Italian Canadian, Indo Canadian, Irish Canadian, Scottish Canadian, Afro Canadian? Etc etc. What the? No No No. We are Canadian. Welcome! Please learn one of the national languages and integrate into Canadian society but never isolate yourself. Share your culture but please leave your baggage at the door. Thanks for coming, thanks for contributing, and thanks for being Canadian.
—Michael Kenyon
This article appears in Nov 19-25, 2009.
I agree with you to a point Mikey, but we’re not a melting pot culture like the States.
Halifax, and certainly moreso Nova Scotia, is about as white bread as a place can get in this day and age. The only way out of the mess we are in fiscally in this province is to get as many people as we can to immigrate here, and quick. That and to quasi-privatize health care too.
I’m sure neither of which will happen.
Yeah, because privatising health care would draw more immigrants over.
What’s the point of attracting immigrants when there are no jobs for them?
And we don’t even need immigration if we had more jobs. All the able-bodied and ambitious Nova Scotians have moved to where the jobs are leaving only the layabouts here to suck on the EI and ‘disability’ teat. Every summer crops rot in the fields because they can’t find enough locals to work the harvest….I can tell you there’s no shortage of people, just people willing to work.
There are lots of people willing to work. It’s just that a minimum wage job will not cover their expenses and pay off their degree–you know, that paper they use to wipe the sweat off their brow as they labour in the fields.
The average immigrant actually creates three jobs.
Yeah, but how many more dollar stores do we need? 🙂
HKM, I appreciate that there are people still here who are out of work and willing to work but can’t find a job that they are trained for. I don’t expect uni grads to be ploughing the fields, the fact that they can’t find work either speaks to my point. Nova Scotia is losing hard working people to the oil sands and is failing to capitalize on a population with the highest percentage of educated 19-24 year olds all looking for good paying jobs that they are well trained to do. What are we doing? We are building fucking call centers.How many of those places are stoked with university graduates? How many restaurants and bars are staffed by university and college graduates in this town? It’s pathetic that there is not better investment in our young and motivated work force. Why on earth would an aspiring immigrant want to come here when the locals don’t even stand a chance?
My dollar store comment was a joke (for those who might want to jump on me for it).
Immigration is absolutely essential for the economic survival of our country, but I’m not sure it’s going to do Nova Scotia or the immigrant any good right now. Immigrants are better off going to some other Canadian city unless they already have a job lined up here. In the long run, I do think that Nova Scotia would benefit from a healthy dose of multiculturalism though. Sometimes we are a little too comfortable with the way we’ve always done things.
I think it’s an unecessary shame that each summer the farms in the valley are having to recruit labour from Jamaica because they can’t find enough people in the valley or they can’t fill a bus they send to Halifax. Yes, there a lot of Nova Scotians who are willing to work, but there are a lot who are also quite happy to hang out in the social safety net too.
Miles, I think that the province can’t capitalize on the educated 24-30 year old fresh out of university segment because the people that would be out of the way aren’t, because they can’t afford to stop working. That, and a majority of the better jobs in HRM (i.e.: banks, government, health care) are nothing but a bunch of old boy’s clubs which restrict hiring from outside sources. You’ve gotta be plenty lucky to get a job like that. It’ll eventually fade over the next say, 10 years or so, especially considering that these old men who refuse to vacate these jobs will thankfully die off in the next few years (probably due to a heart attack behind their desk) and it’ll free up.
I remember back when I was in High School and a teachers telling that we (myself and classmates) should all get education degrees, because there would be this massive space to fill in 5 years, as we getting out of university. I ran into that same teacher about 4 months ago and asked him if he was still teaching; his answer was yes. This is a perfect example of what’s happening in this province, and to be honest, across the country.
I actually worked in the fields for a couple of seasons and there were degree holders working along side me. The same farmers now ship workers in from other countries because their local work force migrated to Alberta. Yet, of course, some locals remained, but now they have to compete with the cheaper-to-employee immigrants. Not that I begrudge the immigrants–they work their ass off.
My mother, who lives in Alberta, tells me that they are bringing in immigrant workers there as well since the locals will not work the lower paying jobs. The immigrants are so happy to be in Canada under the protection of their boss/sponsor and getting paid to be here that they are glad to do anything asked of them.
the topic is trying to identify EVERY canadian as JUST CANADIAN. If you want to live in this country, and have immigrated/snuck in…then when someone asks you what nationality are you, say CANADIAN!! Not irish-canadian etc. what good is being canadian if its half mixed with every other country as well. You are either all FOR Canada, or go back to where you start your heritage speech from. if you are irish-canadian….go back to ireland. if you say im Canadian, WELCOME!! how hard is that to ask from someone who wants to live here?
Didn’t the priests at the residential schools feel the same way?
There is nothing wrong with being proud of your heritage and embracing your new citizenship, as well. When I married, and my name changed, I didn’t leave my old family behind in order to start a new life with my new family.
I still have that feeling instilled into me as a kid that I’m a Cape Bretoner… & as a green passport carrying memeber of the CBLA , founded by our beloved General John Cabot Trail. We shall someday over come all you mainlanders & seperate !
Down with da causeway by’s .
And viva da revolution ‘eh.
Noo ne is just “Canadian”… I think the OP’s heart may be in the right place, but their logic is flawed. There is nothing wrong with being multicultural and while adopting a new country as home, I’m sure there is a certain comfort that comes from identifying with the community that has been left behind.
Cuja, I’m fully-fledged Canadian. However, I celebrate my Russian/Ukrainian heritage every I get. That’s what being a Canadian gets me. I’m able to go to Winnipeg and feel welcome in the Ukrainian district. That’s what being a Canadian is. What you’re describing is being American. Their philosophy is that you are an American first, and you have to give up your other culture.
I thought you were British, More.
No, some of my ancestors were from England…most were from Scotalnd & Ireland… something about our clan turning on an Irish king & getting the boot over to Scotland, & we settled on lands claimed by the MacPhersons. While most of my living family is in the Antigonish area, I was born on Cape Breton Island, in Cape Breton County…you can’t get more Caper than that !
About the field workers, and I think I posted this point once before (Is there a good search function here for that?)…
If the locals won’t take the jobs migrant workers will (and it’s not ‘immigrant’ if they are not staying), that’s quite a statement, because for migrant workers, not only is there the cost of employment, there’s also the cost of travel.
So on that playing field, the locals would make more since no money is being spent on airfare…and they’re still not interested??
Well, I suppose the wage difference will climb as oil gets pricier and air travel starts to fade away due to price.
Too many white people scare me…They come up with crazy laws and do stupid things…
You need a few Muslims, Jews, Asians, Afro’s….you name it, to mix it up a bit. As a collective we keep the stupid ones in-line.
can’t help but think of this when I read it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXyfPJKWqig
this has always pissed me off too. you are either one or the fucking other. don’t hyphenating your fucking heritage. because if you do, then all other non born canadias should start doing it. i am a member of at least 7 natioalities, so fucking there.
What exactly is the draw back of identifying as a dual national or a dual-heritaged person, OP? Do you personally just not like to hear that there are people in Canada who come from other places? Or do you believe that these people are genuinely less patriotic or prone to harming Canada if given the chance? Are you talking about 1st, 2nd, or 3rd generation migrants?
How many friends do you actually have who are not ‘Canadian-Canadians’ (whichever way you might define that)? I’m asking because it sounds like you suspect the intentions of dual-heritaged people when they self identify as such. Yet, you say you’re fine with them if they only change one word?
It just doesn’t sound like changing one word would be such a radical, opinion-changing issue to someone who actually has any meaningful relationships with people from a multitude of racial/national backgrounds. So, can we cut to the chase and just say that your fear is irrational and borderline xenophobic?
Besides, so what if people bring their baggage? Canadians have baggage too. Everyone in the world has baggage! So a “Canadian-Canadian” is allowed to work through their baggage (torn home, abuse, addictions, social belonging, etc.), but an indo-Canadian isn’t allowed to have baggage? How about a 3rd generation Irish-Canadian?
Sounds like the only kind of immigrant you will accept is one who gets off the plane, cast their eye down, and heads straight to some northern labour camp where they can lay train tracks and stay out of sight from the “Real Canadians” living blissfully in their homogenized, baggage-free social paradise.
“Sounds like the only kind of immigrant you will accept is one who gets off the plane, cast their eye down, and heads straight to some northern labour camp where they can lay train tracks and stay out of sight from the “Real Canadians” living blissfully in their homogenized, baggage-free social paradise.”
Issmat, it does not sound at all like that is what OP is saying. Although, your question, “Or do you believe that these people are genuinely less patriotic or prone to harming Canada if given the chance?” might be an underlying concern that prompted OP’s to make the ‘baggage’ comment. But, OP uses the word integrate not assimilate. And, OP said do NOT isolate yourself and DO share your culture. I think the intent was good and the feeling positive but the wording and solution itself was flawed.