Integration is really a class/education thing?

Over the weekend, I had a lengthy discussion on immigration and integration with a friend. Friend believes that immigrants who are more likely to retain old country values (ranging from total arranged marriages (i.e. not “this is A, this is B. You guys go out on supervised ‘dates’ and then decide whether you like each other or not” type arrangements) to marrying young to not moving out until marriage, etc) are those who are not as educated. Educated people, my friend believes, are more open to their children adopting mainstream, Anglo-Saxon (or Francophone if you’re in Quebec) values because they’re more exposed. In fact, they probably have picked up some of the values themselves (even if it’s more old fashioned - my mother, for example, gave me an etiquette book when I was 12. This etiquette book is likely a traditional gift to a 10-12 year old who attends junior cotillions and will be a debutante in her late teens. I was not a debutante. They aren’t all that common in Toronto, unless you’re Filipina). Friend cited the European immigrants who came in the 1900s or even after WWII. Many of these immigrants only had two or three years of formal education compared to Anglo Canadians had at the time (probably Grade 8-ish). They worked unskilled jobs and their social lives revolved around their place of worship which spoke the language from the motherland and observed traditions of the country.

I think my friend is only partially right in this case. There are plenty of immigrants who are really well-educated, yet their credentials from abroad do not make them qualified for the jobs they did in the old country. Immigrants who are the most integrated, those who have picked up Anglo-Saxon values are those who were educated here. Why? Because they came young. When you’re 18 years old and away from home, the first thing you want to do is something that is considered taboo to your parents. This isn’t only something that foreign students do, but basically anyone who is going to school out of town! For some people, the new values stick, especially if you intend to stay in the new country. There aren’t parents to tell you that what you’re doing is not proper.  In addition, parents who are willing to send their kids abroad, especially girls, are probably already open-minded anyway.  It’s also the exposure that they may have career-wise.  I have noticed that many immigrants who are in, say, finance or law (especially of their senior management), are more culturally Anglo than even equally educated (or perhaps more so) and equally financially well-off doctors whose patients are primarily from the immigrant communities.  The doctor, in turn, is probably “more exposed”/culturally Anglo than someone who owns a small business.

Readers, do you think this is true? Is education the key to being more open-minded and perhaps even integrating? Or is it a combination of being educated in the new country and education itself?  Is it a class thing?

Help or leave them alone?

I was recently criticized at a certain blog for suggesting that a certain program can help students in inner cities end the cycle of poverty.  The blog seemed to imply that these programs do not work because we (as in the creators/founders/donors) are imposing our culture onto the kids.  WTF are they talking about?  Are we supposed to ignore everything and just watch?  Are you saying that someone like Oprah should just watch impoverished teenaged girls in South Africa waste away their lives because they can’t get a decent education?  I realize that Oprah can’t help every single kid at her school (and that her school has run into some issues), but helping some kids is better than helping NONE.   And since Oprah’s school is based on a curriculum sanctioned by the South African government, it’s not as if she’s bringing an American education to the kids.

So who is supposed to help these kids?  People who grew up like those kids, but have become successful? Religious organizations?  Are those people truly insiders? I’m not sure.  You become an outsider once you leave the area, even if you grew up in it.  Places change, and change very quickly.  Even kids who attend boarding school on a bursary are considered outsiders when they return for the holidays.

I guess what the blog is saying is that they don’t need any help from other people at all and that they can help themselves.  However, if you don’t have connections, I don’t really see how you can advance.  The reason why the Old Boys’ Network/Club (guys have been networking for centuries.  Women are only beginning to do this).  Those guys all know people who know people, and they would recommend someone to another person who might need help/services.  If you don’t ask and don’t do anything in return, you don’t get any results.

Black-Focused Schools in Toronto - Hmmm maybe I’ll start my own school!

Racialicious has a post on the black-focused school that will open in Toronto in 2009. The school is going to be sharing premises with an existing elementary school. The kids in the black-focused program will be sharing everything (including the library, lunch room, gym, etc) with the kids in the mainstream program, but will have a slightly different curriculum. The media have neglected to mention that part. They have also neglected to mention that it isn’t a segregated program, and instead, focusing on the supposed segregation and how it would be bad if the kids aren’t exposed to other cultures (wrong again). This has got me thinking: What if I started my own school that brought back good manners in today’s kids? Sort of a co-ed finishing school mixed with an Ontario curriculum? The kids will be required to learn proper table manners of all cultures, be required to write thank you notes (as an art project, the kids can even design their own social/personalized stationary!), conversation and good grooming habits will be taught too. The lady and gentleman has all but disappeared with today’s young. We are either bad girls/boys or “regular” girl/boy next door types. Being proper in an Emily Post sort of way is seen by so many as being old fashioned (my boyfriend gets upset at me whenever I mention table manners…he doesn’t think they’re necessary in this day and age. To him, as long as you don’t chew with your mouth open and that food isn’t dripping out of your mouth, you’re fine. No need to hold a fork and knife or chopsticks properly and you can eat with your left hand in some middle eastern/African restaurants!!!!! After all, you’ve washed it, right?)

Why do I want to start a program like this?  Too many well-educated, but sloppy looking kids.  And even when they’re not sloppy looking, they don’t really “act” the part.  This includes non-kids…people who are M AGE (approaching 30….some even in their EARLY 30s…basically anyone born after the mid 70s)…just because you look like you work in finance because you war that designer suit and carry that leather brief case, one can tell that you aren’t properly groomed if you have awful table manners, are constantly late, don’t write thank you notes, etc…

Of course, this kind of program will likely be widely criticized. Why? Because it’s probably a little classist and yes, to some, even too Eurocentric. After all, it’s mostly going to be focused on western manners (the media will definitely over look the fact that eastern manners are taught too) and these “western” manners are going to be European-focused rather than North American (to my understanding, most etiquette programs teach European table manners, not North American….Europeans don’t switch their fork between their left and right hands. I was told that when eating western style, the European way is ALWAYS RIGHT, while the North American way is only right in North America. I tend to eat North American style unless I’m at a very high end restaurant or formal dinner). Oh, and of course, those free-thinking parents who feel that their kids should be able to do whatever they want would not like this hypothetical program either.

New York Times article: Korean Kids Going to School Abroad with Mom, but not Dad

In the Education section of the New York Times today.

This isn’t anything new, IMHO.  Tons of Hong Kongers did this some fifteen to twenty years ago.  And the moms and kids who did this were not necessarily very, very wealthy families who sent their kids to private school.  Many were public school students.  There’s a Cantonese term for these people:  tai-hong yan (”astronauts”).  I don’t recall exactly WHY the term was coined or the meaning behind it, but perhaps it’s because the family’s separated and that Canada/or other English speaking country is “outer space” for them?  Perhaps because they’re so far away?  Like this case, it’s generally the mothers (especially stay-at-home moms) who come with the kids, rather than the fathers.  However, I didn’t see anything about passports/immigration in the South Korean story, which may very well be the ONLY DIFFERENCE.

More on religion…..

If someone of a one religion is uncomfortable with images of a different religion, what happens if a relative studies religious art? Do you disown them?

What exactly is cultural diversity?

Several months ago, a very well-known boys’ school in Toronto announced that they were going to close their boarding program in the next few years. The reason behind this was because TPTB (The Powers That Be) wanted to attract more local kids from communities who could otherwise not afford the $25,000/annum day tuition by spending more of their funds on financial aid for local kids. They wanted to make the school more “culturally diverse” from what I understand. However, this caused uproar within the school’s community. Many are saying that international students is what makes the school unique and that the school will actually be LESS DIVERSE, culturally, if they only recruited within the Toronto area. People have cited that there’s a difference between being, say, Korean from Korea and Korean from Canada. First generation immigrant culture is still diluted. It becomes diluted within a year of one’s arrival. (I’m guessing that the general public, who probably isn’t that familiar with such schools are applauding this because there still is a tendency to believe that boarding schools are “Bastions of WASPiness.” I guess most people don’t realize that it hasn’t been this way for some 25-30 years.) Anyway,
what do you think? Does an international student body make the school MORE DIVERSE? Or does the school become more diverse by recruiting talented kids from diverse communities within the city (who may otherwise not be able to pay for the school)? Are TPTB confusing cultural and class diversity?

**NOTE: I’m not sure about the exact make-up of the non-white kids at this school. I’m guessing most are of East or South Asian descent. If it’s anything like my school back in the 90s, then they’d likely skew more boarding than day (especially with East Asian kids).

Toronto Star series on hiring non-white teachers

On Monday, May 20, the Toronto Star debuted its three-part series on making faculty in Toronto’s schools more diverse. Right now, many schools are at least half non-white, yet only 20% of teachers are non-white. The University of Toronto is therefore trying to pitch to very young kids….middle school aged, hoping that one day, they’d become teachers too.

What bugs me is that the paper makes it sound like non-white kids don’t become teachers because they don’t see teachers of their own culture in the classroom. There were even fewer non-white teachers in the 1980s when I started school, and yet, teaching was one of my career choices until Grade 7. That was I wanted to be a lawyer, an on-and-off career choice (other career possiblities included writer/journalist, actress, country/folk rock singer and Broadway producer) until my second year of undergrad, when the LSATs kind of freaked me out (sure, I could have done the Australia route, but I didn’t want to be that far away from home). Wanting to be a writer/journalist continued (and continues to this very day), however. I also wanted to be a publicist (I even went to PR school for that). I was never influenced by anyone from my culture. In fact, wanting to become a writer/journalist was going AGAINST it. As was being a publicist (even though they make good money. I guess it isn’t necessarily “respectable” since you might be working with celebs. Even in the tabloid obsessed world of Hong Kongers). I do agree that kids need a boost, but do they really need role models from their own or from similiar cultures? Just because someone looks like the kids doesn’t mean that they can relate to them culturally. And yes, many people, white or non-white, automatically assume that they will. I also have a problem with sharing the same language or languages with certain students, speaking to them in that language. These students will be singled out by kids who don’t speak the language or languages as a teacher’s pet. Not good, especially in this day and age. You don’t want a kid to be bullied. Also, I’m not sure if a child will actually learn English as quickly this way, because he or she won’t have time to practice.

Part Two: Serving Students in Culturally Clustered Schools

Part Three: Where Teachers Learn Diversity (Wednesday)

1980s Heritage Language Programs Sucked

Like many CBC kids, I was forced to go to Chinese school on Saturdays when I was in elementary school.  The classes I went to were held at local elementary schools (offered by the school boards…it is celebrating its 30 anniversary in Toronto in a few weeks).  The teachers were often board-employed teachers as well, but they didn’t know how to teach us.  Perhaps they just didn’t care.  We weren’t, after all, their “real” day kids!  From what I recalled, they taught us as if we were Hong Kong kids, not Canadian children.  The teacher wrote words on the board, we copied them down.  We didn’t always get a definition.  We didn’t usually get definitions during dictations either.  I recall most of us were kind of WTF about it, since our “regular” teachers would always define words for spelling tests.

Chinese school was NOT FUN.  At recess, we were often yelled at by other faculty for speaking English, the default language for most of us.  I’ve never done French Immersion, but teachers at immersion schools generally aren’t strict, are they?  I mean, they aren’t going to yell at you if you don’t parle français (maybe someone who has gone through immersion can tell me) outside of class.  The supplementary texts they used were often straight out of Hong Kong, and therefore we couldn’t relate well to them.  Most of us didn’t live in small apartments.  We lived in suburban homes with a big back yard.  We didn’t wear school uniforms.  Oh, and we didn’t stand up when faculty entered the classroom. Most of us weren’t really able to retain much, either.  After all, class was only once a week for about three and a half hours.  I dropped out (or rather, my parents pulled me out) after Grade 2 or 3.  For those who actually stayed until the end of the program (I think it was Grade 8), many still can’t read well.  Not at a Grade 4 or 5 level…good enough to read a Chinese version of the Toronto Sun, anyway.  Most forget.

I guess what I’m saying is that these programs are (or at least were in the 80s) a waste of money.  No one really learned anything, and it made many kids hate their heritage even more.  But maybe it was just the Cantonese programs.  Honestly, it would have been more interesting if the teachers played games, told stories and used better text books.  Perhaps it would have been better if the teachers treated us like they treat their day/regular students.

High School Electives and University Majors

By the time you reach the upper grades at my alma mater, you’d find plenty of non-white students, many of them boarders from East Asia or the middle east.  At least that’s what you see when you go to school-wide assemblies.  Not so when it comes to the classroom.  At least in the 1990s when I was in school. 

When I was in school, the non-white students tend to gravitate towards sciences while the white students leaned towards the liberal arts.  Senior level physics classes tended to be majority Asian while drama, senior level history or an elective English course (such as creative writing) would be almost all white.  Business classes and biology would be somewhere in the middle.  It may be a language issue, but the students who went to my school tended to be phased out of ESL by the middle of the year they enter.  And that’s if they take ESL at all - many of the kids either had intensive tutoring or attended an English immersion school prior to coming over here.  This also doesn’t explain the number of Canadian born Asians who also preferred sciences to history.  Maybe it’s parents? 

This continued on in university.  While my university wasn’t exactly super-diverse from a Toronto or Vancouver standpoint, it wasn’t “really, really white” either.  I’d say the school was around 25% non-white when I was there, give or take.  I was a drama and history major.  The drama department probably had about 100-120 students and probably had one Asian student (sometimes two) per year.  So approximately 6 Asian students in the entire department.  All Canadian born (or at least Canadian-raised…no Asian accents in the entire department). History was a little more diverse, but that’s only because some history courses were open to non-history majors, while most drama courses beyond the 100s were restrcited.  My history seminars, open only to history majors was predominantly white.  Even courses that focused on Asian history.  Where were all the Asian students?  Where else?  Engineering, other sciences and business.  I understand that many take these majors because it’s easier to get a job after graduation, but if you really look at it, it isn’t the case at all.  Take Life Sciences for example.  Life Sciences (aka Life Sci) is what you major in if you want to be a doctor.  That’s another four years of school.  More money.  Why is it any different from majoring in, say, politics and history, then going on to law school?  Lawyers can make decet money.  And it’s one year less of school.  And if you’ve been educated in English your entire life, you shouldn’t have a problem with law school, unless you are LSAT-phobic.  In any case, you can be MCAT-phobic too.

So why do you think this is?  Parental influence?  I have a cousin who was basically “forced” into majoring a specific subject.  She’s now working in that field, but I’m not sure if she’s 100% happy or just pretending to.  So her parents can be happy.  My parents didn’t try to force me into anything, although I think they would have liked it had I majored in business.  I did get a certificate in public relations at a community college later on, but that’s not the same thing as FINANCE, which is probably what my parents would have preferred.

 

***NOTE: I don’t think a more “diverse” school (such as the University of Toronto) would have changed much.  English and Classical Studies majors would likely still be predominantly white.***  

Class and the Hong Kong Canuck - Affected by British Colonialism?

Many Hong Kong Canadians don’t really think about race unless something happens within their own communities, like the SARS issue in 2003. Perhaps it has to do with their comfy, middle class lifestyle. So today’s Racialicious post on Class and Race had me wondering. Would Chinese Canadians from Hong Kong feel the same had the British never arrived? Would they be as successful? So in other words, are they living off the “benefits” of colonialsim? Without the Opium Wars in the 1840s and eventual takeover of Hong Kong proper, Kowloon and the “new territories”, would Hong Kong just be another hick town (as it was back in the day)? I mean, one of the reasons why Hong Kong eventually became so successful was because of communism in China. It was the port between China and the west. In order to get to China, you had to go through Hong Kong. Until recently, if you wanted to get things done cheaply, you had it made in Hong Kong. Had Hong Kong not been a British colony, it would have been absorbed in by the communist government. This means that there’d be no middle man. Hong Kong also received lots of refugees from Shanghai after WWII and many of them were businesspeople. In addition, people in Hong Kong would probably not be all that educated as the educated would likely be from Beijing and Shanghai.

Then there’s immigration. Without the British, Hong Kongers (in general, anyway) who come to Canada, if they can afford to at all, would not be moving into a cushy suburban house so soon after landing. Markham, Ontario and Richmond, British Columbia would probably be very white. This means no Pacific Mall. No yummy Chinese food. Double :-(. Upper middle class Hong Kong Canadians sending their kids to old line prep schools like Upper Canada College or Havergal? Highly unlikely that many would. They wouldn’t be able to afford it, and these schools’ traditions, which are linked to the great old schools of Britain would be completely foreign to them. Most minorities at these schools, at least when I went, were from colonies or former colonies. This is probably why most Hong Kong Canadians are perfectly open to joining and/or participating in organizations and events that would have excluded them years ago. Hong Kong Canadians are, for some reason, more likely to forgive and forget (which is why I’ve had some issues with my boyfriend, who is Jewish).  Hong Kong Canadians also seem to prefer “higher class” things that are seen as “white” by other non-white communities, such as western classical music.  Most Hong Kongers and Hong Kong Canadians take piano and/or violin.  And tennis (so they can play at that country club).  Even guys.  Doing this doesn’t make you white-washed.  Playing electric guitar in a garage band and playing hockey, however, does.  To many HK Canadians, in order to be successful, one must be “accomplished” in that Jane Austeneque (albiet slightly updated) kind of way.

Of course, hindsight is 20/20, and you never know. What’s done is done, and who knows what could have happened without the Opium Wars? Maybe China would be like Japan rather than a communist country and Hong Kong would still be successful as a “snowbird” destination for seniors in Beijing and Shanghai…flying there to escape the colder winters.