The blessings of watching refugee immigrants embracing Canadian values

While I was never a refugee myself, I was an immigrant, and both my parents spent years in refugee camps in Denmark after the WW 2. From what I’ve heard, that was a tough gig. For example, the communal toilets were a trench in the ground with a log laid the length of it. That log was where you parked your butt-cheeks to take a dump. Although the sanitary arrangements may have been primitive in some respects, they were quite forward looking in others. Those were totally inclusive toilet facilities; all ages and all genders used the same trench. What bathroom the trans residents used was a non-issue! And although the refugee camps had barbed-wire and armed guards, they were undoubtedly a soft touch compared to the refugee camps one might find in the Middle East today, where the refugee camps need to be bombed regularly to ferret out the terrorists who can’t help themselves from setting up command posts therein. So I was keen to get to know a refugee family that found their way to our community from there a few years ago. Like all refugees, including my clan, they were extremely grateful to make it to this beautiful, peaceful, polite, and imminently tolerant society. Those are our values, after all. And they were determined to work hard and fit in. They arrived eight or nine years ago, the parents with their five children. They’ve had an arduous road. Here’s an update. The family of seven is now a family of twelve with another one on the way. That’s because the older son married at 19. He and his wife have been very productive. Some of the kids have taken stabs at gainful employment, but nothing seems to stick. That virile eldest worked fast food for a few months, but it didn’t agree with him. Then he took a shot at construction, but that didn’t agree with him either. So here we are. Nobody works and they all live in public housing. The eldest has found the time and money to do his pilgrimage to Mecca, so at least he’s good with his God. Perhaps becoming an Imam would agree with him. But here’s my point. Let’s not blame these refugee immigrants. These people had absolutely no knowledge of sloth or entitlement until they arrived in Canada. They’re merely internalizing Canadian values in the modern era. I’m pleased to report that all of them are polite and tolerant.