– You know that immigrants are only coming here because they have AIDS and stuff and need free health care, right? I mean, not you obviously, but most of Black people. And Arabic. And Asians.
Phew, not me. I’m so relieved. I’m white, must be why.
How did I get into this conversation, already? Oh yeah, I’m on the bus #151 to downtown, and I took the last free seat beside a middle aged woman who was obviously bored and started up the conversation as soon as she saw me pulling a French book out of my bag. The conversation wasn’t about literature though. Mostly about my background, where I was from and why I came here. This somehow led to this above statement.
Since it takes about 30 minutes to get downtown, I had plenty of time to straighten a few facts. I explained that every prospective immigrant has to undergo a full medical exam performed by a designated practitioner before being granted a visa. That testing for HIV, Hepatitis and TB is included. And that being infected with any of these diseases meant bye bye visa. In a word, it was basically impossible that immigrants were coming to Canada with the sole purpose of taking advantage of the health system since they wouldn’t be allowed in Canada in the first place. And by the way, there were a mandatory 3 months waiting time for newcomers to Canada before being covered by the provincial health plan.
I must have sound awfully down-to-earth—and frankly, a bit patronizing as well. The woman stopped looking at me in the eyes five minutes into my lengthy explanation. Can’t blame here—stereotypes and prejudices are sometimes more comforting than the truth since they provide a good excuse for your basic racist rant and hate.
Immigrants are a perfect target: they are different, they are new and they are often less knowledgeable about the country’s culture than locals.
I’ve heard many times that immigrants only come to the Western world to enjoy social benefits. Once there, they just have a lot of kids and sit around waiting for the social benefits paid to families’ monthly cheque. Yeah… well. How many of you can live off social benefits? And how many of you would : a) pay immigration fees of about $6 000 (for a family of 4) b) wait for a few years to have it processed c) leave your country for the unknown—all that for a grand total of $400/month of government money to live on? Seriously.
In the same vein, immigrants steal the jobs from locals. Innocents… An immigrant’s career path usually looks like a battlefield. First, your new home country has to recognize degrees obtained abroad. Then comes the famous catch 22: until you have Canadian experience, it’s very hard to get a job. But until you’ve got a job, it’s difficult to get Canadian experience. Works also for US experience etc. All in all, consider yourself lucky if you manage to be above minimum wage within a couple of years. And don’t think immigrants just can’t get a job because their English or whatever isn’t good enough, or because they don’t adapt. I’m French and speak both official languages, and as a young French woman I think the culture shock I experienced wasn’t too bad. Yet, it took me a couple of year to finally get paid over $10 an hour.
Insidious stereotypes… Chinese all live in Chinatown and don’t speak a word of English (but they are apologetic and hard-working), Blacks wear huge gold chains and always carry a couple of guns with them so that they can make headlines, Russian drink while playing cards in the back kitchen of some mafia-operated restaurant, Arabs are either oil tycoons or bombers (the latest option being the current trend), Latinos are all illegal and deal drug…
Ignorance is bliss. And scaring people has been our governments’ business for quite a while now. “They are going to attack us/invaded us/take our jobs/take our culture away”. It’s much easier to keep citizens angry and restless than solving problems, one at the time.
I sometimes wish my world was black and white, it’d be easier to take a side. Unfortunately, it’s rarely like that, and the topic of immigration is no exception. Some immigrants are bad people, some are opportunist, and some are lazy. But the majority is just looking for a better life and a place to belong.
Immigrants aren’t perpetual foreigners. Sooner or later, we become part of the country. Will the charges be dropped then? Doubt it… unless people start to open their eye and see the world as it is, an imperfect place full of good-will people willing to work it out together. Dreamer, me? Yeah, once again.
Wonderful post!! And what an idiot. I really despise people that have such narrow minded thinking. It really makes me sad that a grown adult, capable of learning and understanding, still in 2007 has such racist views on life. I don’t find ignorance as an excuse. People choose their way of thinking on their own grounds. They choose to learn about different races and cultures or they choose not to learn and be judgemental. Shame on them. Can I use the
smiley on her??..lol.
On a side note:…did u see my smilies? 😎
Yo sweetie what a great piece of work Zhu, it is because of immigrants that Singapore is a cosmopolitan city and even till today with globalisation, we embrace foreign talents here in Singapore as part of this big happy family….whew! Sorry for a long comment 😀
Yep, see my smile too sweetie 😉
Great post. That is true in any country. Over here you get people complaining about how the immigrants are getting all the benefits and taking jobs away from the Spaniards, and how they are the cause of all the crime. They don’t stop to think that immigrants end up with all the jobs that the natives don’t want, and most of the crimes in this country are committed by Spaniards (after all, they still outnumber the immigrants). Unfortunately, it’s a pretty common phenomenon, if there’s an “us” there has to be a “them” and obviously, if “they” are not “us”, then there must be something different about them. And, of course, “different” equals “bad”, unless there’s money involved. The government is promoting educational campaigns to get people to be more tolerant, but there’s long road ahead.
I love how critics of immigrants move seamlessly from “lazy, welfare claimants” to “job-stealers” without pausing for breath. Almost admirable for the stunning doublethink!
Happy Thanksgiving!
WOW, It’s hard to believe there is someone thinking like that, it’s so sad!! You did great answering like that Zhu 😀
For heaven’s sake…I can’t believe that there are still people who practice this type of racism! I know that they are out there, but I am always hoping for some kind of evolution in behaviours *nodding*!
Where are my manners…?
Hello Zhu!
I hope you’re ok. I know that today it is a holiday there :). BTW: Happy Thanksgiving!!!!
I can imagine the old lady’s face when you explained her the facts lol.
Immigrants do the jobs that we refuse to do!
I know people who live off Social security, and they are Portuguese citizens. I don’t know a single immigrant who depends on the Government, they all work for their pay! And they even send money back home to their families…
Anyway, I know I have been tagging you a lot, and you don’t have to create a post for this one if you don’t want to; just add a banner during October: Breast Cancer Awareness – help us spread the pinguin!
Pass the pinguin
Cheers
Sometimes I forget that Americans aren’t the only ones capable of that level of stupidity. 🙁 It’s a shame no matter where one ends up hearing it.
ty Zhu ur a wonderful and smart woman!
**You know that immigrants are only coming here because they have AIDS and stuff and need free health care, right ? I mean, not you obviously, but most of Black people. And Arabic. And Asians.
mebbe its cos of the Immigrants that some ppl get to flaunt their stupidity. Some ppl need to grow brains!
Keshi.
Very good post. Prejudice is a very old story but it’s amazing that at the area of the internet and globalization these stereotypes haven’t evolved when we are so quick to adapt with new technologies and cultures…
Way to go Zhu! Good job: your talk to her & the blog! Happy Thanksgiving!
Lori : nice smileys 😉 Yeah, the woman was ignorant at best… I like to educate people ! 😆
Shionge : I think I see what you mean. Hong Kong is the same, as long as you bring something to the place, people welcome you no problem.
Theresa : it’s exactly that, a perpetual “us and them” dichotomy. It’s tiring… I just wish people would be a bit more curious about these immigrants and learn about them instead of assuming.
John : happy thanksgiving too, fellow bad immigrant !
Aiglee : Canadians are actually very open-minded and tolerant, but sometimes people do need to be educated a bit 🙂
Max : same here, all the immigrants I know just want to work ! Of course they’re lazy immigrants as well, we’re only humans – but generalizing is just too much and quite dangerous as well. We know that in Europe – history showed it.
Ghosty : no no, we can be stupid too – don’t take that away from us ! 😆
Keshi : I’m sure you heard that before too… Australia has a dark side when it comes to immigration as well, unfortunately. Not all Australians of course, but I’ve heard immigrants being challenged more than once…
FroggyWoogie : thanks for visiting ! It will evolve, slowly but it will. I hope.
Spyder : Thanks 🙂
Hello Dreamblogging beauty! (just came up with that one,lol)
The kind of public perceptions you describe about immigrants are universal and usually come from people that have never lived abroad past the narrow borders of their country. Thus, their horizons, way of thinking have a certain “ceiling” so to speak. To them “what is familiar, is good and what is unfamiliar and foreign is odd”. People are a lot of times victims of narrowminded upbringing or even a single bad experience (e.g. being robbed by a foreigner) sometimes traumatizes their perception of immigrants for life.And let’s not talk about media manipulation and constant projection of racial stereotypes…
What is ridiculously hypocritical though is this: A lot of native people in Western Countries despise immigrants for taking their jobs(usually low end jobs) although they do admit that their country functions normally to every day level because of immigrants! It is hilarious really, in a black humour kind of way! In the UK they got pakistanians and Indians, in Greece we got Albanians and so on so forth… it is just the way things work I am afraid.
In any case, I’ll take one dreamer like yourself over ten realists justifying unacceptable situations with ridiculous arguments any time:)
Take care and well done on a very interesting post!
Yeah, this immigrant-bashing is ridiculous. We have a lot of Mexican immigrants around here, and let me tell you I’d trade a lot of our worthless teenagers for more of them. Of course, it would be nice if they would come in legally….
Zhu… Thats a fabulous reply to that old lady… Good post too. I hv also seen some of them…
I remember sometime back… A white couple was waiting for elevator.. when elevator came they stepped in but as soon as they saw us stepping in..they gave a stare and went out… I’m an Asian..so u can guess I’m brownish… I dnt want to give importance to it.. so I continued as if nthg happened.
hey btw..I have blogrolled u.. OK?
Hey Deadpoolite : mmm… Me like my new surname ! 🙂 You’re so right, some people just don’t see past their ceiling, it’s not that they’re stupid. Just ignorant. I remember seeing a lot of Albanians immigrants in Greece -what ‘s the official policy on immigration ? Is Greece an “open” country ? Is the immigration policy challenged by right-wing parties ?
Diesel : I’m not sure where I stand on the illegal immigration issue. It’s hard to make a decision : I think most illegals in the US should get their papers in order without trouble, as long as they have a job, kids there etc. Now, I’m not saying everyone should get in freely… tough.
CM-Chap : I don’t see racism much in Canada, not as much as in France. But it still hurts. Stereotypes does that. I’m sorry you had to experience it first hand. I’m ading you as well BTW 😉
Even though I was born and raised here in the US, I really do make every effort to see things through the eyes of immigrants. Its hard at times, especially when I worked in retail and we’d have people come in that made no attempt to speak English…but I know that the majority do come here and make every effort to learn the language, support their families and that sort of thing.