Day 21: Culture Blending and Immigration
(I give up on titles for tonight)
You know when you find those friends that you just click with and love to be around? Yeah? Well that for me right now is Israel and Carly. I love those two. Israel comes up with all the adventures and Carly is the energy that drives us out of the house and I'm... what am I? I guess I'm probably the one who jumps on board! Because they are exactly what I need. I LOVE to talk and the inability to talk to most of the Indian people around me means I need friends like them so we can just bounce ideas and thoughts and impressions off each other. I spend the afternoon with them visiting a few schools here in Vizag. They are both doing research for this developmental education organization called KVM. Israel is one of the founders and Carly recently joined their team. So they are going from school to school to learn about the education system in this area and to talk to students and administrators about the asset of speaking English in India (if you want to learn more about them then you can check them out here). That part of the day was interesting... I tend not to LOVE going to schools because it feels really strange that kids here treat us like celebrities... it just doesn't feel right!
But to make everything better we went to get pizza at Pizza Hut :) And OH it was good. Its nice to have something that reminds you of home. Of course right after eating it I was reminded that pizza is one of those things that my body hates. haha It reminded me not to miss fast food too much.
I've been thinking of culture blending lately. Believe me-- as an anthropologist I've felt like I'm rebelling against some of my ideals by even thinking about it. Usually I would argue that culture is worth preserving over almost anything. But maybe my opinions are changing a little bit? Ok, let me explain myself really quick. Today one of my informants mentioned that her children live in America (in Boston) and they participate in both a community of Indian-American friends and their every day community of American citizens. When I asked her if she thought that her children's Indian culture was being impacted by living in a foreign country she said that of course it was but that they were taking both Indian and American culture and combining the two. She seemed to be saying that she was glad they could be in America so that they could combine the best pieces of two great cultures.
Revolutionary right? Well I think so. I think heritage is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And I think that there are few things as emotionally distressing as losing some of that culture and knowing that it was your own fault. But maybe the lesson we have to learn, the lesson America, and Canada, and the UK (and every other country that has such diverse populations) has to learn is that culture is not something neat and pretty that can be labelled and packaged. Sometimes you have to do things like move to a new country... and sometimes you have to assimilate to some degree into that culture to stay sane. But that doesn't mean there is a cap on the amount of culture you can keep inside of you. And I don't think you can only have one 'culture'... make your own! Being Indian-American is a culture in itself... and it combines aspects of two great cultures!
One day I will work in immigration... I want to do something that helps immigrants feel like they are just as welcome in my country as anyone else. I suppose there has to be a cap on the amount of people the government allows in every year. But once they are in the country shouldn't they be treated like they are just as welcome as anyone else? Who are we to selfishly say: this is MY place! How long have our families been here? I really could write a lot about this but i'll save that for another day. Mostly I just want people to stay that though we have many BIG differences between cultures we have one HUGE similarity--we all want to improve our lives and the lives of our children. So are you planning on being the one who takes that away from someone? I'm definitely not.
So I think we should each look for as much of our culture as possible, even if we have to blend a few things together in a new way :) Canadian and American culture and ethnicity might not be neat and tidy but I think simplicity in culture is always overrated.
Stéf
You know when you find those friends that you just click with and love to be around? Yeah? Well that for me right now is Israel and Carly. I love those two. Israel comes up with all the adventures and Carly is the energy that drives us out of the house and I'm... what am I? I guess I'm probably the one who jumps on board! Because they are exactly what I need. I LOVE to talk and the inability to talk to most of the Indian people around me means I need friends like them so we can just bounce ideas and thoughts and impressions off each other. I spend the afternoon with them visiting a few schools here in Vizag. They are both doing research for this developmental education organization called KVM. Israel is one of the founders and Carly recently joined their team. So they are going from school to school to learn about the education system in this area and to talk to students and administrators about the asset of speaking English in India (if you want to learn more about them then you can check them out here). That part of the day was interesting... I tend not to LOVE going to schools because it feels really strange that kids here treat us like celebrities... it just doesn't feel right!
But to make everything better we went to get pizza at Pizza Hut :) And OH it was good. Its nice to have something that reminds you of home. Of course right after eating it I was reminded that pizza is one of those things that my body hates. haha It reminded me not to miss fast food too much.
I've been thinking of culture blending lately. Believe me-- as an anthropologist I've felt like I'm rebelling against some of my ideals by even thinking about it. Usually I would argue that culture is worth preserving over almost anything. But maybe my opinions are changing a little bit? Ok, let me explain myself really quick. Today one of my informants mentioned that her children live in America (in Boston) and they participate in both a community of Indian-American friends and their every day community of American citizens. When I asked her if she thought that her children's Indian culture was being impacted by living in a foreign country she said that of course it was but that they were taking both Indian and American culture and combining the two. She seemed to be saying that she was glad they could be in America so that they could combine the best pieces of two great cultures.
Revolutionary right? Well I think so. I think heritage is a beautiful, beautiful thing. And I think that there are few things as emotionally distressing as losing some of that culture and knowing that it was your own fault. But maybe the lesson we have to learn, the lesson America, and Canada, and the UK (and every other country that has such diverse populations) has to learn is that culture is not something neat and pretty that can be labelled and packaged. Sometimes you have to do things like move to a new country... and sometimes you have to assimilate to some degree into that culture to stay sane. But that doesn't mean there is a cap on the amount of culture you can keep inside of you. And I don't think you can only have one 'culture'... make your own! Being Indian-American is a culture in itself... and it combines aspects of two great cultures!
One day I will work in immigration... I want to do something that helps immigrants feel like they are just as welcome in my country as anyone else. I suppose there has to be a cap on the amount of people the government allows in every year. But once they are in the country shouldn't they be treated like they are just as welcome as anyone else? Who are we to selfishly say: this is MY place! How long have our families been here? I really could write a lot about this but i'll save that for another day. Mostly I just want people to stay that though we have many BIG differences between cultures we have one HUGE similarity--we all want to improve our lives and the lives of our children. So are you planning on being the one who takes that away from someone? I'm definitely not.
So I think we should each look for as much of our culture as possible, even if we have to blend a few things together in a new way :) Canadian and American culture and ethnicity might not be neat and tidy but I think simplicity in culture is always overrated.
Stéf
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