By Andrew Hanon
Saturday, January 29, 2011
“That’s an interesting question,” says Andy Knight. “I haven’t studied the issue, but the idea makes sense.”
The University of Alberta political scientist is an expert on domestic terrorism and he argues that Canada’s biggest problem isn’t a porous immigration system that allows extremists of all kinds to set up shop here.
Rather, Knight says, new arrivals to Canada are far more likely to become radicalized after arriving here.
A culprit, he says, is “xenoracism,” or the subtle discrimination that some new immigrants face, even from members of their own communities.
He talks about newcomers being labelled FOBs (fresh off the boat) and being made to feel like outsiders even among their fellow countrymen.
They don’t fit into their communities and they certainly don’t fit into the mainstream. Language barriers and culture shock see to that.
Not qualified
In a lot of cases, educated immigrants find out their professional qualifications are not recognized in Canada, so they end up trying to provide for large families doing menial jobs.
They become bitter, resentful and isolated — perfect prey for radicalization.
“They get driven right into their arms,” he explains.
And while he hasn’t researched the link between xenoracism and gangs in ethnic communities, he suspects it could be one of the clouds hanging over Edmonton’s Somali community.
In less than two-and-a-half years, 11 young Somali-Canadian men from Edmonton have been shot to death.Police say that several of them had ties to the drug trade.
While the vast majority of Edmonton’s estimated 14,000-member Somali community are prosperous, contributing members of society, a small handful have fallen through the cracks. While most of the dead were born in Canada, some people in the community say conflicts between traditional family values and mainstream culture is minefield for teens who feel like they don’t fit into either world.
Some kids become bitter, angry and isolated — perfect prey for gang recruiters.
Knight says a couple years ago, he helped then-police Chief Mike Boyd set up public meetings in the Somali community to address the bloodshed.
“They were the most heartwrenching meetings I’ve ever been to,” he says.
“Some of the parents had no idea what their kids were getting involved in. In some cases there was this complete disconnect between he parents and their kids.”
For example, he said, some families might have been doing well financially prior to the recession, but when the hard times hit the fathers had to take whatever work they could find. Teens who started dealing drugs might make more money than their father.
“You can’t tell a kid like that anything,” Knight says. “The gap between parents and kids keeps getting wider.”
Canada accepts more immigrants per capita than any other country in the world. They’re vital contributors to our economic growth and cultural diversity. Our country would be poorer without them.
But are we setting them up for failure? Are inviting them in, but refusing some of the newcomers a place at the table? “It’s a lot more complicated than just xenoracism,” he says. “This is a very difficult situation.”