The dominant population inevitably fears and resists change. The newcomers are inevitably perceived as threatening, clannish, isolated, and hostile (until, of course, a couple of generations pass, and the Irish/Jews/Italians, having both entered the mainstream culture and transformed it by their entry, become part of the dominant population).

Twas ever thus, with any newcomer community. Editorialists of the day, for example, decried the Irish propensity for drinking and violence, Japanese “secretiveness”, Jewish propensity for dealing “with their own kind”. Italians and Irish, of course, were accused of transplanting old world enmities, with their legacy of violence, crime and torture.

There was a small handful of people in each of those communities who bore out those stereotypes, and who were triumphantly brandished, as Matthew does above, to “prove” how dangerous these Italians/Irish/Ukranians/Jews were. The vast majority of those populations learned French or English, got educated, got jobs, and generation by generation entered the culture, while adding elements of their own culture to the mix. The first wave struggled, often living and working primarily in their own neighbourhoods and communities. Their kids adapted. Their grandkids adapted more. The things about Canada that worked, that made sense, became part of their lives.

That’s the story of my family. And that will continue to be the story. Maybe you ought to have a little more faith in the strength and value of our country, Matthew, and a little less fear.

And before you tout the relative “success” of the American model…you might want to do a bit of reading about the state of the “melting pot” these days.