Joseph H. Chung
I Love Korea. I Love Quebec/Canada.
Joseph H. Chung, Ph.D
JC17-06-06
It was one cold night of February of 1954 when I arrived at the Palais Train Station of Quebec City after one-month hard travel on a cargo ship across the violent Northern Pacific Ocean and one-week train travel from Seattle to Quebec City. There, I met a student sent by Rev. George-Henri Levesque, Dean of the faculty of Social Sciences of Laval University. The student asked me in French: “Avez-vous fait un bon voyage?” I did not understand, but I thought he was asking me about the trip. I said in English: “It has been a very long trip.” This was the beginning of my entire adult life in Canada. The journey of my life voyage was rewarding. I got B.A. (in social sciences), M.A. (in economics) at Laval University and Ph.D. (in economics) at the University of Toronto. I have spent all my life teaching at various universities in Canada and Korea. I am still active academically.
However, my life journey was not linear; there were ups and downs; there were sunny days and stormy day; there were moments of joy and sadness.
I am grateful to Hon. Senator Yonah Martin and her remarkable team for providing this opportunity to share with the readers some of my personal experiences and observations of immigrants’ life in Canada.
Many people who know me say that I am a shining example of successful integration into the Canadian society. It may be true, but I had to overcome several difficulties, which I may regroup into the following categories: physical survival, language barrier, learning difficulties, challenge of integration into Canadian value system; challenge of racial discrimination, interracial marriage and identity issues.
1. Physical survival
When I arrived in Quebec City, I had only US $17 in my pocket. You must remember that Korea in 1954 was one of the poorest countries in the world. There was no way for me to get financial help from my family in Korea. Fortunately, I had a scholarship given by Laval University, but I had to earn money for my living costs. Dean Levesque got me a job as a waiter in 1955 at the officers’ mess of Valcartier Camp of the famous 22nd French Canadian Regiment, which was one of the best fighting units during the Korean War. I had good tips which surely helped me to survive. But the income from tips did not last long. My friend, Rev Father, Raymond Lavoie, chaplain of students, was in charge of the “Student Circle” which was a student restaurant. He allowed me to eat breads and eggs for a few months in exchange for washing dishes; I became a pretty good dish washer, then. But, surely, I was perhaps one of the poorest students on the campus. One day, I ate a rusted can of corn beef on sale, I did not know the fact that the can was rusted. As a result, I missed classes for three days. My class mates, worried, came to my room which was right under the roof of a poor rooming house and found me dying. I was a victim of food poisoning but survived after a major operation.
In 1956, Rev. Levesque got me this time a job as meal ticket manager at one of the renowned resort hotels in Quebec, Manoir Richelieu in the north of Quebec City. There, I earned earnest money allowing me to survive another year. In 1957, this time, once again Rev. Levesque sent me to the city of Seven-Islands in the North-East of Quebec Province. I worked for a few months, as a labourer, ten hours a day with rough and tough guys from Western Canada, Newfoundland, Italy, Poland and all over the world. Later, I was promoted as clerk at Station, Mile 74 of the Railway connecting the city of Seven Islands with Knob Lake. The whole region of Knob Lake was an iron mine as wide as the area of the Korean South and North Cholla Province combined. The mine belonged to the Canada Iron & Or Co. whose president was Brian Mulroney, who became the Canadian Prime Minister from 1984 to 1994.
I had the fortune of another source of income. I was given scholarships by the Rotary Clubs in Three Rivers City, Quebec City and St-George City. In return, I had to make speeches in uncertain French on Korean culture and the economy. As I told you, my entire asset on my arrival in Quebec was $ 17, but, somehow, I survived. If you ask me how, it is difficult to reply. As far as I am concerned, it was a miracle. One thing that is certain is I survived owing to my mother’s prayers, the generosity of Rev. Levesque, my professors, my classmates, Quebec men and women. I owe them a lot. I thank God for bring me to Quebec!
2. Language Barrier
In 1952, I was studying history at the College of Arts and Science of Seoul National University and I met the Chaplain of the Canadian Army, Rev. Father G. LeBel in the Cholwon area while I was working as an interpreter. We had long discussions in English about the future of Korea and he decided to help me to get a scholarship at Laval University. He told me that Quebec was a French speaking province and that Laval University was a French speaking university. It was a shock for me. I tried very hard to learn French before I left Korea. In Korea, very few were interested in learning the French language. My second languages were English, Japanese and German.
The day after my arrival in Quebec City, I went to a class of sociology; the professor was making jokes and the students laughed; I laughed along, although I understood nothing, merely to “save my face”. This was how my French language adventure began and it still continues. It was hard, very hard to go through the painful process of learning French. As you know, the French language is a beautiful language, yet it is one of most complex languages in the civilized world. To learn French, I developed my own techniques of learning foreign languages. There are four ways of learning a foreign language. We learn through eyes by reading. We learn through ears by listening. We learn through mouth by talking. But there is one more way; it is the work of fingers; we learn a language by writing. In my case, the fourth way happened to be the best. Every day, I borrowed notes of class mates and copied them as many times as needed. The combination of the four ways allowed me to understand class lectures in six months.
I have taught for forty years in French, but I do confess that I have not yet mastered it to my satisfaction. I have published, in French, books and academic and professional articles, but I am sure that I could have done better, if I had better command of the language. I do suggest that young students of Korean origin studying in Canada should invest maximum time and efforts to master the English or the French language, especially those who are in the fields of humanities and social sciences. Without mastering the language, it is difficult to show fully the acquired knowledge and skills.
3. Learning Difficulties
Another major challenge I had to tackle was the difficulty of learning. Compared to present day Korean students in Canada, I was utterly unprepared or poorly prepared for studies in Canada. I had the misfortune of coming to this world during the Japanese occupation and I went to school during the Pacific War. Whole activities at schools were related to war efforts. On sunny days, the whole school went to remote mountains to gather consumable plants for Japanese soldiers and pine resins for Japanese fighter planes. On rainy days, we learned how to sing songs and memorized fabricated Japanese history. My generation of students in Korea during the Pacific War did not learn much. After the liberation of Korea from Japanese yoke in 1945, schools were caught in violent ideological fight making it impossible to study anything. Then, the war came in 1950; I was admitted to the College of Arts and Sciences of Seoul National University. Lectures were delivered in tents on hills in Busan City and, to make the matter worse, I spent half of the time on the frontline. It was just impossible to prepare for studies abroad.
Thus, I was very poorly prepared to study in Canada. There was another problem; it was the problem of studying methods. In Korea, we learn by memorising things, while in Canada, one learns through logical analysis and rational reasoning. I thought I was good in mathematics, good enough to be admitted to the Seoul National University. I memorized the formula of derivation and integration and got good marks. But in Canada, we learn mathematics in order to solve real problems. At Laval University, I was good in mathematics for economics to get good marks, but I was not good at using mathematics for the development of new economic theories.
The traditional Korean way of learning based on memorization has another weakness, namely, the difficulty of creative reasoning. I was obviously its victim. In Canada, the students are trained to do literature research, study the appropriate materials, digest them, do critical analysis and produce essays representing creative and original thought. Korean students including myself are good in understanding and producing summary of the existing literature. But, they are not very good in producing innovative theories. This is shown, for example, by the scarcity of creative academic articles written by Koreans published in journals of international recognition. Thus, the Korean way of learning was one of the factors preventing me from producing more and better research products and developing new theories.
It is true that I have had the good fortune of getting all of the three university degrees in Canada and having a rewarding career. But, in order to overcome the lack of prior preparation for studies in Canada and the traditional Korean method of learning which I had inherited, I have had to work several times as hard as Canadians brought up in Canada.
By closing this section, I may humbly add one thing. I do think that there is urgent needs for reforming the Korean education system conducive to more creative thinking based on critical and analytical mind. Otherwise, it will be difficult to survive in the limitless technological competition in the era of the fourth Industrial Revolution.
4. Challenge of Integration into Canadian Value System
Integration of an immigrant is the process of finding a suitable balance between values of the country of origin and the values of the host country. In the academic literature, this process is called the process of acculturation. There are four types of acculturation: assimilation, separation, marginalization and integration. Assimilation means complete assimilation to Quebec culture and total negation of Korean culture. Separation means, on the other hand, complete negation of Quebec culture and complete preservation of Korean culture. Marginalization means complete negation of both cultures. Finally, integration means a suitable combination between the two cultures. Now, which of the four types of acculturation is appropriate for successful life of the immigrant?
The assimilation type may be suitable for complete adaptation to Quebec culture, but, because of the skin color, a Quebecer of Korean origin will, perhaps, be always regarded primarily as Korean by the majority. In such case, the individual could become a victim of identity crisis. The separation type will be an outcast from the Quebec society and it is difficult to survive. A man marginalized from both cultures is a lost man and he has no place to go. This leaves the integration type as the most feasible type of acculturation. In other words, to survive and thrive in the Quebec society, a Korean immigrant should develop a new identity based on a proper balance between the Korean culture and the Quebec culture.
The search for a balance of cultures may bring cultural shocks. For Koreans in Canada, cultural shocks may be inevitable. The first shock I experienced during the process of my acculturation was to realize how much I was brain washed by the Japanese. I was taught that the Westerners including Canadians had no heart and no compassion; they are egoist and cruel; they have no family life. The Japanese employed several other adjectives to make us to have very negative views about the Westerners. I have to admit that after years of daily brainwashing, I became a pretty good Japanese boy and believed the propaganda. As a result, I did not know what to expect about Canadians once I found myself in Canada.
I was lucky to have room & board at Mme Pare’s house. Mme Pare had eight children: one priest, two nuns and others of various professions. They formed a warm family; they were compassionate; they shared joy and pains with neighbors; they danced with happiness and they cried with sadness. One day, I was very sick and Mme Pare showed her tears for me. Her family gave me an image of a Westerner diametrically opposed to what the Japanese tried to tell us. My life with Mme Pare’s family convinced me of the universality of humanity. I realized that human beings are the essentially the same; they are all vulnerable; they all suffer from sickness; they all die once; they all quest for love. I realized how much the Japanese government and army were liars and manipulators during the Pacific War. Human nature is the same everywhere and every time. This truth is perhaps the most important reward of my coming to and living in Canada
If the human nature is universal, every day behavior and thinking can be different in function of culture, natural environment, beliefs and tradition. I have had some interesting experiences of cultural mismatch. The first mismatch was my first dating experience with Monique, my classmate. One day in 1956, we were walking on St-Jean Street near Laval University and she was trying to hold my hands. Instinctively, I pulled away my hands and Monique was quite upset by my gesture. She obviously misunderstood my behavior as a sign of negation of her affection. When I was teenager in Korea, there was no dating culture; young couple’s holding hands was looked upon as a strange behavior and not acceptable. But, soon after, I was able to hold Monique’s hands with pride and pleasure.
Another experience of a cultural encounter was related to the payment of meals at a restaurant. In Korea, there is an old custom of paying the bill of restaurant meals for all the persons of the group. I had no means of doing this, but at the time, I paid the meal bill for all my friends. It was beyond my means. In fact, in such cases, my friends teased me saying: “Joe, have you emptied a bank?” This reflected a very important cultural gap between Korea and Quebec. I was brought up in the age-old tradition of collectivism and, at times, the interest of the collectivity of which we are a part of has a higher priority over an individual’s interest. I found out that the Korean collectivism was very costly in Quebec.
Another cultural shock was related to the vertical and hierarchical relationship. I was brought up in Korea in a cultural environment where the children must obey the parents; the wife must be submitted to her husband, the cadet must respect the elder. This sort of vertical relationship is practiced in all walks of society. Under such circumstances, it was normal that I was afraid of dealing with someone having a superior social status.
It was in 1956 when I went to see the rector of Laval University for a scholarship. I was standing in front of the door of his office. I was so afraid of encountering him that my knees were trembling without stopping. Finally, I knocked on the door and I heard the rector’s voice:”Entrez!” I got my scholarship! My fear of the “superior” lasted for a long time, but after having survived a terrible illness coming close to death, I could get rid some of this fear of superiority and authority.
Difference in mental behaviour was another challenge. In the Western culture based on the tradition of Judeo-Christian and Greek philosophies, “good and bad”, “true and false”, “right and wrong” and “virtue and sin” are clearly defined. This tradition has produced a tradition of rationalism and legalism. In the Western society, laws are essentially based on the dichotomous notion of bad versus good; the laws are respected and non-respect of the laws is punished. On the other hand, Asian way of thinking, especially, the Korean way of thinking, is based on the following religions and philosophies: Shamanism, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism. Christianity is another religion, but, being a recent phenomenon, its influence on the formation of Korean mentality is rather limited.
Under Shamanism, one seeks solution of human problems by appealing to unknown gods through Shaman. Under Shamanism, there is no need to reason logically; what count is the solution of a problem thus leading to the development of pragmatism instead of rationalism. Now, in Taoism, the universe is governed by “Yang” and “Yin”, or the positive and the negative. The most important aspect of this philosophy is that the relation between the two forces of the universe is harmony not confrontation compared to the Western philosophy where the good and the bad are confrontational. In Taoism, nothing is absolute; everything is relative. There is no absolute truth. This has been one of the reasons why Koreans tend to minimize the importance of rules and laws and accept blind conformism (suitable acceptance of a given situation), so-called “Jeoktang Jouie-적당주의”
In Buddhism of “Seon” School practiced in China, Japan and Korea, one can become Buddha through self-discipline and meditations. Buddhism attaches great values to compassion and self-discipline and these traits might have contributed to Koreans’ warn heart and endurance. On the other hand, under Confucianism, a person is defined in terms of his and or her position in a given collective entity; the peace and order through hierarchical social relations is appreciated. Actually, Confucianism was developed by Confucius in order to establish guidelines for good government and social order. A good government should be run by the highly educated, called literati and there must be disciplined social order established by hierarchical social relations. Under Confucianism, Koreans have developed the passion for education, hard work ethics and top-down type of social structure.
Now, let us see how these characteristics affect the behaviour of Korean communities in Canada. For one thing, they are hard workers. Koreans’ being hard workers is their trade mark and widely recognized. For another, Koreans’ passion for education is another trait for global admiration. These are the good aspects of Koreans. However, some of the Korean values may be a negative factor for integration. The relativism of right and wrong may induce Koreans to minimize the laws and regulations of Canada. This is often seen among the first generation people. It is a common practice among the leaders of the Korean community to ignore the Canadian rules of running NPOs (non-profit organizations) without any hesitation. The lack of legalism of community leaders who are mostly of the first generation of advanced age is much tolerated by the majority because of blind conformism, “Jeoktang Jouie” and the Confucian respect for the elders. As a result, the young who grew up in the first-generation-dominated community may experience difficulties in developing autonomous, rational and innovative thought. This could be a factor in hindering productive integration of young Koreans into the host society.
I do hope that the new leadership of Korean communities will be assumed by the 1.5 or 2nd generation people and that community life be managed in conformity with Canadian laws, regulations and customs of NPOs on the one hand and, on the other hand, the community will be free from “Jeoktang Jouie” and participate more rationally and more actively in the process of collective decision making.
5. Racial Discrimination
Many research reports show that, in Canada, visible minority including Asians are victims of racial discrimination, especially at work places. However, the notion of racial discrimination requires some critical analysis. Many tend to limit this notion to the colour of the skin. If it is so, then the proper wording should be skin-colour discrimination. What I want to point out here is that the notion of “racial” discrimination is more comprehensive and multidimensional. The “race” includes, in addition to colour of skin, the language, the accent, the religion, the foods, the dress, the hair style and a host of other cultural distinctions. Hence, when a coloured person is discriminated against, it is not easy to know to what extent the man is discriminated for, his skin colour, his language, his accent, the way he is dressed or the kind of foods he eats. In other words, we should not say simply that the discrimination of visible minority is attributable to the colour of skin. It may be even due to the way the person speaks with a non-familiar accent.
What is important is that if you feel being discriminated against, it is not necessarily due to your skin colour. More often than not, we have an illusion of being discriminated, just because we are visible minority. It is not necessarily so. I had an amusing experience. It was 1954, my first year of studies at Laval University. I was living far from the campus and I took bus to travel. Each time I got on the bus, all looked at me and I thought that I was a victim of racial discrimination, because I was not white. But soon after, I realized that whoever gets on the bus, all looked at the new arrival, whether the person is white, black, brown or red. It was simply my illusion of being the victim of discrimination.
At times, visible minority persons do encounter people who do discriminate because of being different from the white majority. It happened to me in 1957 in the Train Station camp, Mile 74 near the city of Seven Islands. It happened in a railroad camp where I was the clerk, second in command of 75 tough workers. There was a guy from Newfoundland, called Bob, a guy of twice my weight and a height of 6.4 feet. He was a bully of the camp. He was insulting me for weeks by imitating slanted eyes and calling me “Chin Chin”. It was apparent racial discrimination. I had to do something in order to save my dignity and authority as the second in command. It was one sunny afternoon of July and we were having a coffee break. He did it again in front of the whole gang. I approached him and gave him jab under his jaw with no effect. He responded by hitting me hard my neck and I flew in the air and fell hard on the ground ten feet away from him. When I got up painfully, he was looking at me with astonished eyes. He smiled at me and came to me to shake hand; he was obviously impressed with my courage. Since then, he became my body guard and friend. This episode shows the need for being courageous to fight back when intimidated by racial discrimination.
In general, my strategy to survive racial discrimination consists of the following approaches. First, I accept the reality of racial discrimination in Canada as in any other country. Second, I accept what I am, no more no less; I accept my Koreanness of which I am proud. Third, when I am the target of racial discrimination, I ignore it. But if the discriminator goes beyond the “red line”, I fight back or go to proper authorities guarding human rights. To be frank, apart from the little episodes I mentioned, during all my long life in Canada, I have never felt being victim of racial discrimination.
6. Interracial Marriage
One of the effects of the globalization of the world and massive immigration into North America is the increasing number of interracial marriages. According to CanWest Media Work, in 2001, the Canadian rate of mixed marriage was: Japanese (70%), Latino (45%), the black (43%), Filipino (33%), Southeast Asians ( 26%), Koreans (18%), Chinese (16%), South Asians (13%).On the other hand, the Toronto Star ( April 20, 2010) provides data on interracial marriage in Toronto: Japanese (60%), Latino (31%), the black (26%), Filipino (20%), Chinese (10%), Koreans (11%). Moreover, the rate of interracial marriage has been increasing and is expected to increase further. This data shows that, among Asian races, the Japanese have the highest rate of interracial marriage, whereas the Chinese and the Korean race have relatively low rates. However, both the Chinese and the Koreans in Canada are expected to marry more with other races in the future.
There are many reasons for the increasing trend of interracial marriages. First, the globalization of the world has narrowed the international and intercultural value gap owing to the rapidly developing ICT technology. A Korean sitting in front of his TV in Seoul can see the culture of a tribe living in the most remote corner of Africa; a woman in Papua New Guinea can learn how to make kimchi through her TV. Second, the massive international immigration in North America and Europe has made it possible to personally experience and appreciate the cultures of other races. Third, through cultural interactions at schools and work places, the cultural heterogeneity has decreased. Fourth, more and more, the majority of Caucasians in the western world accept interracial marriage. More than 80 % of white North Americans accept interracial marriage.
In human life, whatever we do, there can be pros and cons. The interracial marriage is no exception. Interracial marriage offers many advantages. First, it provides access to different cultures and, therefore, enriches one’s life. Second, it makes the couple to have a more open and pluralistic perception of the world; it allows the couple to discover new values and appreciate the diversity of humanity and develop tolerance and generosity. Third, interracial marriage makes it easier to have social mobility and to integrate the couple into North American society which becomes more and more multicultural. Fourth, it allows the couple to be free from the constraints of mono-ethnic cultural world and explore more flexible orientations of life. Fifth, finally, the interracial marriage offers important economic advantages. According to 2006 Census data, the Canadian family median income was: mixed (interracial) marriage ($74,670), non-mixed marriage ($69,830), intra-visible-minority marriage ($53,710), visible minority-Caucasian marriage ($76,150).
But, there are cons as well. The difficulty of interracial marriage is proportional to the cultural gap. In Canada, interracial marriage takes place more often between highly educated people. Therefore, it is likely that the two persons have compatible intellectual life and spiritual life. On the other hand, there may be serious gap in cultural life. First, the couple must get used to foods preferred by the other spouse. For instance, a Korean woman may not like Quebec cheese; a white Quebec man may dislike kimchi. They should learn how to like the partner’s food preference. Dress may cause friction, especially, when dress is related to rigid religious requirement.
The most problematic area of interracial marriage is that of family relationship. The Korean parents expect from their children obedience and respect for the elders which is contrary to western culture where the parents respect the autonomy and the dignity of children and where the young respect the elder, only if the elder deserves respect. In the relationship between brothers, the elder brother is expected to help the younger brother, even if this means heavy financial burden for the elder brother. The same relationship holds for the sisters. In the Korean culture, friendship is highly valued; one is expected to make sacrifice for the welfare of friends in trouble.
In the Korean culture, decisions are often made on the basis of emotions rather than rational thinking. A Korean is often identified in terms of three types of belonging: school, place of birth and family blood. In the Korean community of Montreal, there are tens of alumni composed of persons who went to the same school, especially, the high school; there are associations of home-town people; there are nightly knit family circles. Many Koreans belong to these triple organizations. The trouble is that the friendship developed through these organizations induces people to make decisions on the basis of emotional ties, not on the basis of rational thinking.
This sort of decision making process is something the Westerners are not familiar with and this might cause friction between Korean spouse and Caucasian spouse. It must be pointed out that the importance of “ties” to which Koreans and other Asian people attach great importance derives from the need for mutual support for the survival in the absence of public welfare system. This may be accepted in Asia, but not in Canada.
What is the probability of success of interracial marriage? If the rate of divorce represents the failure, interracial marriage appears a little more difficult than intra-racial marriage. According to Steve Sailer’s iSteve Blog, after 10 years of marriage, interracial marriages have a 41% chance of disruption as against 31% for intra-racial marriages. However, this data, based on a small sample, does not allow us to know the situation by type of racial combination. Nonetheless, this data, though limited in reliability, seem to show that interracial marriage is not necessarily easier than intra-racial marriage.
Another interesting statistical data is that Asian woman-white man combination is far more numerous than Asian man-white woman combinations. This data seems to indicate that Asian women have greater ability to adjust to North American culture compared to white women who seem to have a greater difficulty of adjusting to Asian culture.
According to Psychology Wiki, Asian men in North America are being “squeezed out” of intra-Asian race marriage. In 1990, 69% of marriages of the 18-30 age groups were Asian man-Asian woman marriage, but in 2006 the rate fell to 50%. In the same period, the white man-Asian woman combination rose, from 25% to 41%. Thus, Asian men have fewer Asian women to marry with. In the case of the black, the contrary is true; black women are being squeezed out of marriage to black men, who marry more and more with non-black women.
To conclude, interracial marriage has been increasing in number and is expected to do so in coming years. There are many advantages of interracial marriages, but there are also problems. The principal problem of interracial marriage is that of narrowing the cultural gap, especially the gap arising from family relationships and friend relationships. However, this problem can be overcome by bringing the non-Korean spouse more closely to the Korean culture on the one hand and, on the other hand, teaching the Korean family and the Korean community about North American culture.
7. Korean-Canadian Identity
Everybody has an identity. An identity is a set of characteristics of the person in terms of which the person’s belonging is determined. A person may have several identities. The number of identities depends on that of entities to which one belongs. For example, a person may belong to the Korean race; then the person is a Korean. The same person may have also a Canadian citizenship; then the person is a Canadian. So, this person has two identities expressed as Korean-Canadian. There are different types of identities, but the following four types are often associated with the lives of immigrants: racial, nationality, cultural and religious. These four types of identities are interrelated, especially the first three types. A person’s identity is often conceived in term of the interrelationship among racial, nationality and cultural characteristics.
I tell you my personal experience of identity. In the early seventies, I was invited by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France to give a special lecture on regional development at the University of Toulouse. After my lecture in front of a few hundred professors and students, there was a lavish dinner “à la française”. The dinner started at 18:00 and ended at 23:00. We had good time. The wife of a professor asked me where I came from. I replied: “I am from Canada!” But she seemed not convinced; she insisted on her curiosity about my “identity.” Knowing her mind, I said I was originally from Korea. Then she said: “Voila! You are different from other North American professors!” She added: “You are different, because you are polite by thanking everybody involved in inviting you here, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs and even the Train Master of the Toulouse Train Station. She added: “You are polite, because you are from a country which has a five-thousand year history and a great civilization!”
The implication of this story is clear. What the wife of the professor wanted was my identity composed of racial, cultural and national characteristics. She knew I was a Canadian, but she wanted to know my racial (Korean) and cultural (Korean) characteristics.
There is another way of looking at the identity. We may think of the “self-defined identity” and the “imposed-upon identity.” The former identity is what you think you are. Suppose that you are born in Montreal; you are educated entirely in Quebec; you have a job as civil servant. So, you think that you are a Quebecer so that you have all the rights and obligations as a Quebec citizen. If somebody asks you: “Who are you?,” you would reply: “I am a Quebecer!”. This is your self-defined identity. But how would a non-immigrant Quebecer of white race accept your reply? It is likely that they do not accept you as Quebecer, if you belong to a visible minority. In fact, in Quebec, one distinguishes between “Québécois de souche” (Quebecer of the original stock) and neo-Québécois (New Quebecer). You have then an imposed-upon identity of “new Quebecer”.
The white majority in Western society tends to impose a stereotype image on visible minority people; this process is called “profiling.” Profiling means the tendency to judge a person in terms of the person’s skin color and the ethnic group to which the person belongs. Thus, they associate the black with “drugs.”; they relate the Arabs with “terrorism”; they connect the Asians with “cultural ghetto.” The important thing is that, in the process of profiling, the person’s education, profession, philosophy of life, religious belief and other personal characteristics are ignored. The profiling is particularly serious in case of the black people. But, all the visible minority groups are subjected to a varying degree of profiling. Here we have the imposed-upon identity, namely the profiled identity.
Then, what should be the identity of Korean immigrant in Quebec? Let us begin with the self-defined identity in function of immigration status and age group. We can classify the Korean immigrants into (1) first generation; (2) 1.5 generation; (3) second generation.
It is most likely that none of the Korean immigrants think that they remain 100 % Korean; they all have composite identity composed of being Korean and being a Quebecer. The weight of the Quebec content and the Korea content can vary. If, for the first generation group, the Korea content is 80%, for the 1.5 and the second generation group, it may be, let us say, 60% and 40%, respectively. Therefore, when a Korean in Quebec says, “I am a Korean- Quebecer,” the meaning is different depending upon the type of group. What the first generation group wants to say is, “I am 80% Korean and 20% Quebecer.” What the second generation group says is, “I am 40% Korean and 60 % Quebecer.”
The strategic issue is the weight of the two cultural contents. Then, what is the appropriate Quebec content to have a successful life in Quebec? There is no answer, but if you have greater Quebec contents, you may have a better chance of doing well in Quebec. What is more important is, however, that you are proud of your identity. Whatever your identity is, you must feel it; to feel it, you must know what is meant by being Korean and by being a Quebecer. In other words, you must feel Korean and you must feel Quebecer. But how do we do that? To feel Korean you must do the following. You must know Korea and Korean culture. You must like what you know about Korea. There are things which the Korean immigrants don’t like about Korea such as the corruption of public leaders, very uneven distribution of income and the lack of public morality. But there are things that they should value such as economic miracle, close family ties, warm heart among friends and the wit and the gut to survive for five thousand years, despite almost annual invasions by big powers. So, you keep what you like; you must feel what you like; you must be proud of it.
Now I come to a more difficult part, namely, the problem of integrating the Quebec contents in the new identity of the Korean-Quebecer. When you talk about Quebec contents, you are also talking about Canadian contents, for Quebec is a part of Canada. Therefore, you must include in your new identity what you like about Canada and Quebec and, more than that, you must feel being a part of what you like about. Canada has many virtues: its vast land, limitless natural resources, well balanced government system, universal welfare system based on humanitarianism, absence of academic sectarianism, absence of discrimination by job category, global humanitarianism and generous aid to developing countries, high quality education system and, above all, high respect for human rights.
However, Quebec has something else. Quebec has preserved its language, culture and religion for 254 years despite the domination by English Canada since it became the colony of England in 1763. Quebec is the only really bilingual province in Canada; Quebec succeeded in transforming Quebec society into economically strong and a modern welfare state; Quebec has a variety of natural resources; Quebec provides a large portion of Canadian achievements in science, arts, cinema and international sports; Quebec has the most comprehensive autonomous immigration policy.
You may say, “I am a Canadian,” “I am a Korean-Canadian,” I am a Quebecer,” “I am a Korean-Quebecer” and so on. What is important is your self-definedidentity; you can ignore the imposed-upon identity; you have little control over it. Whatever you define your identity, be sure that you are that person; feel what you define yourself; be proud of your identity. The important thing is this. You are content with what you think you are; you must be proud of what you think you are. In fact, accepting your Koreanness is the “sine qua non” of your happiness and fulfillment of your life in Canada.