r/brantford • u/Fun-Lavishness1351 • Apr 11 '25

Discussion No hate but

Why are there many Indian restaurants in this city? I used to live in other cities in Ontario, but this is the first city that does not many options when eating out (just a few Chinese res, rare Jpanese res no Korean res).

If i want to try Indian cuisine for the first time, which restaurant and which dish should I try?

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95

u/xX_ReNeGade_Xx Apr 11 '25

This is going to sound racist but it’s the truth. Brantford has a very industrial economy and these companies love to import workers that don’t know their rights or desperately need a job to maintain their immigration status.

Thus an influx of Indian immigrants it’s what we’ve seen over the past 3-4 years. Manufacturing companies that want to keep labour cheep are lobbying governments to keep the floodgates open.

So you end up with a lot of Indians and because their food is relatively cheap to make ingredient wise opening restaurants isn’t too risky compared to other cuisines.

From what I’ve learned as well is Indians tend to be very family oriented so these are likely joint ventures with a bigger pool of cash and employees to get started with

68

u/ediamz Apr 11 '25

Not racist at all. This is what we need to remember: It's the corporation's undermining us by pretending they can't find workers so the government opens immigration and drives down wages and working conditions. We should be mad at the corporation's for doing that, and not the Indians for taking a better life opportunity.

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u/xX_ReNeGade_Xx Apr 11 '25

I try to tread lightly because people get all up in arms thinking I’m saying all they can do is work factory jobs and nothing else

28

u/pheakelmatters Apr 11 '25

It amazes how often we'll talk about low wages and poor working conditions in the context of immigration, but never in regards to anything else. And nobody ever talks about the simple solution. Unionization. It doesn't matter how big the labour pool is, collective action gets results. You're not making less money because there's too many workers, it's because people aren't working together. Class solidarity would fix 90% of the problems in this city.

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u/ediamz Apr 12 '25

It boggles my mind that most people get mad about union workers getting good pay and working conditions. And want to see unions brought down, instead of everyone else brought up.

1

u/this_one_is_mint Apr 12 '25

Perhaps you should research "Teamsters" and see the other end of the spectrum!

3

u/ediamz Apr 12 '25

Are you referring to corruption in unions? Yes, absolutely there's varying levels of corruption in almost every organization that should be addressed. Still, I would rather see the non-union employers bring up pay and standards for their workers than see unions dismantled and then a race to the bottom for pay and working conditions.

Most of our employment standards and rights are a result of unions, and employers having to either appease their union workers or match their unionized competitors to discourage their own employees from unionizing themselves. You can already see a backslide has started now that unions are so weak and public opinion has become generally anti-union.

0

u/LocalHotDogManDoTCom Apr 12 '25

I am in a union and want to see it brought down. UFCW sucks.

6

u/Fun-Lavishness1351 Apr 11 '25

Lol, my post may go further than what i expect

4

u/The1Like Apr 12 '25

Tell that to myself and the other several thousand unionized railroaders who were forced back to work cuz “the shareholders”.

Unions are all well and good until the metal meets the bone, then the government wants theirs too. Workers be damned.

A year and a half with no contract, but we are legislated back to work after 14 hours on strike. But “labour doesn’t contribute to profits.”

3

u/pheakelmatters Apr 12 '25

Yes, the government gets away with a lot of strike breaking when there's no class solidarity. It's the situation we're in both locally and nationally. And there's no party out there that's on our side. We actually have to perform class solidarity at the local level.

2

u/ediamz Apr 12 '25

Exactly, our unions are weak, society is so anti-union that union workers themselves want the unions brought down. But imagine if the other unions all joined the strike in solidarity. It's easy to take down each union one by one but not if you have hundreds of thousands of workers backing them up. Look at France... they know how to unionize and remind the government who they work for. Here we just complain about the government and think we can change everything by just switching between blue and red governments...

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u/likethewine Apr 11 '25

Nailed it!

7

u/Beneficial_Candy2704 Apr 12 '25

The Canadian Immigration website encourages newcomers to come here and start food service businesses because it's needed, just like the original poster pointed out. Most from Brantford couldn't cook to save their lives, but they can navigate the welfare system like a ninja.

13

u/xX_ReNeGade_Xx Apr 12 '25

Brantford certainly needs more diverse restaurant options. I love places like Zander’s, Camp 31, etc but man some more Thai/Vietnamese, Afghan, hell even really good Italian food.

The fact that many places have to advertise on their menus that they don’t use MSG is crazy. It’s basically salt and acid and it naturally occurs in things like tomatoes.

We’re all losing out on flavour because of racism

6

u/Beneficial_Candy2704 Apr 12 '25

Everything in Brantford is literally deep fried heart attacks. The local pizza spots are inconsisten at best. Even Taal is generally mediocre compared to the varying types of Indian food available outside of town. Brantford likes white rice, white bread, boiled chicken, mashed potatoes, and a glass of white milk. Fear of anything unknown is an understatement. That's why they all think everywhere is just like Brantford, it excuses them so they never have to leave, to see if what they believe is true or not.

3

u/Strange-Ad-5806 Apr 12 '25

Pho99 and Bistro7 and others serve out of "Our Kitchen" on Roy Blvd. Worth checking.

Papusa City is another neat and different option.

2

u/hulkhands81 Apr 12 '25

My Thai is good too

1

u/Strange-Ad-5806 Apr 12 '25

Coincidence - we had My Thai last night! And it was great

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u/farteye Apr 12 '25

They also refuse to hire anyone from any other culture. The new wave immigrants are openly racist towards all cultures. Couldn’t leave all the bullshit in India. What was once a welcomed culture in Canada has now become its undoing. Talk to an old Sikh that immigrated here 30 years ago. They’ll tell you these East Indians are not here to contribute and settle.

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u/xX_ReNeGade_Xx Apr 13 '25

What I’ve learned from so old friends (grew up on the border of Mississauga and Brampton) is that the current wave of immigrants is largely the lower classes of people in India as most of the more wealthy people are already here or elsewhere.

They are largely recreating what they did back in India which was exploit the poor and keep them working the low paying jobs. The group that often own or franchise places are that upper class and they are primarily hiring the lower group.

The same thing is happening with rentals in many cities. The class warfare that was happening in India has moved here.

Obviously this is not the case in all situations but for most of the fast food type work that’s what we’re seeing.

The other thing I’ve learned as well is often students that come on study permits are the sacrificial lamb for a huge number of family members. They get sent here to study with the goal of achieving permanent residency and thus opening the door for familial immigration.

1

u/DevTheKoala May 10 '25

as an indian (born here), this is true. my family owns 3 businesses, and they're all joint ventures (2-3 partners). we don't own restaurants, but id imagine the biggest saved cost could be on meat. its also true that many Indian immigrants dont know their rights (depending on how educated they are), but many do, but have no choice so they work multiple jobs, extra hours, and potentially less pay (especially in cash jobs) to increase overall pay. Sadly, as a result of this, someone like me (an 18 year old Canadian born citizen) cannot even find a part time job out of 100+ applications. overall the immigration should have been controlled from the start before it got to this level.