The images at certain Quebec/NY border crossing are not on the scale of what you see in war zones where "the people" are fleeing advancing armies, and America's right wing may be ridiculing the whole endeavour but it remains a powerful image that blacks are fleeing the US...call it what you want, the change in US immigration policy -- a fallout of the ending of Obama's open arm gesture to Haiti following the earthquake of 2010!
Quebec is obviously a natural destination for Haitians; obviously the idea of living in the land of "gold and honey" aka the United States of America has come to an end for many of them. They are not going to a more "natural destination" that is Quebec, where the already very large Haitian population and the language commonality are important factors.
Still black people fleeing the USA is a powerful image. So far its a small number (in total over the last 10 days it has been somewhat around 4 to 5 thousands. However, I suspect that these are the ones we see! The reality is that compared to the US, Canada segregation is mild (I use the term under advisement); years ago Americans clients flying into Montreal said that it took them a while to feel comfortable in their hotel -- all the chambermaids were white -- not the situation in the US. Sure there are a lot of Haitian taxi drivers in Montreal (it was a bit of a stereotype years and years ago), but there are a lot of Iranian, Iraqi and other nationalities now represented. Haitians that come in the past are fully integrated in Quebec's society. Hence the large numbers at Quebec's border
For America, and probably for the first time since the civil war, people feel that they should flee the country.
That's a shift
Maybe America is glad about that, I saw on Zero hedge a number of "numb nuts" using the anonymity of the internet as a way of making some rather unpleasant remarks. Unfortunately, with my dealings with a lot of Americans, this is not too far from how White America feels. In Canada, not so much.
Quebec is obviously a natural destination for Haitians; obviously the idea of living in the land of "gold and honey" aka the United States of America has come to an end for many of them. They are not going to a more "natural destination" that is Quebec, where the already very large Haitian population and the language commonality are important factors.
Still black people fleeing the USA is a powerful image. So far its a small number (in total over the last 10 days it has been somewhat around 4 to 5 thousands. However, I suspect that these are the ones we see! The reality is that compared to the US, Canada segregation is mild (I use the term under advisement); years ago Americans clients flying into Montreal said that it took them a while to feel comfortable in their hotel -- all the chambermaids were white -- not the situation in the US. Sure there are a lot of Haitian taxi drivers in Montreal (it was a bit of a stereotype years and years ago), but there are a lot of Iranian, Iraqi and other nationalities now represented. Haitians that come in the past are fully integrated in Quebec's society. Hence the large numbers at Quebec's border
For America, and probably for the first time since the civil war, people feel that they should flee the country.
That's a shift
Maybe America is glad about that, I saw on Zero hedge a number of "numb nuts" using the anonymity of the internet as a way of making some rather unpleasant remarks. Unfortunately, with my dealings with a lot of Americans, this is not too far from how White America feels. In Canada, not so much.
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