The Necessity in Showing Imperfect Immigrants

[Music]

have you ever

judged the people around you based on

how much they contribute to the gdp

have you ever thought i wonder what my

babysitter did this year to inflate the

economy’s output

hopefully your answer is no unless you

really do think of people that way which

either makes you a really dedicated

economist

or just really weird to be around

if we can agree that most of us don’t

see others as economic figures

what if i told you that chances are

you’ve

actually been applying this standard to

around a quarter of the canadian

population

tell me if you’ve heard this argument

immigration is good for canada because

it boosts the economy

since immigrants go on to become

productive members of society like

lawyers doctors and engineers this is

clearly an argument

endorsed by our government because six

in ten immigrants

are selected for their positive economic

impact

and it makes sense if you look at the

statistics

over the next two decades over 13.4

million canadians

are projected to stop working but only

11.8 million

will finish school and join the

workforce which is why the government

needs to bring in more immigrants to

fill this gap

a 2019 report by economist pedro antoons

found

that without immigration real gdp growth

would drop from 1.7

to 1.1 percent and

although this 0.6 percent may not seem

like much

it actually amounts to more than 1.4

billion dollars

per year the bank of montreal’s chief

economist even projected

that canada could have beaten the us in

growth this year

with increased immigration being a key

factor

now before we all nod in approval and

say an amused

huh here comes the kicker while this may

seem like a great argument

its impacts on the immigrant community

are anything

but great it is an argument that has

boosted the image of immigrants

at the expense of their own youth

and if this is an argument that you

believe or have used to justify

immigration

i hope that by the end of my talk you’ll

be able to see things differently

i immigrated to canada when i was 10.

and amid my chaotic immigration journey

one thing seemed clear this moment came

shortly after my family and i first

arrived in canada

as soon as our plane hit the ground we

became strangers to a foreign land

disconnected unaccustomed and anonymous

we dragged behind heavy luggage into

which our entire lives were tightly

packed

and my entire lives i mean all the soy

sauce she insisted we bring because she

wasn’t sure if they would have any here

and on my way out of the airport i

caught this tall

advertisement towering over me on the

wall

it portrayed an asian woman in a

doctor’s coat tending to a satisfied

patient

her neat slick-back hair and sterile

surroundings

exuded the sense of prestige and the

only word with which

i could describe or smile would be

professional

the tagline read immigrants the future

of our economy

i gazed upon this billboard for a moment

i known enough english by then to see

that it was addressing a group of people

i am a part of people who packed up

their existence

25-inch suitcases and stepped into a

different dimension

either chasing something or fleeing

something else

i also knew that this should be a future

version of myself

it was like the ad served as an

appropriate welcome banner

the country was telling me that i was

taking up space here

and my form of rent would be plastering

on a professional smile and becoming the

future of the economy

a word i first thought men’s spaceship

quite the welcome party if you asked me

no balloons no cake just one big

daunting billboard laying out my

economic obligation to the country

well it appeared that this obligation

wasn’t just internalized by me

without needing to say it outright my

parents modeled the behavior

they wanted me to emulate

they kept quiet in public spaces not

wanting to draw attention to themselves

apologized at a capacity that somehow

exceeded that of natural born canadians

and acted with a nervousness that was so

out of character for their naturally

expressive selves

and they’ve been hard working their

entire lives but i’d never seen them

work quite as hard

as when they came to canada it was like

that’s

all they wanted people to see of them

and these expectations also trickled

down to me

on my first day of school when most

other kids were being told

to have fun and not to pick their nose

in public

the advice i had gotten was to stay out

of people’s way

and keep quiet when i was confused

it became clear to me then that

appearances were a top priority now

we couldn’t be risked being seen as a

burden or nuisance

or survival dependent on it

and during that time in my life i felt

like i was being

managed by an invisible pr agency

my every move being monitored and

moderated

it’s been 10 years since we initially

moved here and

i’d say we assimilated with an

astounding degree of success

i learned how to speak english

maintained my spot on the student honor

roll and

invest in myself in a host of

extracurriculars

and when asked what career i’d pursue i

would answer with a response that’s

sure to bring tears of joy to every

asian mother’s face

i’m gonna be a lawyer

but behind this mirage of success was a

dark cave of anxiety

you see for every honor roll i made

there was an equal number of breakdowns

over what would happen if i didn’t make

it

every extracurricular i pursued was

pushed by the fear that

i wasn’t already doing enough and my

dream career

wasn’t really a dream i didn’t really

want to be a lawyer

but felt as if that career would earn me

the most legitimacy

in a society that seemed to only want me

here so long as i can contribute

during the past few years i’ve done

everything in my power

to live up to the immigrant archetype

someone who’s

ambitious and useful and most

importantly

on track to reduce value for this

country

i felt as if getting derailed or messing

up would be

costly as if it would mean that i was

making the immigrant community look

bad or that i would somehow be rejected

by this new world

i was often reminded of the expectation

set for me just

five minutes into my canadian journey

one that was only reinforced

the media i consumed in tv shows and

movies

immigrants played characters who are

abnormally disciplined

people didn’t question their

qualifications and diligence

so much as expected them and this only

upped the ante on my growing

feelings of inadequacy was i failing

the criteria needed to pass as an

immigrant

what happens if i can’t pay the debt

that i owe to this country

what surprised me was that this isn’t

just my story

it’s one belonging to countless

immigrant youth who come here with high

hopes

only to find out that the country had

even higher hopes for them

through talking to young and

predominantly asian immigrant students

in my community

i found that they faced a similar

pressure to succeed

in order to compensate for their

immigrant status

they were also aware of the stark

contrast between two perceptions of an

immigrant population

one that labeled them criminals and

leeches and the other

which saw them as hyper productive

workers

and then being chased to go as far away

as possible from the less favorable

perception

they gained acceptance in their

communities and neighborhoods

but it came at the cost of them feeling

like they must be

extraordinary students and extraordinary

workers

just to be treated like everyone else

what was also damaging was all the

statistics

about how much immigrants can add to the

economy

that pro-immigrant advocates tend to

boast

although it made them feel helpful and

useful

it could also be dehumanizing the

problem with justifying immigration with

statistics

is that it reduces the immigrants to

just that

mere numbers and economic tools instead

of human beings with their own ambitions

and struggles

the portrayal of immigrants is just

these worker bees who can come in and

patch up the canadian economy

is problematic because it suggests

that our utility matters more

than our personhood

moreover immigrant youth had

internalized that standard

and constantly judged themselves based

on how productive they

are and will be and when young people

already face so much pressure and

insecurities as

is it meant that immigrant youth also

had to deal with feeling like they must

be the best and do the most

just to have a place here it’s like

running in a race where

your finish line is miles ahead of

everybody else’s

as you can imagine this was often

alienating

and exhausting now the bad news here is

that there aren’t many opportunities in

our lives to make huge changes

that will immediately liberate the

immigrant community

i mean i don’t know how much your

immigrant friends would appreciate it

if you went up to them tomorrow and said

hey man i don’t see you as a bag of

loonies and toonies and

i’ll appreciate you for who you are

they might just look at you like you’re

a bit of a loony

so you can’t change society in its

entirety

but you are a part of it which means

that by changing your own views

you’re also altering the big societal

picture too

start by seeing the issue of immigration

through more lenses than just the

economic one

because you shouldn’t need to hear a

bunch of statistics before you

appreciate us

appreciate us for our cultural diversity

that we bring

the main reason why there’s probably

chinese mexican and japanese cuisine

all within a five mile radius of your

home

appreciate us for our stories and

experiences

which constantly makes living in canada

so interesting

and if nothing else appreciate us

because we’re people with hopes and

dreams who loved this country

just like you

i can’t help but wonder what would have

happened to me

that day if i didn’t see that billboard

it’s hard to know for sure but i

definitely wouldn’t have felt like

my acceptance here was conditional on

how much economic value i produced

maybe i could achieve more without being

held back by insecurities

maybe i could simply just exist here

without

every day feeling like i had to earn my

place here

and now would be a good time to ask

yourself another iteration of that same

question

from earlier how would you feel

if somebody were to value you based on

your gdp

contributions i want you to keep that

answer in mind the next time you hear

that great argument about how much money

immigrants can add

to the economy thank you