Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

It might seem an obvious question but I'm curious to know how well Brits feel they 'fit in' or are accepted by Canadians. Whether this makes you change your attitude/lifestyle to better fit the local norm, or even if you didn't have to cos Canadians are such a welcoming, multicultural lot anyway.

Prompted by seeing in a wiki how the English 'ethnic group' make up a self-confessed 20% of the population in Canada. (I never realised English was an ethnic group, but if it was, imagined Scottish might have made the bill but didn't.)

I guess it will depend on where you live, but as Brit/Canadian cultures are so similar, is it just the fact that you've upped sticks and left family/job/friends/landscape behind that makes you feel like an émigré? Or is that brought home by external factors like being singled out - either in a positive, 'your accent is cute', or negative, 'you're here to take our jobs' way - and the feeling from other Canadians that you're not one of them?

Basically as per thread title, do you or don't you, and why?

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

Not really, but then I don't feel like a Brit or a Canadian either. Kinda like some half breed ha ha. Just some well travelled guy living life abroad. I'm about 2 months from citizenship. Feel almost totally integrated here, friends are all Canadian.

Admittedly, we made every effort to integrate and it has paid off for us really. Don't miss anything British, nothing at all. New country, new friends, new attitude, new lifestyle. yet, after being here almost 3 years, nothing's new now, there's no surprises, it's all "everyday", but still have days where it feels all so much worthwhile and odd little things make us remember why we came here.

I worked with a bunch of hideous dull redneck retarded f***ers (muppets who were a fair bit bitter, nasty and jealous) and I've also worked with some great people who treated me just like a regular guy, and socially, I only spend time with peeps who are chilled/open enough to accept me for what I am. So I've done my time and seen all aspects of how we are received as "immigrants".

Blah blah smug integration blah blah smug happiness etc :thumbup: :thumbsup:

R.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

Am I a stranger in a strange land.

NO.

We are all Immigrants to Canada, some sooner some later.

The original immigrants who we call, Natives, Aboriginal People or Indians, came well before the rest of us.

BUT everyone else, can tell you exactly when, and from where, their original immigrant ancestors came from.

So I don't feel like an immigrant, mostly.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

It seems to me that all depends on ones background and the age one was when one landed here.

I came across aged 19 but had only lived in the UK from birth to age 9, then an absence of 7 years (Switz, France, India), and to return aged 16.

Suffice it to say I wasn't particularly attached to England so when I left I hardly missed it. Since we all spoke perfect French we came to Montreal and have felt very much at home since.

(I never did like Toronto so I have avoided it like the plague. I spent a year in Ottawa and didn't like it either).

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

You are of course 100% right but some (whose folks got here a few generations ahead of us) still resent newcomers.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

Yes. But only in the square peg in a round hole sense.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

They wear plaid and complain a lot and expect immigrants to support them in the fashion to which they have been accustomed. :mad:

R.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

Never found that...been here a little longer than you rich, probably by a few months. Live in a rural area and find the local folks (yes, plaid wearers many are) gennuine and welcoming, many of which I rate as 'friends'. Percieved problem you have with 'plaid wearers' may well be more to do with you rather than them?

I am a firm believer in the 'when in Rome do as the Romans do' philosophy and when I moved here I expected to adjust to Canada and its culture (be it of the Plaid variety or otherwise) rather than them adjust to mine...something that many recent arrivals seem to expect...and to some degree, are encouraged to believe.

As to being made to feel 'like an immigrant', can't say I have at all....

Just a personal observation....

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

My husband has found that the Canadian people are all very welcoming to Australians, however he's from Middlesex:confused:
This thread made me remember something odd about when I was working in the UK. I'm a Cannuck born and bread, evidence of this is eating grilled cheese sandwiches and soup when I'm sick. Anyway people had not problem coming to me when I was in the UK and complaining about how foreigners and asylum seekers were ruining the country and taking jobs. I would mention that I was indeed just as foreign as an Albanian and they would not know how to react. Had a similar experience to that when I was in Dublin.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

So a no due to being a Citizen of the World (and/or a special case/aberrance ;)). Fair enough.

A valid point and one I hesitate personally to bring up the rare occasions I get the negative crap despite not yet being an immigrant. I wonder sometimes why some canucks see the heritage of their great grandfathers as so important, and also if my grandkids will feel the fact their granddad was English is relevant to their lives. I'm curious to know when you arrived in Canada though and where the parts that aren't covered by 'mostly' came about.

So despite a clear claim to a heritage that some with much more feeble grasps on cling to, you don't feel it's important?

Did that have anything to do with the attitudes of the people around you after you arrived? And completely OT - Do you feel like there's a square hole for you somewhere else?

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

That is exactly the point I find so difficult to understand, and wonder if it works the same way for brits in Canada. The big hoo-ha in the UK right now is over White, Christian people 'coming over here and ruining public services' etc etc etc. No different from looking at them from a North American but there's such a huge feeling of misgiving over these people.

Canadians OTOH are welcomed almost with open arms from my experience in England. I don't know about the rest of us but I eat fried (not grilled, it has to be, I'm british) cheese sandwiches and soup when I'm sick - maybe this is the cultural rallying point.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

Cheese is over rated :tounge_smile:

As is people decrying other people's views and experiences just because they happen to disagree with them.

R.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

Do I feel like an immigrant? Well, sometimes I do. Mostly life is just life but every now and again I still do stop and think, "wow, am I really here?"

Otherwise, it is just a state of mind. If you approach people as Canadians and others it is easy to fell different. If you approach people as people first, and their ancestory second, then it quickly ceases to be an issue.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

Anti-immigrant sentiment in Canada is not that wide spread. Being a country immigrants is something we celebrate.

I use Kraft slices no cheese in that.

Re: Do you feel like an immigrant?
 

The longer I live here, the less so.

Once the initial idiosyncrasies and newness of it all has worn off, it just becomes home. You blend in with everyone else and really only get noticed as different via your accent, and 99.99% of the time that doesn't matter or isn't an issue either. Becoming an integrated member of society here has, IME, been very simple and un-traumatic.