How do people maintain their culture post immigration, and in what ways might they be discouraged from doing so?
Canada can improve immigration by focusing on international students
Before and after people immigrate to Canada, keeping their culture and religion is obviously important to them. In this article Justin Trudeau wants to improve the immigration policy. International students contribute to society at an early age through investment in their studies, gaining work experience, and applying their knowledge to their chosen fields. By improving their own lives, they are also giving back to Canadians by contributing to the economy and enriching Canadian culture. They are ideal candidates for permanent residency because they are proving themselves every day through study and work. This way the students can come here and learn our curriculum, while keeping their culture, which they most likely grew up with at the same time. International students are willingly investing their time and resources in post-secondary education. Many seek employment for the first time while still in school, giving them enough time to adjust to Canadian culture by expanding their social and professional networks, but also improving their English literacy.
In this article, it shows a video of women requesting a “white doctor” for her son. She is one of the examples of people in Canada who don’t like immigrants and refuse to have anything to do with them. The video, which was recorded by a witness and posted online, shows the woman repeatedly demanding to see a white doctor in a four-minute argument with staff and patients at the clinic. She is told a pediatrician can see her at 4 pm. She continues to complain, claiming that she waited five-and-a-half hours to see a “brown doctor” whom she says did not help her child with his chest pains. She is heard saying “He was not speaking English. His teeth were brown. I do not need his help,” she says in the video. The witness’ tell her to take her son to a hospital, with which she refuses and demands to see a “white doctor” at that very moment. Others accuse the women of being racist, and she refuses by answering with racist slur’s.
Later in the video, she appears to back off on that the doctor be white, and instead asks for one who was born in Canada. “My kid is part not-white, so can we get somebody to see him that at least speaks English?” she says. “I spoken (sic) English. We want somebody Canadian to see him.”
Bhardwaj, who immigrated to Canada from India five years ago, and filmed the video says he had “no doubt” that what happened at the clinic was wrong. He added that the incident troubled him “for the rest of the day.” “It was a mixed feeling of being angry and being frustrated,” he said. He can be heard arguing with the angry mother toward the end of the video, telling her that a doctor doesn’t need to be white to speak English.
To me, Canada is a multicultural country because based on the two news articles I found, I believe that Canada is a multicultural and diverse community. There will always be people out there that are discriminatory, and racist but in Canada, it’s very rare to find people like that. Canada has culture events, holidays, and celebrations to show everyone that there is nothing but acceptance and pride in this country we call home. The country is diverse which makes immigrants want to live here and Canadians make sure that they feel comfortable and welcomed, and accepted, not like outcasts and stick out, but more that they blend in. I believe that our country is one of the most welcoming and diverse places I know of.