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The root of the problem.
May. 11th, 2013 01:57 pmI was going to write a fairly bland innocuous post talking about random stuff, but instead, I feel a rant coming on.
Someone on Facebook just posted a nice little image talking about how Canada is an awesome country and so many people want to move here, but the changes that these people are demanding are what's ruining the country, and if you're too afraid to speak out against it then you're just as bad as them. Saying that it's the immigrants who have to adapt and change, not Canadians.
This person is someone who seems to also pride themselves on being inclusive and a humanist and quite open-minded.
I am an immigrant to Canada. I came here with my parents, when I was 5 years old, when my father got offered a job. We came here legally. I was enrolled in school legally. I graduated. I work (health-permitting), I pay my taxes, and I enjoy the same responsibilities and privileges as anyone who was born here.
I am not a citizen. I have no interest in becoming a citizen, honestly, because as much as I like Canada, I'm also very proud of being British, and the idea of forsaking that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Even applying for dual citizenship feels dishonest somehow. It's a complicated feeling, but I don't feel right becoming a citizen. I'm happy being a resident.
As a non-citizen, I cannot vote and have no official say in how the country is run. I pay a portion of my paycheque in the Canadian Pension Plan, but to the best of my knowledge am not permitted to draw upon that when I retire, nor can I opt out of paying into it.
This person has not yet answered the question of what laws are being imposed upon her by immigrants such as myself, what rights she's had taken away that immigrants get to enjoy instead.
Probably because there aren't any.
There are some programs set up by the government to aid immigrants. Business grants, that sort of thing. But it's not as though immigrants have greater rights than those who were born here. It's not as thought we're stealing food from the mouths of the native-born. We're not taking school seats from those who've lived here for a few generations already.
I do not ask Canadians to adapt to me just because I want my life to be more comfortable. I do not ask for the government to turn my religious holidays into bank holidays. I do not ask to be paid more. I do not ask for people to change the spellings of certain words to a more British style. I do not ask for laws protecting me while others get ignored. I ask for tolerance and respect, and if that's such a grand adaptation that it will make people bitch and get all pseudo-patriotic about it, then there's a big problem and it's not immigrants.
It's just so much fun to be Othered. I've put up with it since I was 5. I just didn't know there was a word for it until a few years ago. Starting from the way I was not only made fun of but actively bullied for being from another country and having an accent, to being told by a psychiatrist that I deliberately make myself different (regarding the books I read and movies I like and the ways I act and feel and believe -- apparently personal preferences and religious belief are all conscious choices to keep away the norms...), to today being told that immigrants just like me are what's making Canada less great. If it's not one thing, it's another. I count myself lucky that I'm not being Othered due to the colour of my skin.
Fuck this. I need this like a hole in the head. I'm tired of the supposedly smart open-minded people bitching about how people like me are ruining their precious little narrow lives. I'm tired of being the scapegoat, the one who's bullied, the one who's treated like a goddamn novelty because I have an accent and lived in another country for the first 5 years of my life. ("Say something with your accent." "Do they have [common thing] there?" "What's the British word for [thing]?" "Say something with your accent again!") And I'm goddamn tired of people acting like I'm overreacting to their bullshit!
End rant.
Someone on Facebook just posted a nice little image talking about how Canada is an awesome country and so many people want to move here, but the changes that these people are demanding are what's ruining the country, and if you're too afraid to speak out against it then you're just as bad as them. Saying that it's the immigrants who have to adapt and change, not Canadians.
This person is someone who seems to also pride themselves on being inclusive and a humanist and quite open-minded.
I am an immigrant to Canada. I came here with my parents, when I was 5 years old, when my father got offered a job. We came here legally. I was enrolled in school legally. I graduated. I work (health-permitting), I pay my taxes, and I enjoy the same responsibilities and privileges as anyone who was born here.
I am not a citizen. I have no interest in becoming a citizen, honestly, because as much as I like Canada, I'm also very proud of being British, and the idea of forsaking that makes me feel very uncomfortable. Even applying for dual citizenship feels dishonest somehow. It's a complicated feeling, but I don't feel right becoming a citizen. I'm happy being a resident.
As a non-citizen, I cannot vote and have no official say in how the country is run. I pay a portion of my paycheque in the Canadian Pension Plan, but to the best of my knowledge am not permitted to draw upon that when I retire, nor can I opt out of paying into it.
This person has not yet answered the question of what laws are being imposed upon her by immigrants such as myself, what rights she's had taken away that immigrants get to enjoy instead.
Probably because there aren't any.
There are some programs set up by the government to aid immigrants. Business grants, that sort of thing. But it's not as though immigrants have greater rights than those who were born here. It's not as thought we're stealing food from the mouths of the native-born. We're not taking school seats from those who've lived here for a few generations already.
I do not ask Canadians to adapt to me just because I want my life to be more comfortable. I do not ask for the government to turn my religious holidays into bank holidays. I do not ask to be paid more. I do not ask for people to change the spellings of certain words to a more British style. I do not ask for laws protecting me while others get ignored. I ask for tolerance and respect, and if that's such a grand adaptation that it will make people bitch and get all pseudo-patriotic about it, then there's a big problem and it's not immigrants.
It's just so much fun to be Othered. I've put up with it since I was 5. I just didn't know there was a word for it until a few years ago. Starting from the way I was not only made fun of but actively bullied for being from another country and having an accent, to being told by a psychiatrist that I deliberately make myself different (regarding the books I read and movies I like and the ways I act and feel and believe -- apparently personal preferences and religious belief are all conscious choices to keep away the norms...), to today being told that immigrants just like me are what's making Canada less great. If it's not one thing, it's another. I count myself lucky that I'm not being Othered due to the colour of my skin.
Fuck this. I need this like a hole in the head. I'm tired of the supposedly smart open-minded people bitching about how people like me are ruining their precious little narrow lives. I'm tired of being the scapegoat, the one who's bullied, the one who's treated like a goddamn novelty because I have an accent and lived in another country for the first 5 years of my life. ("Say something with your accent." "Do they have [common thing] there?" "What's the British word for [thing]?" "Say something with your accent again!") And I'm goddamn tired of people acting like I'm overreacting to their bullshit!
End rant.
