{"id":36,"date":"2017-10-30T09:13:44","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T13:13:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/?p=36"},"modified":"2017-10-30T09:29:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T13:29:22","slug":"american-woman-stay-away-from-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/2017\/10\/30\/american-woman-stay-away-from-me\/","title":{"rendered":"American Woman, Stay Away From Me"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Maddy Pauchet<\/em><\/p>\n

Bashir A. Khan takes occasional sips from his cranberry juice, lime wedge, no ice. He pulls out a dozen business cards. \u201cI want to be of service,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you have any questions, please contact me.\u201d<\/p>\n

We do have questions\u2014many, in fact, that he fields tirelessly, weaving in history lessons and anecdotes about his work. Khan is a lawyer who works in Winnipeg, Manitoba practicing immigration and refugee law.<\/p>\n

Khan explains that Manitoba sees much more crossover of its border than its neighboring province, Saskatchewan. Though both are flat, open prairies that could easily be breached by asylum seekers, there exists one difference that explains why Manitoba is a much more desired location: Saskatchewan offers no legal aid to asylum seekers, while Manitoba provides up to thirteen hours of legal counsel. Khan says that thirteen hours is shortsighted. \u201cI\u2019ll usually work on a single case anywhere between twenty-eight to thirty-five hours.\u201d While Khan does not receive compensation for these hours of work, he explains that he finds it fulfilling. \u201cThere are no incentives to do pro bono work,\u201d Khan says of Canada\u2019s legal system. In contrast, in the United States, the American Bar Association recommends that lawyers do fifty hours of pro bono service each year.<\/p>\n

One of Khan\u2019s more controversial opinions has to do with the Trump administration\u2019s responsibility for the exodus of asylum-seekers from the United States to Canada. \u201cTrump has nothing to do with the exodus,\u201d he affirms. While he does not see the United States political administrations as the driving force pushing refugees toward Canada, he does take issue with some of the existing American policies. \u201cThe United States does not provide refugees with any legal counsel. Trump has not altered the system\u2014it was already broken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Khan owns up to what he terms \u201ccultural arrogance.\u201d Laughing, he says that he looks at the United States, at its gun problems and problematic policies, and thinks to himself, \u201cWe\u2019re a better country.\u201d But in recent years, after trips to Southeast Asia, Khan says he has become more compassionate. \u201cPeople don\u2019t want to leave their home, uproot themselves and come here to an uncertain future.\u201d<\/p>\n

He describes Canadian nationalistic thought as defined in contrast to the United States. He quotes Lenny Kravitz\u2019s song: \u201cAmerican women, stay away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s the key to the Canadian identity!\u201d says Khan, though he owns up to a history of poor race relations, nine years of a conservative government that undid many progressive immigrations policies, and existing anti-immigration and anti-refugee political factions that are gaining ground.<\/p>\n

Khan, though jovial, is not optimistic about Canada\u2019s political future, which he predicts will turn conservative. \u201cCanada has lost its place in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Maddy Pauchet Bashir A. Khan takes occasional sips from his cranberry juice, lime wedge, no ice. He pulls out a dozen business cards. \u201cI want to be of service,\u201d he says. \u201cIf you have any questions, please contact me.\u201d We do have questions\u2014many, in fact, that he fields tirelessly, weaving in history lessons and<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":418,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/418"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/56"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}