What is the correct etiquette for people who choose to emigrate?

Question

When I moved from the UK to Canada (not a huge change I know) I adopted Canadian mores and values - not at the expense of my own but as a form of good manners. I learned to speak french (enough to get by) learned the anthem and did my best to fit in. I did this because I CHOSE to go to Canada and to me if a person chooses to emigrate they ought to respect the country they moved to and try to fit in. A year after I got to Canada there was riots in a suburb of Toronto as people form India protested in the streets demanding that the Canadian flag in the city hall was changed to their national flag because "there were more of them living in Brampton than there were white Canadians" yesterday I met a girl in Nottingham who could barely speak english despite the fact that she is THIRD GENERATION British. I would never ask anyone to give up their national identity but is this going too far?

Answer 1

The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, recently said that in Australia there is one law - Australian law. If anybody does not want to abide by Australian law, or embrace Australian values, then they should not move to Australia.

I'm in the process of emigrating to Australia. It sounds like my kind of place!

While you should always be true to who you are and what your roots are, if you are moving to a new country then you have to consider why you are doing so. I have many friends in Australia, of Macedonian extraction. They are proud of their Macedonian heritage, but first and foremost are proud to be Australians.

If you move to a country to "change it from within" then perhaps you should have just stayed at home.

It sounds like your attitude to your adopted country, your roots and emigration are spot on.

Answer 2

I would never expect anyone to give up their national identity either but what I would expect them to do is to abide by the laws of the country they chose to reside in and if that is a problem for them well basically they should either go home to the country they originated from or get a life, you cannot expect a country you chose to emigrate to to change its flag, laws and ways because you see fit, its not fair and its not on,

Answer 3

I also moved to Canada from the UK, and had quite a different sense of "what it means to be Canadian" - for example, Canada has it written into the Charter that it is a multicultural, multiethnic society that respects the contributions of the many groups of immigrants who form the nation. So the protestors in Brampton are acting in accordance with their sense of what it is to be Canadian, ie: standing up for their ethnic group's contribution to a particular area of Ontario.

I note that you say you learnt to speak some French and also to sing the national anthem. These two tropes conform to a very specific idea of Canadianness enforced by national governments and the white Anglo Canadian political and cultural hierarchy. Did you learn any Cree while you were there? Or Huron? Or Métis? The country that you moved to is only identified as Anglo/French and "from sea to shining sea" on the surface -- you were fitting in with a compromised political vision of "Canada" that not all Canadians share, and that is positively damaging to some of them.

You also make the presumption that an economic or political migrant from the developing world has made the same "choice" as you had, in moving from one developed country to another, and pay scant regard to the fact that you moved from one country where you were (I am now assuming) part of the dominant ethnic, linguistic and economic "face" of the country to another where you were likewise. You story as an emigrant is very different to the stories of almost all people involved in global migration now.

You then tack on a tangential point about a woman that you met in Nottingham and her lack of English prowess -- I wonder what your testing procedure was? Did you not understand her accent? Or do you have very fixed notions of what "English" is, which bear little resemblance to the real nature of English as a constantly changing global language? Perhaps rather than consider the failings in other people's behaviour, you should consider how _you_ form constructions informed by prejudice and your position of presumed superiority to denigrate them.

Answer 4

I think it is a f**king a outrage, who the hell do these people think they are, if you choose to live in some one else's country, you should abide by there rules and regulations, and respect there way's, Britain has now become over run by foreigner's, who disrespect our way of life, if you live in a foreign country at least learn the language, mind you I did hear a couple of Asian people trying teach each other how to say housing benefit the othe day, and that I swearer on my life

Answer 5

I agree with you. You made an effort in another country and that goes a long way towards earning respect.

The problem in the UK is that our immigrants have no respect for the country or the people - most just want what they can get and boy do they get what they want...

Answer 6

respect the laws yes, but do wot pleases you, then you know your being yourself

Answer 7

and you think life is perfect because...?