Canada and the British immigrantWeaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
History
Canada and the British immigrant
Weaver, Emily P. (Emily Poynton)
Canada -- Description and travel; Canada -- Economic conditions
The immigration of families consisting of parents and children is still
more satisfactory from the Canadian point of view, for this, in ordinary
cases, means that the children, brought up under normal conditions, will
be assimilating in their early years Canadian customs, methods of work,
and habits of thought. This is a process that all immigrants, young or
old, must go through to a certain extent, if they are really to “settle”
in the country. Speaking broadly, adaptation to new conditions is much
more difficult for the young man than for the child, and for the old
person than the young, unless in the case of those exceptional people
who seem to have discovered the secret of perpetual youth, and are
alert, ready to learn, adaptable, and intensely interested in life and
their surroundings to old age.
In many instances the process is not only difficult but painful; and I
should like to speak a word of encouragement to the immigrant in his
first year or two, when the exciting novelty of the change has worn off,
and he has not yet become thoroughly acclimatized either to the physical
or mental atmosphere of the new country. In some cases he passes through
a period of miserable homesickness, when everything seems disappointing.
Then, even such minor ills as unfamiliar kinds of implements to work
with (for instance, in the case of a woman, stoves in place of the
accustomed open fires) seem to add sorely to the hardships of life. I
can remember very well the general depression of spirits in our family
when we were trying in vain to keep ourselves warm and to cook in bitter
wintry weather with green basswood, foisted upon us by our next-door
neighbour, who in some other little ways showed himself very ready to
“turn an honest (?) penny” out of our inexperience.
But discouragement passes; soon the newcomer learns how to take care of
himself, and, looking back, wonders how his “mole-hills” ever came to be
such mountains. A good stock of patience and some small sense of humour
ought to make part of the equipment of every immigrant, for there is
nothing like the power of seeing the funny side of things to help one
over the minor trials of life, and it is good not to take oneself too
seriously.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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