Showing posts with label immigrants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label immigrants. Show all posts

May 22 - Canadian Immigrants Day

Posted on May 22, 2020

Today is supposed to be about celebrating people who immigrated to the United States from Canada.


I read that the Canadian/U.S. border (including the Alaskan border) is the longest in the world that is not patrolled by military forces. Even though Canada is the second largest nation in the world (after Russia), it's # 39 in population. Actually, most of the nation is very sparsely populated, with an average of 10 people per square mile (4  people per square kilometer).


Compare that to population density numbers for a few other nations:

  • Singapore - 20,445 people / square mile
  • Bangladesh - 3,033 people / square mile
  • United Kingdom - 725 people / square mile
  • China - 377 people / square mile
  • United States - 87 people / square mile
  • Canada - 10 people / square mile
  • Mongolia - 5 people / square mile

WHAT a huge difference, huh?

The thing is that most of the people who live in Canada live within a few hundred miles of the U.S. No wonder more Canadians immigrate to the U.S. than to any other nation - Canadians are quite likely to have at least some friends or family who live in the U.S., and they might get an opportunity to work in the U.S.

I live in the United States and would love to immigrate to Canada if it were easy to do so. I know a lot of Americans who feel the same way - too many of us, as a matter of fact! 

Here are a few of my favorite Canadian immigrants:

Will Arnett - actor, comedian, voice artist, and host of LEGO Masters


Samantha Bee - actor, comedian, host of Full Frontal



Nathan Fillion - actor, famous for Firefly, Castle, and The Rookie


Sandra Oh - actor from TV and movies


singers Joni Mitchell and Alanis Morissette 



There are SO MANY others, too many to list! 




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November 22 - Happy Birthday, Jamie Lee Curtis

Posted on November 22, 2018


Today's famous birthday is famous because of her acting.

Actually, she was pretty famous even as a kid - even as a baby! - because her parents were both movie stars! 

Her father was Tony Curtis, and her mother was Janet Leigh.




After her teen years of feeling insecure about who she really was, and just wanting to seem normal and like everyone else, at age 20 Curtis became a "Scream Queen" by starring in the movie Halloween. She ended up making a bunch of other horror movies (and four sequels of Halloween) - but she also appeared in loads of other movies, many huge hits, and on TV shows.

But I want to write about her other career: Jamie Lee Curtis is an author of at least 13 books for kids! (She also writes a blog.) All of these books were illustrated by Laura Cornell.

She has written all sorts of books for kids. Big Words for Little People has such great lines as:

I know some Big Words.I'll teach them to you. Although you are small,you can use Big Words too.
And: 
Of you need some timeTo just be alone,For doing weird dancing,To sit still as stone.
If someone is thereAnd you need to pee,Then say loud and clear, "Hey, I need PRIVACY!"
One of her top-selling books was Today I Feel Silly: And Other Moods That Make My Day. 



Her latest book is Me, My Selfie, and I: A Cautionary Tale.







One book I want to highlight is This Is Me: A Story of Who We Are and Where We Came From. In the story, a teacher tells her class about her grandmother coming to the U.S., back when she was a child. She was only allowed to bring one small suitcase. The teacher asked the kids what THEY would pack. What, she asked, says "This is me!"

Reading and discussing stories like this can help kids develop empathy for immigrants and can start the kids wondering about their own family's journeying and relocations....their own family's immigration story!

Check out some of Jamie Lee Curtis's words of wisdom:


Born on this date in 1958, Jamie Lee Curtis
is younger than I am. I am so grateful that she
spoke up about aging being a good thing!!





 
Also on this date:
 
Thanksgiving:




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September 17 – Citizenship Day in the United States

Posted on September 17, 2018

Today is Constitution Day in the U.S. - and I've already written about that here.



But another name for today's holiday is Citizenship Day. And it's never been more important to think about the words citizen and citizenship than it is this year.

First, citizen means a person who legally lives in a particular nation, who owes allegiance to that nation, and who is entitled to protection as a member of the nation. You can be a citizen because you are "native" to the nation - in the United States, that means you were born in the U.S. - or you can be a citizen because you took the legal steps to become a citizen, even though you came from another country. The latter is called a naturalized citizen.

Citizenship is more complex. It can just mean the state of being a citizen, like, "Hooray! Maria finally got her citizenship!!"

But it usually means all the rights, privileges, and duties of being a member of a particular nation. In the U.S., these include the right to vote, the duty to serve on a jury when called (unless you can get out of jury duty, which an awful lot of people do an awful lot of the time), and the privilege of holding a U.S. passport (and being able to more easily travel in other nations than people with shaky legal status or no official paperwork).

The thing is, every nation sets its own system of citizenship, and whenever there is trouble - natural disasters, wars, corrupt or fascistic governments, and so forth - then people who are desperate for safety often cross borders, or try to, and then nations are pushed into having to deal with non-citizens and what to do with them.


Over the centuries, people around have generally not done great when refugees cross their borders. For every heartwarming story of a nation taking in refugees - like Bolivia taking in about 30,000 Jewish refugees during World War II - there seem to be dozens of awful stories - like the U.S. refusing entry to a ship full of 900 Jewish refugees who had made it all the way to just off the coast of Florida. (Yes, the ship had to return to war-torn Europe, and yes, lots of the people on that ship ended up being killed by Nazis!)

Shanghai was "the port of last resort" for many Jewish
asylum seekers during World War II, since the Chinese
city didn't require visas or passports for entry.
Immigrants who are not as desperate - not "asylum seekers," not refugees - get uneven treatment at various nations and at various times, as well. Between the years 1880 and 1920, the U.S. admitted more than 20 million immigrants, but in 1917 a literacy test was established, and in the early 1920s immigration quotas were established; World Wars and the Great Depression meant that immigration went way down.


Now many nations, and certainly the U.S., are struggling with conflicting ideas and goals. Should a society turn away outsiders so that its own citizens can enjoy the best opportunities for education and jobs? Should a society welcome outsiders, knowing that they tend to be hard workers and are often more loyal to their new home than are people who didn't have to struggle to get there? Should a nation allow rapid growth by admitting immigrants and refugees, knowing that more people in the country mean more people buying stuff - and therefore economic growth? Or should a nation try to control or even stop growth, knowing that space and resources only stretch so far?

I think everyone in the world, and certainly in the U.S., should try to be a little more empathetic and kind when dealing with asylum seekers and desperate refugees. It's really tough to know what to do, but at least we should be treating humans like humans!

On Citizenship Day in the U.S.A., I urge all U.S. citizens to use compassion while considering policies about immigration, asylum, legal and illegal residents, DACA, borders, citizenship requirements, voting requirements, and ICE. 



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