They have more people willing to take Syrian refugees in than they have refugees. From the linked New York Times article:
The Toronto Star greeted the first planeload by splashing “Welcome to Canada” in English and Arabic across its front page. Eager sponsors toured local Middle Eastern supermarkets to learn what to buy and cook and used a toll-free hotline for instant Arabic translation. Impatient would-be sponsors — “an angry mob of do-gooders,” The Star called them — have been seeking more families. The new government committed to taking in 25,000 Syrian refugees and then raised the total by tens of thousands.
“I can’t provide refugees fast enough for all the Canadians who want to sponsor them,” John McCallum, the country’s immigration minister, said in an interview.
My God. Why can’t we be Canada? And thank you, Leftover, for the link.
Meanwhile, check out this Carnegie website: “2016 Great Immigrants: The Pride of America.” And thanks, Jac, for that link.
Dating Jesus 
Now we look stupid.
Why can’t we be Canada? It’s all that good healthcare. Seriously. Healthcare policy experts like Uwe E. Reinhardt and others have written that universal healthcare helps contribute to a sense of social solidarity that can be expressed in positive ways in pluralistic societies.
Because of the primacy of profit that permeates every facet of American life, what we get is market solidarity, where social programs or progressive change is determined largely upon what markets support or oppose. LGBTQ rights advanced at lightning speed once markets began to support the movement. Market forces are still in play as opposition to LGBTQ rights seek to redefine terms like discrimination and religious freedom. When Obama wants support for migrant and refugee resettlement here, he knows where to concentrate his efforts.
Market solidarity is opposed to things like universal healthcare, public education, wage and hour reform, equal rights, progressive taxation, etc., because there’s no money in it and presents a threat to the primacy of profit in our culture. Market solidarity promotes the idea of success, in all endeavors, as being contingent on the “rugged individualism” of consumers rather than collective action of social groups. Unless there’s money in it.
Ah, I read this last night. I loved this article, particularly from the point of view of those who were assisting in resettlement and those arriving. It’s long, but worth a read. Situations such as the family being told that their sponsor will pick them up and them having no idea what a “sponsor” means. And then the sponsor holding a sign with “Welcome” written in Arabic, and suddenly wondering if she is holding it right side up or upside down. It made me smile because despite the language barriers and cultural differences and bumps along the way, it all worked out.
Thanks to IRIS, Connecticut is resettling refugees through co-sponsors. I was under the impression that there are more co-sponsors than available refugees through IRIS. They could tell you more, but I think the bottleneck is not with the desire to help by individuals/groups or the lack of refugees. Maybe it’s policy and federal limits? Not sure. Overall, the US is not doing it’s part. Yeah, why can’t we be Canada?
Bravo canada ! How did the usa become so mean spirited and full of fear ? I know we can be better and follow in canadas footsteps ! We are all manipulated by the press and trump has just made it worse ! I alway loved the statue of liberty -let us really live up to her saying …””Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
I’ve always loved that poem. I think it sums up our better selves precisely.
I heard Trump is planning on deporting the Statue of Liberty. Her head too small for a luxury suite anyway. And besides, “she’s no longer a ten”.
AND — I see that Fox is suggesting that France hornswoggled (sp?) us, because she wasn’t actually inspired By A Woman but By A Man. Getcher Freedom Fries right here!