By Yaldaz Sadakova
Photo by Yaldaz Sadakova
I’ve lived in Canada for five years, but some days I feel only semi-Canadian.
This is despite the fact that I appear to be fully “integrated.” (I hate that word.)
I can understand Canadian culture and navigate it with ease. I can understand not only what’s being said, but also what’s not being said.
I’m super comfortable with English. It’s the language I read, write and think in, even though it’s not my first language.
But I admit I do find it annoying when some people here are surprised by my command of English and my familiarity with Canadian culture.
Usually the conversation goes like this:
“How long have you been in Canada?”
“Five years.”
“Five years? Your English is so good!”
“Thanks” is what I always say.
What I want to say is:
“Why are you surprised that a newer immigrant could have a great command of English?
“You do know that Canada is not the only country where English is an official language, don’t you?
“You do know that Canada is not the only country where you can learn English, don’t you? You do understand that nowadays they teach English around the world, don’t you?
“And why are you surprised that a new immigrant can be well-adjusted?
“You do know that many of the social and professional norms in Canada are also valid in other parts of the world, don’t you?”
It irks me that us immigrants are underestimated by default.
Often, the assumption seems to be that we are these confused uncivilized people who can barely string a sentence together in English, who have no idea how to write a cover letter or use a computer, who have no idea how to act in social or professional situations.
“They think we’re monkeys on trees,” an immigrant said to me in Toronto shortly after I moved here.
I thought he was exaggerating.
But a year later, another immigrant friend who had just moved to the suburbs of Toronto told me that when she went to a community center for newcomers, the first thing she and the other immigrants were taught was how to…shake hands.
I’m a little apprehensive about saying all this for fear of coming across as the ungrateful immigrant.
I’m actually very grateful to be here.
I’m grateful for Canada’s relatively friendly immigration system. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s friendlier and more open than the European and the American systems, for example.
I’m grateful for the generally positive immigration rhetoric.
I’m grateful for the freedoms I get to practice here.
I’m grateful for the free healthcare.
I’m grateful for all that and much more.
But I wish people would stop underestimating me and the rest of us.
By the way, at least some of those who underestimate me are fellow immigrants.
It seems that we ourselves have bought into the immigrant stereotype.
All of this points to the need for featuring more varied narratives about the immigrant experience in media and in popular culture.
The immigrant community is every bit as diverse as the non-immigrant community.
Yet, we keep recycling the same old stereotypical stories about immigration. Stories that I personally never see myself reflected in.
I’m so hungry for nuanced immigration stories which feature a different kind of immigrant character.
A character who is sophisticated, eloquent, worldly, high-skilled, educated, multilingual, multidimensional. ♦
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