Saturday, May 27, 2006

For now, Here I am in Granby

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It's a small town in Quebec, about 75,000 people. It seems to be a small town with money, as it is obsessed with fountains and ponds. It has a big zoo. It's green and quiet, but as far as I know, it's totally Francophone. Franc wants to move here, but I don't know if I could fit in, even if I took French lessons. What could I do but clean houses or be a nanny? I'm too old to take such jobs. I've worked too hard and too long to end up being "the immigrant who takes jobs others won't do." See, this is what it really means to be an immigrant . You work and go to school for years, and have all sorts of qualifications. But you end up somewhere where you are not fluent in the language, and all of a sudden you're stupid and childlike, and people yell words at you as if the louder they say them, the better you'll understand.

I've met "immigrants" from eastern Europe who were doctors and one surgeon, who ended up as glorified candy stripers. To everyone else, they are the house painters and the landscapers.

There's your "immigrant." Fuck the experience we have, the qualifications. We're children.

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