Just to give you an idea in 2001, “it was estimated that 3.92 million Canadians were 65 years of age or older” (Canada’s Aging Population Pg. 9). What the scary thing about this figure is that it is still rising at an alarmingly fast rate. Now time for a little bit of history about the population growth in Canada. There was an enormous increase in the birth rate, from 1947 to 1970, after the Second World War, this increased the population of countries such as Canada and the US(Canada’s Aging Population).
This situation gets worse when one compares poverty levels in cities , where most immigrants first seek refuge . Gertler (2001 ) estimated that around 52 percent of newly arrived immigrants suffer from serious poverty problem compared to only 24 .5 percent of Canadian-born city residents . Is it that immigrants are lazy or work less ? No , because HRSD (2007 ) reports that 80 percent of immigrants living in poverty usually try to earn income compared to only 67 percent of their Canadians cohorts , and that only 11 percent of immigrants receive government Employment Insurance compared to 20 percent of non-immigrant .Different groups of immigrants are affected differently by poverty depending on their home countries . A comparison between Canadian born individuals and immigrants from Least Developed Countries (LDC ) shown in Figure 1 (Kassim Rothman , 2000 , 17 ) gives a clear picture of the sorry lives lived by this group of immigrants
In Canada there are five main groups of people who are affected by poverty. The most vulnerable to be “poor” are single parents (particularly women), recent immigrants and people with disabilities, seniors and Aboriginal Canadians. Focusing on women, at least half of Canada’s population is female, and 2.4 million Canadian women (one in seven) are living in poverty (Morris & Gonsalves, n.d.). Impoverished women in Canada emerge from a variety of experiences and circumstances and represent numerous diverse groups. The majority are unattached women, often mothers, who struggle to feed their children, let alone themselves, as well as Aboriginal women, immigrants and disabled (physical and mental health) women.
Basically there is 1.4 billion people below the poverty line according to this site in 2005. The way things are headed there will be over three billion people under the poverty level in the world according to this research. II. Meta Search Tools A. Infomine.com B. http://www.urbanpoverty.net./windowsonurbanpoverty/ C. The journal article tells about how poverty is grouped in areas around the United States. Poor people live in poor neighbor hoods so it explains that there is a lot of risk associated with living in these areas.
In the 1920’s, Canada introduced higher tariffs on their products exporting, to protect Canadian made products. They also introduced the tariffs to make a little bit more money compared to the other country’s goods. However, like the idea of buying stocks, this backfired. [5] As a result of increasing tariffs, many countries, mostly in Europe had decided not to trade or import of Canada’s goods. The increase in the tariffs meant that the country had no need of such a good, if it would be easily and cheaply made in the country.
Thesis: It might have taken a near-historic recession and a nation-wide protest, but Americans are finally noticing the rapidly growing income gap between the rich and the poor. I. The gap between the rich and poor is widening. a. Wealth is heavily concentrated in the top 1 percent of the U.S. population.
One of the biggest issues in Canada regarding racial discrimination is the difficulty for minorities to receive Recognition of prior learning (educational and professional); “People who are trained in Western scientific or knowledge systems in the South are not given the same recognition as if they were trained in the North. People who are trained within non-western educational world views or scientific traditions experience great difficulties in gaining recognition for their training and skills.” For an example, Emily Espinosa, a Pilipino woman with a university degree in science and commerce who came to Canada with her family in 1988 has still been unsuccessful in finding a job that matches her expertise. Since landing in Canada, she became certified as a Lab technician in 1990, and has been working in a doctor’s office for $10 an hour, while still searching for a job. She thinks the main reasons she is not getting hired is because of her race, gender, and age (54).
Poverty in America has climbed to its highest since 1993. 15.1 percent of Americans currently live under the poverty line (Stanglin). People all over the United States are falling into poverty due to various reasons such as: income, student loans, mortgages, unemployment, and most importantly, lack of education. The poor are becoming poorer, and the rich are becoming richer. The poorest 40 percent of the world’s population accounts for 5 percent of global income, and the richest, 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of the world’s income (Shah).
Many studies have found that the homeless population has reached to the figure of 4 million in America that has altered the image of the homeless people as being beggars, hobos and winos. Today homelessness has become a non-transitional long term phenomenon. Homelessness has been observed to be rising despite the relative economic prosperity. Thus, in my opinion, homelessness in America is a very complex issue that has various factors involved behind it. However, homelessness basically arise due to extreme poverty and hence, it directly relates to the forces in capitalism that are responsible for the increase in poverty.
Poverty is an exceptionally complicated social phenomenon, and trying to discover its causes is equally complicated. According to the Statistical Profile of Poverty in Canada (2009), 9.2% of Canadians- some 2.95 million people- are living on a low income. These people are living under the low income cut-off (LICO), meaning that they spend 20 percent more of their after tax income than the average person on the necessities of life, such as food, clothing, and shelter (Witt & Hermiston, 2010, p. 226). These include children, families with single-parent mothers, aboriginals, the mentally ill, the physically handicapped, recent immigrants, and students. For me, as a student of ECE program, child poverty is very important.