To the Editor;
I’ve observed over the last few decades that the strong work ethic exceptionally practiced by new immigrants, and migrants, is demonstrably notable in the produce harvesting sector. It’s one of typically hump-busting work that almost all post second or third generation Canadians won’t tolerate for themselves.
Observing migrant workers as I drive by, I even feel a bit guilty; considering it from a purely human(e) perspective, I don’t see why they should have to toil so for minimal pay, and not also I.
I can truly imagine such labourers being 50 to a 100 per cent more productive than their born-and-reared-here Canadian counterparts.
To be clear, however, I’m not implying that a strong work ethic is a trait racially genetically inherited by one generation from a preceding generation, etcetera. Rather, it’s an admirable culturally determined factor, in large part motivated by that culture’s original internal and surrounding economic and political conditions.
I anticipate that if they (as citizens) resided here for a number of decades, their strong work ethics and higher-than-average productivity, unfortunately, would gradually diminishes as these motivated labourers’ descendant generations’ young people become accustomed to the relatively easier Western way of work.
One can already witness this effect in such youth getting caught up in much of our overall urban/suburban liberal culture—e.g. attire, lingo, nightlife, as well as work.
I’ve also found that ‘Canadian values’ assimilation often means the unfortunate acquisition of a distasteful yet strong sense of entitlement.
While I don’t favour Canada-based businesses exporting labour abroad at low wages while there are unemployed Canadians who want that work, I hear similar complaints that are actually based on thinly veiled racism.
Frank Sterle Jr.
White Rock, B.C.
