When Does an Immigrant Become a Canadian?

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at what distinguishes an immigrant from a Canadian, and argues that this occurs, over time. The paper refers to several works to indicate educated notions of Canadian society as excluding or racist, in contrast with testimony from everyday immigrant Canadians. Becoming Canadian seems largely a process of osmosis, so that a person realizes they no longer think like persons where they came from, or otherwise are changed by the experience of living in Canada. Testimony provided by immigrants, in every case, contradicts what educated immigrant theorists have argued about Canadian society.

From the Paper:

"This paper owes to conversation with immigrants to Canada on the topic of when they knew they had become Canadians. Several people said they had become Canadian without realizing it, till an experience of their old culture or country made them see that they were different, that they thought differently and that their minds referred to Canada as home. Much academic literature refers marginalization, or adaptation versus assimilation, as in Eva Karpinski's collection of short stories, poems and essays on what it means to be Canadian that stresses how authors feel they do not belong or are opposed, somehow, in Canada."

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