Well, clearly some peoples ideas of integration may go to far but if a certain segment of immigrants has trouble integrating we must ask what is the problem at what should we do.
I think I offered the answer...create an atmosphere in which people would like to integrate in.
Not everyone who comes to Canada is going to be able to integrate...or be willing to let go. Some people don't come to Canada because they necessarily want to come to Canada, some come because if they don't, they will most likely be killed in their home country. They love their culture, they love their home...but they cannot go back. But, really, I believe that most who come to Canada really do try, in one way or another, to belong. But at the same time, I think it is a difficult balancing act...attempting to preserve ones own roots, while adapting to a new society...that is a challenge. I'm concerned because I will soon be moving to Turkey. How will I make out? I do not know the language. I do not have a grasp of the culture. I will be an outsider in a foreign land. No matter how hard I try, I have a suspicion that people will STILL look at me as an outsider and be saying much what you folks are saying...that I am not integrating. Well...it takes time...it takes support...it takes money sometimes...education doesn't come cheap! So, I hope that people have patience with me, and at least try to understand. And, even though I am moving there, I still see myself as a Canadian...which I don't see anything wrong with. I am not about to abandon who I am...who I have been. But, I wish to combine who I have been with who I will be while I am there...combine what I already know with what I hope to know in the future...in the strange, new, exotic land that I will be finding myself in.
I think as well, alot of people assume alot of things. I think of some who I have met that have come from war torn countries...and it has scarred them. It has spawned mental illness, paranoia, fear, difficulties adapting socially. The next time you see someone and you say "Hey, they aren't integrating the way I want them to!", consider what their past may have been, and the challenges they may face in coming into a new society...after a horror filled passed.
And the last point I will make is this. A friend of my wife and I's...mine..whatever...she is from pakistan. She is a wonderful person. When she first moved to Edmonton, she knew little english. She had only been here a few weeks when she was at a bus stop and a young man started being a real dick to her because she did not speak english and was wearing a headscarf. He didn't even bother to find out anything...he just assumed...or was a racist...or whatever. She has learned english, and speaks it well, she is proud to be part of Canada, she tries to take in as many events as possible to feel as though she belongs. She was so happy to be invited to our wedding because it would be the first time she would be part of a Canadian wedding...and that was very exciting to her. If she was given a chance by the first dick, she would have proven that she is a wonderful, openminded person who has tried very hard to fit in...but...he didn't. How many others in here are doing the same thing to people they see on the streets...or their neighbours...or whomever?