Clarissa's Blog

I know a guy who emigrated to Canada at the age of 22. This was in 1998. He has lived in Canada this entire time. He is economically very successful in Canada, but he is friendly with zero people outside of his immigrant community. His English is functional but very basic. His French is nonexistent. He consumes no entertainment in English or French. He is very interested in politics but has the most tenuous knowledge about Canadian politics.

This is an extremely sociable person with a wide circle of friends. But they are all from his immigrant community. He spent 30 years in Canada recreating his life at home and has been very successful at it.

This guy is the perfect example of what hinders assimilation. As soon as you have enough immigrants from a specific country to form a community, they no longer need to assimilate.

The person I’m talking about is Ukrainian. I’m also Ukrainian. I couldn’t have avoided assimilating, even if I wanted to (and I obviously don’t) because there is no Ukrainian community where I live.

It’s not that anybody is bad or inferior, but it’s normal for people to seek out their own. When people don’t get a choice, they assimilate. When they do, they often start resisting assimilation.

This is simply a numbers game. After a certain number, there is no assimilation.