in the past) in retail, food service or clerical work.
3. Our entire school system has been duped or intimidated into supporting the immigration status quo with slogans like “Diversity Is Our Strength” and other such nonsense. Meanwhile, the average post-secondary graduate is now carrying $28,000 in student loan debt.
4. Canada’s unnecessary immigrant intake is of no benefit to the country. Canada’s population has grown by about 6 million since 1990, due largely to immigration. Yet, according to the 2006 Statistics Canada census, the median earnings of employed Canadians have increased by only 0.1% since 1980. Prominent Economists calculate that Canada’s newcomers costs the government $18-$23 billion per year more in services than they pay in taxes.
Canada’s jobless young and our hundreds of thousands of other unemployed need your help. Governments, educators, unions and student organizations cannot pretend to not know what is going on. If they do, they should be thrown out of their offices.
Break the silence!
Don’t let our so-called “leaders” get away with the madness and hypocrisy they have foisted on our country.
Canadians come first !!.
