We are all migrants

Re: Politicians fuel fear of migrants, ignore their plight, Aug. 17.

Bravo to Shannon Gormley on an insightful and clear picture of the “migrant problem.”

Have we forgotten that we are all — us Canadians — migrants? The First Nations migrated here from Siberia and up from the south of North America, the Irish from the famines, the Ukrainians, Poles, and others from the poverty of Europe to “free land” in the west of a new country. Later we welcomed refugees/migrants from war-torn Europe, and still later Vietnam and other warring nations. Today we admit Afghans from a country we helped, still in crisis.

My parents were migrants escaping the Nazi invasion of a free united state of Europe — Czechoslovakia. If it were not for Canada accepting them I might not be here, and certainly not the proud Canadian I claim to be. Our country might have been poorer by now. There are three generations of workers: an engineer, a bookkeeper, several teachers, writers and artists that I claim in my family. I am not bragging, just that I feel we have made, each in our own way, a small enrichment to our country and will continue to do so — and all because Canada once accepted willingly, migrants escaping war. Yes, migrants: my parents’ path took them through Europe: Austria, Italy and Belgium, to Britain and thence to Canada with danger dodging them most of the way.

Can our collective conscience not remember this and continue it? Can we not open our doors, help those who come get a leg up and then watch them add to our greatness? It is the least we can give back for the privilege of our having been allowed to migrate here. Tom Schwarzkopf, Nepean