Immigrants Rights Violated

2023 Words9 Pages
Confused looks and puzzled faces greet me when I mention that Canada has a history of racism. The reaction is similar when I note that immigration is of advantage to the Canadian economy. The reality of racism is often not acknowledged by those in positions of power and authority. Even when they admit to its existence, it is often seen as an individual, psychological phenomenon. It is not uncommon to hear that racism is just human nature. Buried in that statement is the assertion that racism, like human nature, is unavoidable. According to this point of view, racism is constant, unchanging, and ever present. Racism is an ideology that holds that the members of one race are inherently superior to other races. Despite the recent advent in human rights laws and practices in Canada, our society continues to suffer from negative effects of racism and discrimination. Canada has a legacy of racism whose lingering effects are still felt by racialized minorities. My primary focus, using a human rights perspective, is to explore the relationship between immigration and racism in Canadian society and how racism becomes the instrument for human rights violations. Immigrants are one of the groups that often experience human rights violations in various forms. In order to approach the issue of racism and how it violates the rights of immigrants, we first need to understand the human rights framework with which we are able to interpret discriminatory behaviour. The human rights violation can be addressed by using the ideals of social justice and social equality, acknowledged in international human rights principles, which guarantee protections for the rights of humanity at large. These human rights principles are advocated by United Nations which have moral guidelines that every state should follow. The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in
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