Sunday, September 14, 2008

Immigration Review: Just Numbers?

The delusion of Numbers USA

The Face at Numbers USA. Yes
they're trying to make a point

Here is a disappointing video from Numbers USA, an otherwise excellent immigration update website with activists involved in immigration reform.

The video, front and center on their homepage, blatantly says that the current immigration issue has nothing to do with race or skin color, but on numbers. As I have documented at least once on this blog, the immigration issue, in Canada at least, has a lot to do with the immigrant's country of origin.

My postings, that educated, second generation Indian immigrants are adapting to Canadian culture much less than we imagine, was supported by a more academic source.

Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies in a debate with Shikha Dalmia of the Reason Foundation, argued that educated Indians are more prone to national (Indian) sentiments, and that their off-spring are less likely to feel American than expected. I have blogged about this discussion here.

I reached my own conclusions after informal surveys of the internet sites, movies, fashion, and TV programs that Indians in Canada are attracted to. My findings surprised me a great deal, since I never imagined how much these "Canadian" Indians were attached to the country that they never grew up in, and visited, if at all, only periodically. What started off my curiosity was how well-established writers (usually Canadian or American-born) ended writing whole novels which dealt exclusively with their alienation from their current, Western culture. I also wrote an article about this.

I'm glad to note that I am not the only one that has noticed this discrepancy at the otherwise great Numbers USA website.