Why Does Everyone Want to Live in the Racist West？ ｜ A Critical Compass Clip
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
160.62306
Summary
In this episode, I sit down with a First Generation Canadian to discuss immigration and racism in North America. We talk about racism in Canada, the challenges faced by first generation Canadians, and the process of becoming a Canadian citizen.
Transcript
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specifically north america canada and the u.s you know how how responsible are we for for taking
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these people from across the world we have people talking out of both sides of their mouth when they
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say you know the the same people who want you to believe that canada and the u.s are these you know
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irredeemable nations with histories of slavery and oppression and residential schools and and
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just horrifying racism and bigotry we're that but also we're the destination of choice for every
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single country in the world right now who is experiencing some sort of refugee crisis so
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how do we how do you square that how do you how are you such a a horrible you know uh ethically
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bankrupt nation and yet we're so desirable that we need to take in all the millions of people annually
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who who would kill to be here i just i don't i don't think that that worked yeah you you wouldn't
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have so many people wanting to come over if the conditions here for them were really that
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were like worse than where they came from um it's also you have to acknowledge implicitly that
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it's worse where they came from you have to acknowledge that if there there is a reason
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why there are people uh dying in in rafts crossing the english channel to get to the uk like there
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there's a reason why they're doing that so one other point on this is uh you have this this specific
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idea that well racism in north america and canada and the u.s is at its highest and they think it's
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just well it's a racist country and they distort the numbers and they treat it as a endemic that we need
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to fix and what we don't realize is that there is plenty of racism in countries just because somebody
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has somebody could be two shades of brown in the middle east and they have plenty of reason to hate
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each other yeah same thing in india they have a caste system yes there's no shortage of racial hatred
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for well even sometimes it's it's just tribalism focused on some quality and sometimes these qualities
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matter and sometimes they don't sometimes you can't even define these qualities the caste system
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is like well the same thing of like well your upper class versus lower class your well your family
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bloodline is better than somebody else's therefore you should be treated a different way these things
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exist in these other countries and we're opening up the gates and to think that these same problems
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and these same patterns and these same systems and or racial tensions wouldn't be brought over they're
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just they're not erased when they come here just because canada is a welcoming place well if it's just a
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welcoming place what you're doing is you're just opening the door for new forms of tribalism to
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take hold because if you impose let's say if we had immigration we had strict cultural if we say like
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well you gotta adopt these cultural values and canada is super strict on it maybe you'd be filtering
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out and you wouldn't have some of the good things from other cultures maybe that'd be lost but you'd also
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be filtering out some of these like negative effects this tribalism that'd be brought on we're already
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seeing it with like interracial group violence in canada like they're between protests between
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the there there's no shortage of it and there'll be no shortage um in the future is is my my feeling
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anyways yeah there there definitely used to be a um a bit of a i would say more of an emphasis even in
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canada of um of we we really had a strong emphasis i would say in the and i can only use my personal
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experience for this one because i'm a first generation canadian so when what my parents told
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me anyway that when they when they were attempting to come when their families were trying to get
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into canada it was a long process it took a long time like many years multiple years um you had to
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do you had to uh you know certainly pass a very difficult citizenship uh exam you had to know a lot
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about the country there there were people at the time they you know kind of was a running commentary
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they said you know that um people would think that a newly a newly um made canadian citizen often knew
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more about canada's history than people who were born here you know so it was it was something that
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was very highly um prized was was a was the the willingness to adopt canadian values and to to
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become a member of this new like the recognition that the reason why you tried so hard to get here is
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because you know that you're going to have a better life here than from where you came
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so there was there was a bit of a um there was more i guess it's hard to ascribe these emotions to
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people you don't know but it it feels like there was maybe a little bit more gratitude from from the
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people who were coming but you know in the 60s and 70s kind of the that first sort of major you know
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wave of immigration to canada than there is now well it almost sounds like you're describing the
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process was more difficult it took more work on the individuals and there's a sense of accomplishment
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for learning and passing the test and getting through that and even i like have some friends
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who recently immigrated who are upset at how easy it's getting for people to immigrate because it
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almost devalues all the effort they went into and the steps they had to go through yeah if somebody
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comes in illegally and is granted like a permanent residence like afterwards instead of like deporting
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them they say like well you came here uh it's still not the best but we'll we'll let you stay
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anyways that is insulting to people who worked hard and the many people who come to canada they love
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canada they do a great job and they they fit right in and they um they help make canada a better place