Brit descendants have always complained about immigration, it's in their blood. The earliest cases are when the Celts invaded the Picts some time around 100BC, then came the Belgic tribes, the Romans, the Pelagians, the Saxons, the Norwegians in their viking longboats, the Normans, and on and on it goes without end.
Even in their colonies there continues to rage ire against each latest wave of immigrants: Against the Scots when they arrived, then the French, the Irish, then the Germans, the Jews through to the Italians, right through to the present day when an immigrant could come from any place in the world and be greeted by descendants of earlier immigrants bitching about them.
Each time a new wave of immigration has begun there's been gnashing of teeth about how the latest wave was destroying everything, and each time the sum of the people changed, grew, got stronger. It's been happening in Canada since BEFORE there was a Canada, but each generation repeats the same old gripes. "So and so are ruining things. They should go back where they came from..." Yawn.
Meanwhile there's no evidence any of the original Britons, the Picts remain, except that each wave of British immigrant continues to bitch about the ones that follow them. It's odd that a culture entirely built on integration of other cultures has always complained about it. It's hilarious when people who often have a rather weak command of English themselves (and its their only language) complain that the latest wave of immigrants can't speak it as a second, third or fourth language. It's even funnier that English is a language almost entirely based on words stolen from other cultures.
My neighbourhood is more than 50% Eastern European, a 10 minute drive in any direction takes me into a completely different culture, Portuguese, Iranian, West Indian, East Indian, Chinese, even French. I don't even need to board a plane to taste the world. That's amazing to me!
And while I love Paris, if you want something other than french food you're got slim pickings. It's a world capital and an international city but Halifax has a better selection of international fare than Paris does.
So I'm eager to see what the future brings. Eager to see what the next wave of immigrants will be? Eager to learn how their addition will further enrich the sum that is Canada?
The future of my nation is an undiscovered country, full of ever changing diversity in a culture whose only saving grace is that its constantly changing. And I love that, it's exciting! But its also going to be funny to listen to the descendants of the most current immigrants gripe about the next wave that arrives.
At least then we'll know they're one of us.
