Free to be you and me
May 2008 - Erin Isings

This is what it’s like for immigrants coming to Canada. Some leave their native land by choice, while others arrive here as refugees. But all of them are looking for a better life.
Amid the bureaucracy of immigration, there’s a larger hurdle that newcomers must face because Canadians aren’t always accepting of people who are different.

Sometimes this lack of acceptance is ingrained in procedures and policies and other times, it’s ingrained in our hearts and minds.

In Canada, the immigration system for skilled immigrants works on a points system. Work experience, language skills, and formal education all add points to a person’s score. With a high enough score, an immigrant qualifies for the application process.
But often the same academic credentials that qualify towards a person’s entry score aren’t recognized by professional organizations here, and this makes it impossible to use those credentials to get a job. This is why we have doctors driving taxis.

Huda Hussein was a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Aden in Yemen for 15 years. In November of 1996, she and her husband, along with their two young daughters, came to Canada. “We came for a safer future,” says Hussein.
She remembers the novelty of seeing snow for the first time. “It was like cotton falling all around!” But then reality set in. “You have nothing. You have no job, no (extended) family. The only thing you have is your own degree that you think will get you something because that’s what got you into the country.” But Hussein’s degree wasn’t recognized with respect to continuing her career in Canada.

So as they settled in London, ON, her former career as a university professor abruptly ended and she accepted a job at minimum wage as an office receptionist. Her husband, who had worked as a geneticist in Yemen, started a small business and also volunteered.

Because they both held university degrees, education was also a priority for the Hussein children. “My first concern was my daughters and their education. Where would they go to school? Would it be a good school? How would they adjust?” says Hussein.

Aside from the blow to her career and her self-esteem, Hussein also had to endure harassment about her clothing; cars would honk at her and people gave her dirty looks and made comments. Many of the insults were because of her headscarf, or “hijab.” This treatment was particularly unsettling because Hussein was only trying to make her way in a new land.

Some people may question why someone would continue to wear something that has been perceived negatively and drawn insulting behaviour from others. However, given that Canada is a country of choice and religious freedom, the real issue should be about why people react negatively towards someone who is different.

There are several factors that play a role in someone’s lack of acceptance for people who are different from them, explains Meredith Fraser, public educator for LUSO, a non-profit multicultural community centre. “We are all raised or born into a cultural process. From the point at which we’re born, we’re learning about how to ‘be’ in the world; how to speak, who our families are, who they include, what we call members of our family, what kind of music we are used to, what kind of foods we think are delicious or what kind of foods are not very tasty.”

Although some of these things may seem like silly examples, Fraser says they show how steeped we are in our own culture. “Sometimes, depending on life circumstances, we don’t get exposed to other ways of ‘being’ in the world, or other cultural processes. So when we recognize there are other ways of ‘being’ in the world, (it) can be unsettling. It can destabilize what we understand the world to be. So that can be scary.”

Fraser says problems in society arise when people think the way they do things is the only way, or the right way, and this is because people close themselves off from other possibilities. “Or we equate (other possibilities) to not being acceptable or not being right or being bad. That’s not the correct thing to do, but it happens and we need to reckon with it and be aware of it.”

Looking at children’s natural behaviour helps to understand further. “Kids ask questions and slowly, over time, they’re taught not to do that, in a way. For example, if they see a person using a wheelchair, they might ask about it, and it’s a teachable learning moment. But parents say, ‘Don’t do that, it’s not polite,’ and (children) learn that difference is negative, and they learn to be afraid and uncertain,” says Fraser.

“People can recognize when others are being genuine, when someone really wants to know about your experiences,” she explains. In her experience, working with people of different cultures has helped address any uncertainty. “For example, saying, ‘Look, I’m not sure what to do here, I could really benefit from your experience,’ can open the door up to a really honest conversation that can foster cross-cultural understanding – a conversation that might not otherwise occur,” says Fraser.

Elisabete Rodrigues, executive director of LUSO, says that often people who have grown up in the safe haven of Canada can’t fathom the inner strength that newcomers to Canada have. “A lot of us can’t imagine what they’ve gone through: living conditions, (having) to flee their homes, (having) been tortured. It’s not an experience the majority of people have had. We can’t rationalize it.”

Like Hussein, Margaret Johnston is another London woman who is a member of a minority religion. But unlike Hussein, she isn’t an immigrant but grew up in Mount Brydges, ON. Her great-grandfather was a United Church minister and she was raised in this faith.

Johnston now describes herself as “a converted white Hindu.” She first put on a sari four years ago when she was dressing up for a dinner date with her husband. While walking past an Indian deli, a woman pulled her inside and re-wrapped her sari properly. The woman added a finishing touch with a bindi, a forehead decoration worn by many women in South Asia.

“I knew there was something spiritual about the bindi,” says Johnston. With her curiosity sparked, she began reading about Hinduism. “After the first paragraph, I was bawling my eyes out. It was like coming home,” she says.

As part of her conversion, Johnston began wearing a sari. That’s when the snickers, laughs and comments began, including what she good-naturedly refers to as “the flying cheeseburger incident.”

One evening, while walking her dog, someone from a passing car threw a cheeseburger at her. Besides the obvious disrespect, Johnston says the incident was also disturbing because Hindus don’t eat beef.

“I think the weirdest thing has been experiencing racism from my own race. It’s just so strange. When I started wearing the (Indian) clothes, it never entered my mind that people would think I was ‘selling out’ of my own race, or insulting my own race. The first time (I experienced racism), I was just so dumbfounded.”

However, Johnston has discovered that some people are genuinely interested in her conversion and she’s more than willing to answer questions from strangers about her clothing and her beliefs. “I don’t mind questions, as long as people are respectful and truly interested,” she says.

Hussein’s hijab is also an identifying characteristic of her religion, and while she’s received some unwanted attention because of her headscarf, she’s also experienced awkward times when people pretended to not notice it, although it was obviously on their minds.

“Looking back, when people stared at my headscarf or were taken aback by me, I just wish they would have asked that question that was on their mind,” says Hussein, who is also happy to answer questions about her clothing. “I’m a human being, I’m a person. I’m not an alien from some other land. But people don’t ask the question because they’re afraid to.”

If they did ask, she could tell them that wearing the hijab is part of being a Muslim woman. “Wearing the hijab is a personal choice. It is a requirement for Muslim women. The Muslim men have clothing requirements also. For me, it has become a symbol of who I am. It is Islamically required, but I do respect other people’s choices,” says Hussein.

While both of her daughters chose to don the hijab when they felt ready, not all of her family members wear it. “Does that mean that they’re bad? I certainly don’t think so!” she says.

Hussein believes that asking questions is part of a learning process. “It’s good to ask respectfully. When you ask, you get the answer and you learn about them, they learn about you. It’s not wrong to be curious. I believe that curiosity is the first step in learning.”
Citing an increase in harassment since 9/11, Hussein says, “People who are sick use Islam for their own purposes. Religion, for that matter, any religion, does not condone violence. Unfortunately, there are fanatics in every religion who believe they are the saviours and interpret the scripts to match with their own fanaticism.”

Today, Hussein’s family feels at home in Canada. She says London has become more multicultural in the past 12 years and people seem to be more open to welcoming others who are different.

Hussein has also resumed her career, but on a slightly different path. She does social work research for Childreach, which is funded by the federal government, and her husband co-ordinates the settlement services in London. Her initial worry about her children’s education has been alleviated: both daughters have pursued post-graduate education.

Hussein believes that her volunteer work was the key to finding her way to a career. While working at her minimum-wage job, she began volunteering at the Cross Cultural Learner Centre and the Islamic Centre of Southwestern Ontario. She gained work experience, made contacts and learned about the job market.

When she found a job posting for a family literacy consultant, she applied and eventually accepted.

“Had I been at home and refused that minimum-wage job, I would have never seen that posting!” she says.

Hussein says she would advise immigrants to persevere in their efforts to build a life here. “Newcomers need to know that they need to knock on every possible door (and) one of those doors will open.”

And a word to her fellow Canadians as well: “We are human beings before being labelled as white, black or brown. Respect and love are the only means that will promote healthy coexistence.” .