By Lisa Van de Ven
17-year-old Abdul Mahamed arrived in Toronto from Somalia last November as the youngest in a family of seven. Canada had a reputation, he says, of being welcoming to immigrants — with high standards in education and health care. But entering a new school system, in a language that was not his native tongue, was a culture shock for Abdul and took some time to adjust to.
“It was very different,” he explains. But at his high school (Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute) there were a lot of other teens who shared his immigrant experience so he was able to make friends fast and acclimatize to the new environment. “I get along well with everybody.”
Cultural education
If you ask 21-year-old Norma Bolduc, when she was in high school, it was a general lack of education among other students that made it difficult for her to accept her own mixed Ojibwe-
European background. At (the mostly white) Sir James Dunn High School in Sault Ste. Marie, she found it easier to let people peg her dark features down to an Italian heritage, than to tell them she was of First Nations descent. For Norma, that meant staying silent through derogatory comments made towards other Aboriginal students.
“I think it was just a lack of knowledge,” she says. “I also think people in Sault Ste. Marie [a town of 70,000], are a lot less aware of minorities, as opposed to Toronto where there are a plethora of minorities. People around here do a double-take when they see somebody of colour.”
Splitting off
Even in Toronto, cultural differences can play out in the classroom. If you ask
16-year-old Suelin Baxter-Whitney (born in Vietnam and adopted by a white family in Canada) about the reality of her high school environment at North Toronto Collegiate Institute, she’ll tell you there’s a mix of cultural groups; predominately Asian, Jewish and Caucasian. But while the classrooms may be mixed, she says the social groups tend to be mono-cultural.
“Definitely people like to form their own groups. It’s amazing. You see all of these people, and there’s the Asian group and the white preppy group,” says Suelin. “I think it just happens that way. It’s not like, ‘Oh, we can’t be her friend’.”But while Suelin sees her school’s culturally-based cliques as a product of similar backgrounds, rather than as a desire to exclude people of other ethnicities, Youth Settlement Worker Linden Huizinga says that cliques can also present themselves in a more negative way. Huizinga works with Toronto teens who are new to Canada — many of whom don’t speak English as a first language. These teens often group with classmates, who come from their country of origin, more out of necessity than desire. They experience a social barrier which is often based on preconceptions, due to their lack of English-language skills, that makes it difficult for them to meet other teens.
“One girl came to me and she had two friends in school, both from her country and she feels like she doesn’t get accepted by anyone from other communities. In turn they do question why people stick to their groups,” says Huizinga.
She adds that social concerns such as these only accentuate the self-esteem issues that English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students can also face in the classroom. “There’s still a great stigmatization in high schools that if you are in the ESL program, that you are somehow less smart,” Huizinga says. “They internalize it.”
Celebrating multiculturalism
A good balance is possible. For example, 17-year-old Faaizah Ahmed’s observations about her high school (Toronto’s Notre Dame C.C.S.) are quite positive. She says there’s a genuine curiosity among students and teachers towards different cultures, and that organized multicultural days help underline that.“In my school, because [multiculturalism] is so out there in the open and so celebrated, we’ve gone beyond coexisting to enjoy and be engaged in each others’ cultures,” says Faaizah, who was born in Bangladesh and raised Muslim. “We’re proud of them.”
After all, Faaizah adds: “It’s as easy to adapt as it is to stay the same.”
Say it right
There's more to being "Asian" than you think!
East Asia
China
Korea
Japan
Taiwan
South East Asia
Bangladesh
Bhutan
East Timor
Burma
Thailand
South West Asia
India
Nepal
Sri Lanka
Pakistan
Middle East
Iran
Iraq
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syria
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
West Bank
Yemen
Afghanistan
Visit these web sites for info and assistance:
www.canadianheritage.gc.ca
The official government site on multiculturalism and other aspects of Canadian culture.
www.cmcasians.com
Canadian Multicultural Council:Asians in Ontario. A group that promotes Asian culture in Ontario.
www.crr.ca
Canadian Race Relations Foundation
www.ayn.ca
Aboriginal Youth Network
www.katimavik.org
Katimavik is a Canadian youth volunteer program. One of its mandates is to promote Canadian multiculturalism, and to expose youths to Canada’s diversity.
vervegirls, we want to hear about your experiences! What are your views on multiculturalism in Canada? Email editor[at]youthculture.com
