When Immigrants Become Anti-immigrants

By Promod Puri

With compassionate temperament, an immigrant is not expected to be an anti-immigrant.

But without that sentiment, immigrants can be anti-immigrant. Or they are selective in their prejudiced choice of immigrants.

The sentiment of humanism over time fades as mindset attitudes toward fellow human beings based on religion and ethnicity take over.

The prospective immigrants are thus categorized as “illegal and “legal,” refugees and migrants.
But, except being a criminal, nobody is illegal.

And those refugee claimants and migrants who “jump the queue” do so in desperation because there is no dedicated queue with considerate sympathies.

Politicians of the alt-right exploit the changed feeling of being anti-immigrant in the vote-rich immigrant pool.  Expressions like “extreme multiculturalism” and “too much diversity” are coined.

Quebec MP Maxime Bernier, who quit the Conservative Party of Canada August 23, is breeding an anti-immigrant temperament, perhaps knowing some immigrants are anti-immigrants too.

His appeal is based on the fear that “Canadian values” will be marginalized with “too much diversity.”

But Canadian values and its culture constitute an evolving phenomenon in which immigrants play the most significant role.

The diverse contribution of immigrants enriches the Canadian culture of multiculturalism.

When immigrants become anti-immigrant, and they are being played in the hands of alt-right politics, the secular and diverse foundation of Canadian heritage of being multicultural and multi-racial society becomes insecure.

(Promod Puri is a journalist, writer, and author of Hinduism Beyond Rituals, Customs, and Traditions. Websites: promodpuri.com, progressivehindudialogue.com, promodpuri.blogspot.com)