Children of the Immigrant Experience

“Chinese at Work on C.P.R. (Canadian Pacific Railway) in Mountains, 1884” (Library and Archives/Bibliothèque et Archives Canada). Creative Commons License.

Thanks to the positive response to last Saturday’s post, “On Losing My Language”, I’m starting a little mini-series called “Children of the Immigrant Experience.” This is to continue the thought on Saturday’s post that we have now moved from the issue of the immigrant experience to the children of the immigrant experience.

I believe my generation is a unique one and our concerns haven’t been adequately represented in social discourse. We’re going things and being disillusioned by things our parents and grandparents never thought of. Especially as a child of immigration, it is often difficult to identify myself. Am I part of this group, or am I part of that group? Should I be a part of a group at all?

Hopefully I’ll address the cream of the crop in coming posts. So far I’ve come up with the following topics:

• Children of the Immigrant Experience: Why I Avoid Ethnic Writing

• Children of the Immigrant Experience: On Losing My Culture

• Children of the Immigrant Experience: Staunch Individualism vs. Group Identification

• Children of the Immigrant Experience: Asian-Americans/Canadians and Academic Success

Heh, I considered becoming a Political Science major a very long time…so that might rear up its head again here.

A Chinese supermarket chain in Vancouver. Times have changed.

I began writing “Why I Avoid Ethnic Writing” today, so it may be up by tomorrow. I’m looking forward to all of your responses to these topics, and would appreciate it if anyone could contribute any ideas or suggestions. I am a child of the immigrant experience, but I am only one child, so I am certain my experience isn’t mine alone nor is it the only experience.