We, the Others

A fantastic look at what it's like to be an allophone immigrant in a Quebec that is continuously occupied with language infights between its francophone and anglophone communities. That conflict is so rooted in its population, that anything language related becomes a hot button issue. And while Canada likes to praise itself for its multicultural values and welcoming attitude towards immigrants, recent political turns has Quebec closing up its borders even more.

Drimonis makes a wonderful case that multicultural histories, values, traditions ultimately enrich a society instead of diluting it. All one's different identities are layers and not fractions, contributing to a multi-lingual, more diverse and therefore richer community.

Canada is quite a new country, founded on immigration (and conveniently likes to forget the indigenous languages its British and French colonizers drowned out). Learning how to integrate and empathize with immigrants, how to avoid to ‘other' them, is a important challenge for many other older nations as well.

Fantastic book, very Montreal. Let me go out and buy my own copy now.