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