Are you a queer immigrant?

Imagine being queer in today’s society. I bet you feel like a minority. Now imagine being queer and an immigrant in today’s society. Now how do you feel? Personally If I were a queer immigrant I would feel very lost in Canadian culture. I would like to write this blog from the perspective of a queer immigrant.

When I look around me at the society we live in I see that people tend to place people like me in groups such as the “gay” group or the “immigrant” group. I feel isolated and exploited by the world around me.  I feel as though if I were to get out there and try to make a decent living for myself I would get shot down a lot because of where I am from, what I believe in and how I feel towards the same sex. Business owners tell us that they are fair when they are hiring but sometimes it doesn’t make sense as to why I didn’t get the job over someone else. I’ve worked hard. I’ve made it to Canada haven’t I? I deserve equal chance and equality. When I came to Canada I looked into some groups I could join that dealt with people like myself. I found this group called quIR. This is a group that helps people like me find a good place to live, while trying to see to it that I am treated fairly and given a decent health care and education while receiving fair wages. Groups like these are good. They make equality a reality for us. Don’t get me wrong, many queer immigrants do get good jobs and are treated fairly but then there are the unfortunate ones such as myself. People can’t assume that everything is fine. I deserve more than what I am getting.

I was reading articles about queer immigrant rights and one article caught my attention. To me this doesn’t seem fair at all. The article was talking about how a heterosexual citizen of the US (I know it’s for the US but I found it interesting) can sponsor a spouse to immigrate but a queer US citizen can’t.  Why can’t a queer person bring their lover home to them while a heterosexual can? Is it because of the medical attention someone like me may need? Is it fear of a changing society?

There needs to be more equality with our society. Life is Life, How you choose to live it may not be how I choose to live it. But I do know that it is wrong to treat a person like me differently than a non queer non-immigrant living in Canada.

(Keep in mind I tried to write this from a queer immigrant’s perspective. I am not queer nor am I and immigrant)

I also found this PDF with some good sites for articles on queer immigrants if anyone is interested: http://q4ej.org/wp-content/uploads/queer-immigration-reading-list.pdf

http://www.idealist.org/en/org/150520-102

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/ARTICLE.php?AID=15470

-Brittany Litke

New Life

            As Annamarie Jagose said, "once the term 'queer' was, at best, slang for homosexual, at worst, a term of homophobic abuse". In the recent years the word queer is used by many people and has multiple different meanings. Eldeman states "queer focuses on mismatches between sex, gender and desire".  People have grown to the idea of the 'queer', while others stick with the conservative’s traditional view. Countries and some states have even legalized marriage, while others fight the diversity and stick with the traditional heterosexual marriage.

With such an ongoing battle about what is right and what is wrong, the confusion of the undecided person is clearly recognized. Tradition is defined as, "the passing down of elements of a culture from generation to generation". Many countries have traditions that have been followed for decades and are never expected to be changed. As a person decides whether or not he or she is 'queer' it puts a lot of stress on them. One stressor is the question of what people, like their mother, father, siblings or grandparents might think about them. They're defying society within that whole country, even going against the belief systems that grandparents might have put in place and believed in for many decades. Another stressor may be the fact that they might be punished or even banished from their families for having these feelings that are thought of as wrong.

Traditionally, as an immigrant, coming to a new country and adapting to the complex cultures and ideas that are new to me is difficult. People in this country expect me to "walk the walk and talk the talk". They expect me to know the way of society, basically that I should be the way that they expect me to be. Canada is a multicultural country, therefore, I blended in well with the others that were of my culture. "Canada’s policy of multiculturalism makes it a favourite destination for immigrants. They can keep their pride in their ancestry while simultaneously having a sense of belonging to Canada." With the clothes that I chose to wear I could fit in with anyone, although I wasn't sure who I wanted to fit in with I was always undecided on the way I felt about the other gender. The country I had come from had strict laws about what woman had to wear and who they had to marry and no one challenged the rules.  It was as if when I was born there was already a mould that I was made into. I soon realized that I had the opportunity to be my own person. Therefore, I could see my traditional views vanishing before my eyes. New cultural experiences came before me; I could try anything I wanted.

The new friends I met at school were into way different things then I was. They would skip the first period after lunch to smoke up before gym class and the parties that they through was much different than my family’s gatherings. Soon I found myself changing and straying away from the tranditional way of life that I once believed in. Eventually, I noticed myself really enjoying my closest lady friends company. It felt right even though I was rebelling against what my parents believed about same sex relationships. I knew my behaviour was different towards women then it was towards men, yet somehow, this country that I now live in allows me to hold her hand through the hallway at school and not be looked down upon or even worse.

The ever changing way of life allows new ideas and ways of life to prosper and flourish. As an immigrant, they are exposed to new experiences and usually stripped, not completely, of the old ways of life. New concepts, such as the 'queer', aren't always present in some countries. Immigrants are expected to accept the challenges of being "new" to the country and if they aren't already decided on which gender they prefer it's a whole new world to them. Immigrants that live in Canada are blessed with privillage of living in a multicultural country. In Canada discrimination is declining because most of the population comes from different backgrounds and cultures. Therefore, immigrants will be exposed to many new ideas, beliefs, customs, and practises in Canada.

- Samantha

References

Annamarie Jagose. (1991). Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities, differences: a Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. 3, 2. pp.iii-xviii

           Eldeman, Lee. (1995). Queer Thory: Unstating Desire, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies. 2, 4. pp. 343-6

           Canada's Multicultural Policies. (2010). Benefits of Multiculturalism. Retrieved from http://www.edukits.ca/multiculturalism/student/diversity_multiculturalism_e.html

My way is the Right way

      Neo-conservatism is the belief that develops from wanting to conserve already existing ideas. Neo-conservatism believes that immigrants and refugees that come will cause problems in society. The tradition and stability the conservatives believe in will change, since the refugees come with little or no money, they will then need social assistance. Mullaly states that, “conservatives prefer to maintain traditional institutions and processes.” Therefore, neo-conservatism is enforcing the belief systems of the conservatives. Neo-conservative solutions to the current crises are to, “attack government deficits by cutting social spending, to rely on the private sector to restore economic growth, to eliminate or reduce the power of inions, to deregulate industry, and to limit the controls on multinational corporations” (Riches, 1986). Neo-conservative believes in having no change and only the deserving poor should receive help from the government.
       The average neo-conservative appears to not be concerned about the effects on the immigration policy. Neo-conservatives view the world with the cultural traditions and values that they believe should be put into place with no exceptions. Immigrants that arrive, in the eye of the neo-conservatives, need to participate and belong to the country like everyone else. I believe that in the eyes of a neo-conservative, immigrants and refugees will only cause problems. The government will be needed for assistance when the immigrants and refugees come without job skills and aren’t able to find a proper job. For example, let’s say Jimmy is a refugee coming from the Pakistan to Canada. Jimmy is leaving Pakistan because he feels threatened. Wikipedia states, “a refugee is a person who has a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country". Since Jimmy had to flee the country, he wasn’t able to bring most of his belongings with him. While he was living in Pakistan he was doing the odd repair job for anyone that would hire him. With this information we will conclude that he doesn’t carry much money with him. What is Jimmy suppose to do when he arrives in Canada and has little to no money, be homeless?
      Of course Jimmy will be off to a rough start, but Canada allows him to apply for social assistance. I believe that this is what the neo-conservative glares down upon; this refugee doesn’t follow any traditional way of living. He’s coming alone, he’s not married, no children and no job. He can’t take care of himself, therefore government assistance will be asked for. In my opinion, if we lived in a neo-conservative only world there would be no new changes to our world. Each one of us would be married a partner of the opposite sex, have a nuclear family, and run our own private business.

- Samantha

References

      Mulally, B. (2007). The new structural social work. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Hi

We would like to introduce our group blog that we just created. We hope that besides the academic purpose of this blog, we can share information about current issues of Canadian Social Welfare Policies.


Teamwork