Here's another way to think about the issues of ethnic enclaves, of signage, of expectations around integration and the question of who accommodates to whom.
We used to get immigrants in Canada. Now we have migrants.
Immigrants saw a move to Canada as an opportunity for a better life. The same motivations have spurred most everyone who's come to Canada since the French helped themselves to Quebec in 1608.
With immigrants, there is an implied contract that they would make it a priority to join the mainstream.
While some easily made the necessary adaptations and were quickly accepted, it took most a long time to get a chance to earn a seat at the table. It's only in the last 30 years that members of first the South Asian, then the Chinese, and now the Filipino communities have been elected in significant numbers, a tangible sign that a community has gone establishment.
In the process of evolving to join the mainstream those communities have also left their mark on Canada.
That is how multiculturalism actually works - not the multiculturalism that people thought they were getting where "heritage" cultures stay politely on the other side of the -Canadian hyphen to be paraded (literally) at annual festivals and national days.
Canadian culture is dynamic and it also evolves as it absorbs influences; everything from pop culture to ideas whose times have come. Values are debated, re-evaluated and updated.
You can't expect to keep adding cream to your coffee without changing its look and flavour.
Today's migrants come to Canada because they can. It's one of a variety of options available to them due to their education, experience, profession and/or wealth.
Canada is competing in the global marketplace with the U.S., Australia, the U.K., and New Zealand for wealthy businesspeople, investors and well educated, mobile, employable skilled workers.
Migrants feel they are doing Canada as much of a favour in choosing us as we are in accepting them, and have much less or no sense of obligation to submerge who they are in order to become who we are.
Many business immigrants keep most of their lives overseas while their families live in Canada.
But before you accuse those migrants of abusing Canada's hospitality or whatever, keep in mind that they have chosen the product Canada offered them in the global marketplace - immigration programs designed by the Canadian government to meet strategic goals. Multiculturalism comes out differently when not everyone is invested in participating.
The Richmond Intercultural Advisory Committee (RIAC) is holding a public forum on May 22 to explore whether multiculturalism is working in Richmond, the third event in RIAC's Does Richmond Welcome All Cultures? Do All Cultures Welcome Richmond? series.
The evening starts with a debate between two teams of seasoned high school debaters on the resolution, "Be it resolved that multiculturalism in Richmond IS working," followed by facilitated small-group discussions
We're also having Richmond in 3D kick off the third part of the evening with improvisational theatre interpretations of the comments from the discussions.
To register for this event, a Debate! Discussions with your friends and neighbours! Improvisational theatre!, email Alan Hill at ahill@ richmond.ca or phone 604276-4391.
Dr. Joe Greenholtz is a regulated Canadian immigration consultant (RCIC) and a director of the Premier Canadian Immigration Co-op. He also sits on the Richmond intercultural Advisory Committee. He can be reached at joe@ premiercic.com.
