Most Commented

Resources

    Ok..NEW LINK LOVE BUTTONS ARE AVAILABLE. I am working on the category buttons too! Hang in there and SUGGESTIONS WELCOME! I LOST SOME Button Links - If You Recall What They Were - Please Let Me Know

Subscribe

  • Subscribe

The Immigrant Experience

Posted by jmb | March 7, 2007 .

Emigrant, a person who leaves one’s own country to settle in another.

Immigrant, a person who comes to reside permanently in a country other than one’s native land.

The fact is that the emigrant and the immigrant are the same person.

The one departs from his homeland with great sorrow and regret, leaving behind family and friends. For whatever reasons he leaves, the sorrow and regret are felt, for this is the land of his birth. No matter that perhaps life there has become intolerable. No matter that perhaps the reasons for leaving are happy ones: to join a loved one in another country; to take advantage of a better job; for a better business opportunity; better education opportunities. There is still sorrow and regret.

The other arrives with great hope and expectations for a better life, or at least a different life. New challenges have to be met, involving jobs, housing, cultural differences, religious differences, language difficulties, maybe even racial differences. To be met with hope and excitement.

Yes, this is one and the same person, an emigrant as well as an immigrant who feels both the sorrow and the hope.

I am an immigrant.
I am the daughter of an immigrant.
I am married to an immigrant.
I am the mother of an immigrant.
I am the mother-in-law of an immigrant.
I was the daughter-in-law of an immigrant.
Ninety percent of my friends are immigrants.
For more than 45 years the immigrant experience has been my world.

I, the Australian daughter of a Scottish immigrant to Australia, immigrated to Canada with my Australian husband, whose father had emigrated from New Zealand to Australia. We came so that he could take a position as a university professor. We really hoped to return to Australia after two years, however we stayed here instead. We had none of the difficulties faced by so many immigrants. Yes there were minor cultural differences and we used different words for some things, like petrol for gas, but still English words. We settled in immediately.

Luckily for us, since Vancouver is such a young city, even the Canadians we met were from the Prairies or Eastern Canada. Very few people our age had family here, so we became each other’s families. We had no one else and we relied on each other totally. The most incredible bonds were forged, maybe even stronger than familial bonds because we didn’t have the emotional baggage that many families carried. My family has celebrated Christmas with the same Scottish family for more than 40 years. My friends are Scottish, New Zealander, Hungarian, English, Welsh, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, American, Russian, Czechoslovakian, Japanese, and yes, even some Canadians.We all left our homes and families and settled in Canada.

Here we established new families and new friends. Yes we are proud Canadians, but we’ll always be Australian, Scottish, New Zealander, and so on. But to my mind, the greatest thing that has come out of this immigrant experience is the tolerance we have learned to have for each other.

Sixteen years ago, my daughter left Canada to do graduate studies in the USA. Ten years ago, she married an Italian who had come to do graduate work there, as she had. They have settled in the States and have a daughter. Where will she finally settle? She has three citizenships, American, Canadian, Italian. Unfortunately my daughter, herself a dual citizen, Canadian and Australian, was unable to pass on the Australian citizenship for technical reasons.

Our immigrant line may well continue into the fourth generation. This is the reality of the world of today.

This is also from my blog. A couple of you have read and liked it so I hope it fits in here.

nobody important


Posted under Site Stuff | Like this article? Subscribe to our RSS feed

Leave a Comment

If you would like to make a comment, please fill out the form below.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Comments

7 Comments so far
  1. crunchy March 7, 2007 11:41 am

    Vancouver…land of immigrants from all generations.
    26 years ago my mom and I decided to see if Vancouver would give us a new and or better life.
    We left all our family and friends in Scotland and hung our hopes on my Canadian grandfather and his family.
    While we have never been close to him or the family, we have made some great friends here.
    I can’t tell you if we got a better life out of it. Who knows?
    But yeah, we always consider ourselves Canadian but fiercely Scottish too.

  2. Cherran March 8, 2007 11:52 am

    For an immigrant who comes to a land where the language is different,there is a huge challenge in addition to the hope and sorrow.I am experiencing it in every step of my life for the last three years in Canada.

  3. crunchy March 8, 2007 12:53 pm

    Cherran..I can only imagine.
    The culture shock was terrible for us and that was moving from one english speaking country to another.
    We felt lost and depressed and didn’t understand what we were supposed to wear or say or whatever.
    Adding a new language to that must be terrifying and very lonely.

  4. jmb March 8, 2007 3:51 pm

    Hi Cherran,
    I know full well that my experience was so much easier than the experience of so many. But for many of my friends it was not. So I am very empathetic to your situation. My bookclub, the post is on my blog called the Short Book Club, sorry don’t know how to link in a comment, consists of a group of ESL teachers in Vancouver and they have some stories to tell. Absolutely heartbreaking at times and joyous at others.
    I wanted to add to the post, but felt it might be a bit presumptuous: If you meet an immigrant, hold out your hand in welcome and in friendship. Do whatever you can to lend a helping hand.
    I think, as an immigrant, the most important thing is to learn the language to the best of your ability. In class you will meet people who are going through exactly what you are. According to my ESL teaching friends strong bonds are forged there.
    I wish you luck, Cherran. A belated welcome to Canada.
    Regards
    jmb ( Nobody important blog)

  5. Cherran March 8, 2007 6:28 pm

    Thank you for your kind words both of you.(jmb! when you enter your URL in the website field in the comment section hyper link is added to your name).I just view the first post of your blog no comments yet.
    Thank again.

  6. Irene March 14, 2007 12:03 am

    Cherran, I know exactly what you mean. I lived in Italy and in France and had to learn both languages from scratch and get work and find places to live and ….

    Everything was a challenge. But in the end, it was worth all the pain, the laughter, the struggles.

    And now though I’m happy to be here, my heart still aches for those places. What a different view of the world it has given me. And this is truly a marvellous gift.

  7. jmb March 14, 2007 9:44 am

    Hi Irene,
    Thank you for commenting on my post. Although I did not experience the challenges of language differences I have many friends who did. I think that what you say is true, the experience of being an immigrant broadens your outlook on the world and engenders a wonderful tolerance for others that you would not necessarily develop if you stayed in your own little corner of the world. It is a gift and I hope Cherran will come to a time when she will appreciate it.
    Regards
    jmb