I read the petition, my counter arguments to some of your points:
- Our brains! An economy thrives when people create and innovate. Studies show that nearly half of innovative start-ups are founded by immigrants. However, in order to continue doing so, we need more than just a (hard-to-get) start-up visa.
You need to link those studies here (preferably, quote 2 or more), I'm not saying it is untrue, but unless you provide it you're just making things up. Regarding the startup visa, it isn't really the visa that's the problem but who will fund you (but venture capitalists are extremely selective anyway, so that's the hard part, not the visa)
- Your future. Much like in most Western countries, Canada's suffering from an aging population. We'd be your tax-payers of the future. So, don't throw us out just yet...
I fail to see your logic here; Unless you could show a study that Canada has negative growth population and immigrants will be taking up the slack, this statement is meaningless
- We have special skills. For dozens of years, immigrants have brought many benefits to Canadian businesses. Not only are we well-educated and hard-working, we also add a ton of value with our language skills. Many of us speak and write more than 5 (!) languages.
Plenty of people have special skills. Again, you'll need to provide a study that immigrants bring something else - otherwise your statement is too general and weak. Regarding your language statement, the immigration program of Canada does not focus on bringing in people of diverse languages (they only ask if you're fluent in English and/or French), so why bring this up?
- We create jobs. Immigrants found about 50% of new ventures. Down the line, this means that we don't just create our own job but many more. Look at Montreal, Toronto, or Vancouver: the number of foreign business owners is immense!
This is almost similar to your first bullet point, which makes this statement repetitive. Better if you just merge them
- We have a Canadian education: most foreign post-graduates studied in Canada for 2 to 4 years.
Don't you guys already get extra points for having studied in Canada? So what else do you want?
- Most of us are single: International students will most probably be immigrating to Canada by themselves, thus neither burdening Canada by bringing in families nor using the health and education systems.
Relationship status is neither here nor there, and besides, in the off-chance that you get a PR or citizenship, who's to say you won't be sponsoring your family members in the future? Better to just take this out IMHO
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I could go on, but I'm gonna stop there. In this issue you'll have to be specific and have proofs or examples to help you out. And I do think that you are all being too hasty coming up with a petition especially
after only 1 draw.
Best of luck regardless of what happens..