A new kind of Troubles

I can’t get that Belfast stabbing out of my head.

Only 25 years away from the Troubles in Northern Ireland that pitted Catholics against Protestants and was laden with terrorism and bitterness, a new kind of Troubles may be taking root.

There are thousands of violent crimes every year in Northern Ireland - I checked. How come when one immigrant commits a brutal act of violence it leads to hundreds of masked rioters taking to the streets - armed with bricks, rocks, and sledgehammers. Crowds targeted properties and vehicles in neighborhoods where immigrants live. We are told rioters set multiple cars, houses, and public buses on fire. Families from ethnic minorities were forced to flee, with police having to rescue several families—including one with a baby—from their burning homes.

What has broken down in a society that leads to this kind of thing?

And could one day it happen here?

There is growing anti-immigrant sentiment in Atlantic Canada. One lady described being in a Tim Hortons in Bathurst and hearing the guy behind her say, “We are in India now.” I have heard and confronted ‘soft’ racism a number of times. But beyond anecdotes, the polling now suggests a majority of us would like to see a slow down in immigration.

We need to attract immigrants to our region. As someone who has studied economic development and demographics for over 30 years, I think the region is in for a very rough 20-30 years if we fall back into population decline. Because our natural population growth rate is negative (more deaths than births each year) and because nearly a third of our workers are closing in on retirement, an inflow of population is needed.

But if bringing in immigrants eventually leads to the kind of nastiness we see in parts of Europe and the UK, maybe we should stop. Maybe we should just accept our fate and slowly fade into oblivion. I would much rather that than wake up one day to masked rioters in the streets - armed with bricks, rocks, and sledgehammers to burn cars and houses and intimidate newcomers.

There has to be a better way.

The church I attend, First Baptist in Moncton, had a kind of multicultural service a few weeks ago. The attendees are more and more diverse - I would say nearly 50% are now visible minorities. The service was great - there were a large number of older Canadians mixing with younger newcomers and having a great time. The church now has a ‘stay and chat’ every few weeks where oldtimers and newcomers sit down for a meal and get to know each other.

We need to do more of this. We can’t have immigrants self-segregating and poorly informed Canadians growing increasingly wary of people who live here but whom they never get to know. All they know about newcomers is second hand. Almost all the misinformation spewed online is simply untrue.

This is one of the most important issues impacting our future. Not just Halifax and Moncton. Yarmouth, Bathurst and Gander as well.

It may be too late to turn back the clock in Northern Ireland. I don’t know. I have to believe we can do this right in New Brunswick.

In 25-30 years, immigrants might account for 30%-35% of the New Brunswick population. Why would that inherently be a bad thing?

I would like to see municipal government, churches, social groups and other organizations at the local level take this on as a cause. Host neighbourhood barbeques. Organize sports events. More and more activities that bring newcomers into social and professional networks.

Things will change but not for worse.