Multiculturalism and Homogeneity
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Muhammedi's chapter regarding Canadian immigration policies closely examines Prime Ministers Pearson and Pierre Trudeau. Both of them had a vision for these immigrants to positively impact the Canadian workforce in terms of economic and social capital. Pearson said, "immigration policy must be administered in the interests of the country and of the immigrants themselves in a context that takes into account the entire position of employment, training, and placement in Canada." While this seems like a considerable step forward in welcoming immigrants, there is still a sense of what was previously discussed as the "right kind of people," which in Canada's case extended beyond race and into economic concerns. These policies, while very progressive objectively, still had a bias towards those citizens who would fit in and improve Canada's identity, which was something that had yet to be concretely identified. The Order-in-Council PC, or the point system, was introduced in 1967 and introduced the evaluation of incoming immigrants in a "shift from a racialized and discriminatory approach." As aforementioned, despite its surface-level merits, it inherently favoured a particular class and nationality. While the requirements were set in age, education, training, skills, and language, these benefited people from economically developed countries. This is an interesting representation of the phenomenon where people tend to think that just because racism or racist policies do not occur explicitly anymore, they do not exist; however, they are quite often systemic barriers to entry for those who are not from a particular culture.
Regarding the case of the Ugandan Asians, I found it interesting that the Aga Khan was a close friend of Pierre Trudeau and played a considerable role in emphasizing the urgency of the Ismaili Ugandan Asians and Canada providing refuge for them. Conveniently, "the report aligned with the government's emphasis on adaptability to the Canadian labor market and the preference for highly skilled migrants under the points system." This allowed Trudeau to implement a policy that made Canada look good in a humanitarian manner while also being motivated by self-interest and benefiting the Canadian economy, presenting an uncommon "win-win" situation.
Moving on to Maghbouleh's reading, as discussed in my previous post, the United States had a significant issue regarding race classification and the fluctuation of races depending on the social and cultural context. Iranians' classification shifted between white and non-white depending on what whiteness favoured at that time. Similar to the Syrians, this typically meant that while they may be considered white on the census, they would still face negative experiences and racialization in their day-to-day lives. It is also interesting how such unfortunate experiences can be reminisced about so heartily, as at the beginning of the chapter, with the story of Kambiz and Nora. This is also representative of my experience growing up in Saskatchewan; I faced a considerable amount of racism. However, given that most of that happened during my childhood, I was less aware of it, so it was not something that I paid direct attention to, or that limited me, at least as far as 9-year-old Shouzab could tell.
Building on my previous post, I wanted to add to my discussion regarding the "mass browning" of Iranians following 9/11, how events that took place on the other side of the world significantly affected sentiment towards Iranians in America and how they are now considered "forever foreigners," as the hate towards them was so significant that "no degree of citizenship, legal whiteness, occupational and educational success, assimilatory efforts, or self-identification as "American" render middle easterners fully white in day to day life." This is a very impactful quote as it highlights the isolation of this group from mainstream acceptance, which was further amplified by Western media, painting them as villains in a way that was not recoverable and continues to impact both Iranians as well as anyone who could be mistaken for Iranian.
Finally, when reading Narayanan's article, I again related to the experience of navigating a very homogeneous community. While the article focuses on the word "tamoul" as a racial slur, it broadly highlights the misunderstandings that can promote this theme of thinking that racism is over with just because the extremely explicit practices may not be in use. However, subconscious things like children at school knowing and using a racial slur without having any knowledge of its historical background or the effect it may have on someone who is not the "right kind of person" can continue to perpetuate this institutionalized racism and when it exists in a community that is so homogeneous, this built-in racism flourishes without being checked. Adding on to the article, in my experience with these homogeneous communities, it is even more difficult to navigate given that they do not differentiate between the other races, lumping them all together and insulting anyone who is not like them with every insult that they know.