A ‘Top’ Immigrant

Hello and welcome!

I would like to share with you an interesting article which recently caught my attention. It was posted on Market Watch [29 May last, linked on The Wall Street Journal online], entitled ‘Canada Has Spoken: Top 25 Immigrants of 2012’. In the ensuing piece, the journalist describes the award presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine and sponsored by rbc, to people whom they consider to be Canada’s ‘top’ 25 immigrants of 2012. This honour was bestowed in recognition of “the untold and inspiring stories and achievements of newcomers to Canada”.

A review of the list of honourees indicates that all have indeed seemingly accomplished great goals. Among the listed is an “avid” volunteer; a university professor; a realtor; a lawyer; a Member of Parliament; an architect and a physician, just to mention a few. What all of them have in common is that each one is deemed to have made great personal strides, as well as significant contributions to his/her community and to society at large.

Certainly, these immigrants ought to be acknowledged for their shining accomplishments! For starters and at a very elementary level, it isn’t exactly a stroll-in-the-park to pick yourself up from your familiar native surroundings and relocate to a new, foreign setting and environment, often to a destination which is unknown, untested and unsure. Stepping outside-of and beyond your regular comfort zone, a zone which we all normally spend a lifetime building-up and perfecting, can be a very challenging and daunting undertaking!

Furthermore, many immigrants come to this country speaking neither English nor French, with few social and/or financial resources to have their back. It is only with an incredible amount of fortitude, courage and determination, usually with the implicit hope of securing a better future primarily for their children, that they work tirelessly towards forging a new life here in Canada.

Thus, if these 25 immigrants have achieved any level of success on the accepted ‘scales’ of success, then they truly ought to be acknowledged and commended for having advanced so far in their newly-adopted country.

I must tell you, that throughout my life, I have met and befriended many many immigrants. Indeed, our own illustrious city of Montreal is very multi-ethnic. Growing-up, the older generation, relatives, their friends and acquaintances, my teachers at school, the counter-people at the bakery and vegetable store and all other community stores — was there anyone who wasn’t a newcomer to Canada?!

As an aside: This was so much the case, that I recall a light-bulb moment which I had as a teenager, at a time when my small world revolved mainly around the Jewish-immigrant population which I knew in Montreal and New York.

On one occasion, I travelled to a relative’s house somewhere in the United States. On the Sabbath, we went to a synagogue for the morning services. At the front of the chapel, I saw an elderly Hasidic rabbi sitting, with a long flowing white beard. Okay, so far very nice but respectfully, as a Montrealer I was very accustomed to seeing Hasidic rabbis with long flowing beards, so there was seemingly nothing out of the ordinary or unusual for me.

However, when he started speaking to give his sermon, that’s when I nearly fell off my seat! The rabbi addressed the congregants in impeccable non-accented English! Here before me was a true bona fide American-born boy, something which I had heretofore never witnessed! Frankly, I was too flustered and confused to be able concentrate on what he was saying. It was way too incredulous to me and I was really trying to assimilate this seemingly contradictory and unintelligible scenario. An American-born Hasidic rabbi?? With a long white flowing beard?? And he speaks English so incredibly perfectly and fluently, with not the slightest trace of any European accent?? Couldn’t be!

Back to what I was discussing, also in my practice as an immigration lawyer, have I met many immigrants and prospective immigrants. People who have yearned to immigrate to our shores for whatever the reason — to escape an oppressive regime; to give their children a better life than would have been possible in their country of origin or simply because they have married a Canadian and look forward to establishing a new life on a new soil.

And herein lies my bone of contention: Sorry and I don’t mean to rain on the ‘top 25’s’ parade, but to me the question screams: how does one actually define ‘success’? What exactly does it mean to be a top immigrant’? What is the basis for the expressed admiration for these who have allegedly excelled so? Who makes this determination and by which legitimate standards are these triumphs measured?

I ask these questions, because frankly, I believe that almost all of the immigrants whom I have met and whom I have befriended over the years, they should be considered as ‘top’ (and even more so), though perhaps using a different measuring stick. They all deserve to be credited for the nothing-less-than astonishing progress and stellar achievements which they have accomplished in Canada.

We all know that we each have a limited amount of time each day to do all of our affairs. We may plan the day in advance in our minds the night before or we may set it down to paper in a planner. Whichever, fact is that no matter how you choose to slice it, participating in any particular activity, whether by choice or not, whether cheerfully or not, will by force, take away potential time from a different activity. Respectfully, this is just a plain simple fact of life. One cannot be involved in any two activities at any one given time, or to paraphrase a well-known Yiddish expression: 'you can't dance at two weddings at the same time'! There is only so much one can do in any 24-hour period. Being engrossed in one action automatically comes at the expense of a different one. Something just has to give.

So-called ‘successful’ people and/or businesses are not born, but rather (self-) created. And not created in a vacuum, but in the laboratory of real-life. The individuals behind these successes often devote a very great deal of hard work and sweat to realize their sought-after dreams and goals. Long hours of work; toiling late into the night; rarely if ever taking days-off and/or vacation days; a heavy and constant work schedule; immense pressure and/or stress; absence from family and friends; extended periods of diminished financial remunerations; ignoring one’s physical, mental and spiritual health — these are but a few of the serious and heavy sacrifices which may result from striving to achieve any anticipated and worthy goal.

Thus, (and please, 100% not to cast any kind of aspersions of any sort on the ‘top’ 25 and other such immigrants, but) the entrepreneur who has gained financial and social status through her relentless devotion to her work, but was so absorbed and driven that she ignored her health and now has serious, critical health issues — is she considered a ‘success’? A volunteer who constantly thinks of others and so willingly comes to the aid of needy persons, while his own family sorely pines for some quality and yes, quantity time with him  — is he a ‘success’? Or the business-person / professional who thinks nothing of staying late at work on a daily basis, while ignoring his own physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs — is he/she worthy of being called a ‘success’?

The immigrants with whom I am familiar, by and large, have worked vigorously to strike a delicate balance between all the powerful and competing ‘pulls’ of their hectic lives. The post-WWll generation who was cast ashore onto Canada, was composed mostly of financially-impoverished refugees. When they landed here in Montreal, not only did they encounter abject financial poverty, they also faced a lack of proper resources to assist them with their cultural and communal needs.  And they set themselves into action, taking on painstaking hard work.

We living today in our fat-cat society may take for granted the luxurious lifestyle which we have. Most of us have advantage of incredibly developed and sophisticated infrastructures, which service our needs in our daily lives. By and large, this has also been a period of great prosperity for us all.  Yet, much of this is not the progeny of our own attempts and struggles, but rather has come about only through the incredible foresight and labour of our generous predecessors.

In addition and more importantly, that same generation also made sure to invest even greater amounts of energy into the pursuit of building and providing secure families and homes and communities for us all to live in. They ensured us with spiritual, emotional and physical stability as best as they could, especially after the adversities which they had endured. Our communities have matured and have been strengthened and consolidated in great part to their selfless exertions.

So this is the stuff of mundane, ho-hum, boring, uneventful, unglamorous, everyday immigrant life. No spotlights and runways, no climbing Mt Everest, no discovery of a cure for any ravaging disease or illness, no multi-lingual, multi-billion, multi-national corporations and definitely nobody handing out any trophies, flowers or awards. Just plain ol’ steady and secure meat-and-potatoes stuff. But in full honesty, any less deserving of credit and our immense and unwavering gratitude? I humbly submit not.

The previous generation that went about preparing ‘normal’ lives for us, they are the true ‘top’ immigrants! They are the ones who deserve the greatest accolades, acknowledgement and recognition. Perhaps the ‘top’ 25 do too, but certainly the thousands and thousands of immigrants who, time over and over, in city after city and country after country, have quietly and unassumingly gone about their daily grind and lives, paving a more hopeful and glorious path for their descendants, in order to endow them with the best possibilities ever.

Okay, so you tell me now please, who are the true and real ‘top’ heroes here??

Thanks for listening.