Their America Is Vanishing. Like Trump, They Insist They Were Cheated.

I now live in a neighborhood in Canada that is 70% Chinese. Go back a couple of decades and it was plurality Italian (and not the Italian diaspora in the US, these were actual immigrant or first generation Italian families). Then immigrants from Hong Kong came in the 90s and 2000s so a Cantonese speaking minority was formed. And now mainlanders have flooded the area. Most people speak English but you'll run into some people that still only speak Mandarin or Cantonese.

Interestingly though, Canada now requires one to speak English or French in order to move to Canada and you have to take a test to prove it. As a result, most of the immigrant community speaks reasonable levels of English. There are still some people who moved before the English requirement went into effect but new immigrants have to speak English or French. I think Liberals in the US have always been resistant to enshrining English as an official language and requiring it for immigrants but now that I've seen it first hand, its not a terrible idea.

 

The Japanese Shinto culture is a double edged sword in the sense that it gives them sense of purpose and survival despite living next to a Chinese hegemon for several thousand years but is also rigid to secular changes that will impact their aging population. It's so far gone, foreign born Japanese are looked down upon but are a little higher status than Korean nationals born there (glass ceilings). They're so reluctant to hire Asian service workers from Philippines, Malaysia, or the Asian South that they rely on robots for elderly care. Some folks die in their apartments without people realizing it for months.

I think the exception is how much Japanese admire Americans and Westerners. Probably because of the two nukes, occupation/reconstruction, and how we effectively controlled their God Emperor like how the marines captured the Bug Queen at the end of Starship Troopers...

Asian cultures are generally racist, in some sense moreso because communal cultures breed and encourages cliques and castes. There's a similar light and brown pigmentation prejudice that I think both East and West have commonly agreed upon as Northern countries have been generally wealthy throughout history and Northern countries by geography receive less sunlight.

There's been a debate in Germany about what constitutes as Germaness. I was around during the height of Merkel opening the borders for Syrian immigrants and the base requirement in that debate was knowing how to speak German. Western Europe continues to have a social problem with Muslim immigrants not integrating wholly with the rest of the nation where poorer urban areas fester like stillwater with children who don't necessarily know the language of their host country.

OTOH, it's a matter of economic survival to encourage immigration as birthrates plummet and populations age beyond sustainability.

Despite all the grim news about political stability, America might have the upper hand on how far the immigration/integration debate has progressed.

 

The full text of this article is now on Chron.com for those interested.

 

Germany (and Europe as a whole) are unique examples in that they are developed countries with unique languages and cultures that are not globally understood. The average immigrant has no knowledge of German, and no understanding of German culture. Germany's economy is also an export driven economy that doesn't attract immigrants with top tier educations. This problem is replicated across Europe. These countries want to preserve their culture and language but the lack of exposure to that culture and language means that assimilation is incredibly difficult.

The US on the other hand has a media industry that is exported globally. People across the world grow up watching American media and by extension gaining a fairly robust understanding of American culture. Plus, English is the most important language globally, so it is the primary second language for much of the world. The US also have industries that offer incomes and opportunities that attract some of the most educated immigrants in the world.

So as a result, the average immigrant to the US comes with language skills, education and a cultural understanding of the US that an immigrant to Germany won't have. I think the English language requirement really isn't a big deal. For Germany, it would be a huge problem because no one outside of Europe speaks German. But English is spoken globally so Canada has been able to introduce an English language requirement for most immigration categories with pretty minimal impact.

 

Many immigrants can still get by with English. Western European cities are proficient enough in English for them to work in a professional capacity. The cultural oneness, however, is lacking for the reasons you've described.

Also, I think many Euros were more optimistic 30-40 years ago to handle immigrants with culture shocks even if they didn't speak English or German (any other host language). It's just there's more resentment when their welfare state creates drags in the local economy and government coffers with 2nd gen children who identify with neither Germany nor the original country their parents came from.

That's the absolute fear in all immigrant welcoming nations, imo. First gen "rapists, thieves, and murderers" can be shrugged off as unique once-in-a-while exceptions (deport and forget), but a low/under employed demographic and slow cooking underclass is enough for any moderate to rethink the liberal and ideal position of "free" borders that Merkal rallied the rest of the EU to heed to.

Understanding the official language serves as a bottom line and opens doors. It won't please nationalist hardliners, but it expands social commerce in large cities that are more tolerant to different faces. I mean the Chinatown/Little Mexico no-English example in Canada or US isn't really optimal, and it's "functional" because the continual influx of immigrants provides capital and labor to areas governments/municipalities typically avoid outside of scandalous crime.

For immigrants and refugees from war torn states, however, you're not going to get fresh rounds of college educated or well funded immigrants every other year, so there's a deepening isolation and alienation that furthers stagnancy and increases the reliance of social services outclassed in making those immigrants self-sufficient.

 

Do you live in Richmond, BC?

The language issue is interesting and does Canada apply that to refugees also?

I agree that immigrants should all learn English and have encouraged new immigrants to learn and improve their English skills. The problem with making it a requirement is the with bringing in older relatives such as parents and grandparents.

 

I live in Markham ON which is technically more diverse than Richmond but I live on the west side which is majority Chinese. My particular neighborhood came out to around 75% Chinese in the last census. Honestly, before moving here I was quite worried about the English proficiency of the community but its quite rare to run into someone who doesn't speak any English.

As far as immigration goes, the English requirement doesn't apply to family sponsorship or refugees/asylum cases. Canada also offers a parent/grandparent visa that is a 10 year renewable visa which doesn't have a language requirement. However, that's a temporary resident category so you can't get government health insurance.

The language requirement applies to the general immigration categories. Canada's main immigration path uses a point system so technically speaking English or French isn't a requirement, but it gives you a large number of points. Consequently, in order to feasibly hit the threshold to immigrate, you need the points that speaking English or French would give you. Also provinces can nominate people for immigration, but I believe most provinces have English/French as a criteria as well.

 

pls elaborate.

Markham is to Toronto is analogous to Richmond is to Vancouver, BC, no?

my limited understanding is from the perspective of HK handover in ~1997;
of those HKers w connections and able to immigrate to Canada, the more financially established / older immigrants (40+) opted for the relatively milder climate in the Vancouver/Richmond area;
the younger immigrants, not quite as established, opted for for better job/business opportunities in the Toronto/Markam area, harsh winter and all

 

I've been to Vancouver a few times but never been to Toronto. I'll have to check it out and Markham sometime.

 

One thing fundamentally different about the US from Japan or Germany is that this country was not founded on the basis of ethnicity or even a common culture. While the Founders were all British and Protestant by background they didn't see that as being essential for the new nation. They even resisted calls for declaring a national language, Ben Franklin suggested German. Even though in practice this hasn't always been the case especially given that Africans slaves and Native Americans weren't given rights the principle is still there.

Also from the beginning the country has been a country of immigrants with even Native Americans treated like immigrants for most of it's history. For those who talk about defending an "American culture" there has always been a polyglot culture here. Even among those who are from White Anglo Saxon backgrounds like the Founders the culture here is still an amalgation of different European cultures that didn't always get along.

As such America is different than those countries in it's abiltiy to absorb large numbers of immigrants from diverse cultures (Germans, Irish, Polish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mexican and etc..) into this culture.

 

Markham has pockets that are majority non-Chinese. Richmond is just flat-out majority Chinese everywhere. For example, if you go to the southern part of Markham below the highway, its actually majority Indian/Sri Lankan. If you go to the oldest parts of Markham, those areas are still plurality white. Markham as a whole is still less than 50% chinese. But the part that I live in resembles the demographics of Richmond.

And your explanation of the Hong Kong diaspora is largely correct. The community here is younger than the community in Richmond. And the HK diaspora doesn't really have old money (unlike the community in Richmond). Now the mainland Chinese community here is filthy rich. There's a Crazy Rich Asians vibe among the Mandarin speakers.