English Essay: Multiculturalism, Culture, and Immigration in Canada

This essay provides a comparative analysis of two articles, "No Place Like Home" by Neil Bissoondath and "I’m a Banana and Proud of It" by Wayson Choy, focusing on the themes of multiculturalism, culture, and immigration in Canada. The essay examines Bissoondath's discussion of multiculturalism and politics, contrasting it with Choy's exploration of cultural hybridity and assimilation of Chinese immigrants in North America. It highlights the challenges faced by immigrants in obtaining citizenship and the evolving cultural landscapes of Canada and North America. The comparison includes discussions on how culture is perceived, the impact of historical events like the Second World War, and the differing goals of Canada and North America regarding societal integration and the fight against injustice. The essay concludes by assessing the persuasiveness of each article, emphasizing their contributions to understanding multiculturalism, cultural history, and immigration.

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Introduction
The article “No Place Like Home” written by Neil Bissoondath is entirely based on the
discussion of identifying multiculturalism and politics in Canada. This particular essay provides
a more in-depth and broader discussion of the ideas and concerns of The Cult of
Multiculturalism in Canada (1994).
On the other hand, “I’m a Banana and Proud of it” written by a Canadian author
Wayson Choy. The article is based on the issues of cultural hybridity, assimilation and
multiculturalism of Chinese in Canada and the United States as per the perspective of the author.
The essay outlines the struggle of Chinese immigrants in North America.
Canadian and North American Multiculturalism puts an impact on the lives of the
citizens from other countries.
Based on the issue of multiculturalism the author Neil Bissoondath states that Canada is
being reshaped by quarterly-century of multiculturalism whereas, Toronto is redesigned by
immigration. The policy created a disastrous situation for the citizens of Canada as well for the
immigrants (Bissoondath 20). Therefore, to identify the existence of communities the author
within his essay stated the purpose of Canada’s Multiculturalism Act 1971. The Act promised
the immigrants to promote their understanding and creativity as well as enhance their
development.
Meanwhile, the author Wayson Choy demonstrated his experience related to
multiculturalism within his essay. He stated that during the early part of the century the Chinese
immigrants arrived British Columbia from China due to some unwanted circumstances. Due to
multiculturalism in North America, the Chinese were regarded as Aliens ("I'm A Banana And
Proud Of It -- By Wayson Choy). As a result, no Chinese immigrants were granted citizenship in
either the United States or Canada after the approval of Chinese Exclusion laws.
While comparing both the articles it has been observed that the citizens of Canada and
the immigrants of Toronto and China have faced difficult situations in becoming a citizen of the
country. In contrast, it can be seen that after the approval of Canada's Multiculturalism Act 1971

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the immigrants got citizenship in Canada. While Wayson Choy within his article revealed the
fact the after the approval of the Chinese Exclusion Laws the Chinese immigrants were not given
citizenship in North America (Berry and Hou 29). This clearly states the difference of
multiculturalism in both countries.
Moreover, both the articles defined the culture of both the countries, where according to
Neil Bissoondath culture could be displaced, and the one who seeks to begin their new life in a
new country may carry their culture of origin. The author considered culture as a more complex
creature that represents the criteria of the people. For multiculturalism, the Canadians were
classified into ethnic where they were mainly encountered at their festivals. The primary focus is
given to their traditional food, dancing, and music at untraditional prices (Sam 222). This not
only highlighted the differences but also the people were characterized by such differences.
On the other hand, Wayson stated that in North America the women were treated as a
bond- slaves and the Chinese men were named as Chink which is a hateful racist term. However,
the Second World War modified the hostile attitudes of the Americans towards the Chinese. This
demonstrated the culture and attitude of the North Americans towards Chinese (Kymlicka 17).
During the Second World War, the Chinese men lost their lives as a member of the Canadian and
American military. After hostilities ended the Chinese were proudly and eagerly waiting to go
overseas. After challenged by such ultimate sacrifices and money the Exclusion of laws in both
the United States and Canada were revoked. The residents were Chinatown appealed their
citizenship and were sent for their families.
By comparing both the articles, it can be seen that the culture of both the countries
Canada as well as North America changed to a great extent. In contrast, it has been noticed that
the Canadians were recognized through their traditional festivals whereas, Chinese immigrants
were recognized through due to their sacrifice they made in the Second World War (Prato 13).
This made the Chinese appeal for their citizenship in North America.
Furthermore, both the articles discussed the history of immigrants, where the essay “No
Place Like Home” stated that Canada is determined to be a place of immigrants. In Canada, the
immigrants feel like home, as it combats sexism and racism and other discriminations within the
community (Kubota 3). Based on the policy of multiculturalism the Canadians follow the new
vision of Canadianness.

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On the other hand, Wayson in his article “I’m a Banana and Proud of it” revealed the
fact that the Chinese immigrants behaved like North Americans by adopting American culture.
As a result, the Chinese distanced themselves from the history of Chinatown and became banana.
The American and Canadian ignored their family differences and motivated one another to fight
against injustice (Shan and Walter 19).
Thus, by reading both the articles it has been observed that both the countries Canada and
North America accepted the immigrants and eliminated the cultural differences. The significant
comparison is the ultimate goals of both the countries were Canada aims to build an effective and
cohesive society that is fulfilled with a variety of cultures across the world. Whereas, North
America aims to eliminate the differences between their family tongue and seeks to enhance each
other to fight against injustice by crossing all borders.
Conclusion
The paper helped in comparing and contrasting both the articles that are based on the
issues of multiculturalism, culture, and immigration. It has been observed that the article “No
Place Like Home” is regarded as more persuasive as it provided a brief knowledge about
Canadian multiculturalism, its culture and regarding immigration. Whereas, the article “I’m a
Banana and Proud of it” is determined to be less persuasive as Wayson provided more
information about the struggles of Chinese immigrants rather than describing the culture of
North America. It has been observed that both articles are different from each other in various
aspects. On the other hand, they also possess various similarities related to multiculturalism.
Therefore, both the articles provided a clear and concise definition of multiculturalism, cultural
history, and immigration along with its impact on the people.

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Works Cited
"I'm A Banana And Proud Of It -- By Wayson Choy." Geocities.ws. N. p., 2019. Web. 16 Mar.
2019.
Berry, John W., and Feng Hou. "Acculturation, discrimination and wellbeing among second
generation of immigrants in Canada." International Journal of Intercultural Relations 61
(2017): 29-39.
Bissoondath, Neil. "No place like home." New Internationalist305 (1998): 20-22.
Kubota, Ryuko. "Race and language learning in multicultural Canada: Towards critical
antiracism." Journal of multilingual and multicultural development 36.1 (2015): 3-12.
Kymlicka, Will. "The three lives of multiculturalism." Revisiting multiculturalism in Canada.
SensePublishers, Rotterdam, 2015. 17-35.
Prato, Giuliana B. "Introduction–Beyond multiculturalism: anthropology at the intersections
between the local, the national and the global." Beyond Multiculturalism. Routledge,
2016. 13-32.
Sam, David L. "Understanding positive immigrant youth adaptation in the context of
multiculturalism." Journal of adolescence 62 (2018): 222-225.
Shan, Hongxia, and Pierre Walter. "Growing everyday multiculturalism: Practice-based learning
of Chinese immigrants through community gardens in Canada." Adult education
quarterly 65.1 (2015): 19-34.