{"id":192,"date":"2017-11-03T10:58:29","date_gmt":"2017-11-03T14:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/?p=192"},"modified":"2017-11-03T11:02:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-03T15:02:56","slug":"going-from-i-love-canada-to-i-love-canada-eh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/manitoba-migration\/2017\/11\/03\/going-from-i-love-canada-to-i-love-canada-eh\/","title":{"rendered":"Going from “I love Canada” to “I love Canada, eh?”"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Nickolas Wu<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cToday we\u2019re going to learn about cultural adjustment,\u201d said Anita Sharma. Sharma is a cultural adjustment teacher for the high English proficiency students at Altered Minds, Inc., a federally funded agency taking part in Canada\u2019s ENTRY program for newly arrived immigrants. At Altered Minds, newly arrived migrants learn English, take courses on Canadian culture, and are walked through the acculturation process in Canada. The class is funded by the federal government, and a prominently displayed plaque in the front office proclaims as such to all visitors.<\/p>\n

Chinese investment migrants, who have to prove a net worth of $1,600,000 CND and invest $800,000 CND in Canada, mingled with newly resettled refugees who had come with few possessions to learn about the adjustment process in Canada. Tian-en Zhou, a Chinese investment immigrant from Beijing, China, was still placed in the same classes as Tasir Al-frata, an Iraqi migrant who had fled Baghdad.<\/p>\n

Sharma wrote a list of four items on the board: 1) honeymoon 2) conflict 3) recovery 4) adaptation. \u201cWhat does this mean, class?\u201d she asked. They demurred. \u201cThese are the stages of cultural adaptation,\u201d she said. One of the students, Sergey Osmanov, a Russian migrant by way of Israel quipped, \u201cso this is the process of going from \u2018I love Canada\u2019 to \u2018I love Canada, eh?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Sharma\u2019s class is a higher English level cultural adjustment class, but Altered Minds teaches the new immigrants everything from Canadian expectations of child rearing (\u201cdon\u2019t beat your children\u201d), employment prospects (\u201chere\u2019s how to write a resume and cover letter\u201d), to something as seemingly simple as traffic laws (\u201cdrive on the right side of the road, not the left\u201d).<\/p>\n

Grace Eidse, the founder and CEO of Altered Minds, explained that the group\u2019s founding in 2005 came from the need to educate newly arrived migrants in the ways of Canadian life. The name came from the idea that \u201cwe are transformed when we come together,\u201d she said. At least half of the current staff of 20 people are immigrants themselves.<\/p>\n

Altered Minds does teach children. That job is left to the Needs Centre, another nonprofit organization that provides similar services for children. But this bifurcation of services makes it difficult for families with children to attend classes says Eidse, \u201cpeople can\u2019t attend if they have children,\u201d since there is nowhere to get child care.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Newly arrived migrants take a break from their classes.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Nickolas Wu \u201cToday we\u2019re going to learn about cultural adjustment,\u201d said Anita Sharma. Sharma is a cultural adjustment teacher for the high English proficiency students at Altered Minds, Inc., a federally funded agency taking part in Canada\u2019s ENTRY program for newly arrived immigrants. At Altered Minds, newly arrived migrants learn English, take courses on<\/p>\n

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