I AM AN IMMIGRANT!
Brian Sankarsingh writes about the concerning trend of belittling and demeaning immigrants in some Canadian communities
Canada Day has always meant something deeply personal to me. As a first-generation immigrant, I celebrate this country with gratitude because Canada gave me the chance to belong, to build a life, and to proudly call myself Canadian.
But love of country should never mean silence. Across Canada, we are seeing a rise in suspicion, hostility, and open hatred directed at immigrants, particularly those who are visibly brown. It echoes attitudes I experienced when I arrived in 1988, except today social media can amplify fear and prejudice at a speed we have never seen before.
Canada’s greatest strength has never been that we are perfect. It has been our willingness to choose inclusion over division, compassion over fear, and hope over resentment. That choice is never permanent. Every generation must make it again and with the same conviction as before.
As we celebrate Canada Day, let us also remain vigilant. The values that define this country endure only if we defend them. This poem is both a celebration of the Canada I love and a reminder that the Canada we leave to the next generation depends on the choices we make today.
“I am an immigrant” a sentence I once whispered as if it meant I left something sacred behind or if departure was traitorous and memory a country I betrayed But I am Canadian and that I said out loud because here I found reflections of myself in faces that did not fear difference in hands that did not tighten at color in voices that made room Yes, there were shadows there will always be shadows but they felt smaller then outnumbered by a quiet decency that did not need to announce itself Now I hear a shift in the wind It did not begin with fanfare and drums just a slight hardening in tone a narrowing of who belongs a language learning to bruise We have seen this before Fear dressed as reason Doubt dressed as concern Hate dressed in the careful clothing of policy and protection “They take our jobs” “They are all lazy” “Coming to live off my hard work In my country!” Contradictions spoken with certainty as if truth is optional when fear feels right But I have watched hands build watched strangers become employers become neighbors become the reason a street Lights up again I have seen what grows when you let people arrive with arms open wide Still people cling to what they know Familiarity feels like safety even when it shrinks the room we all must live in They speak of culture as if it were fragile glass as if it has never been shaped by a thousand unseen hands before it reached them They forget the music the language the food all of it borrowed and blended and built by those once called outsiders And then comes the oldest weapon fear of the unseen crime the imagined danger the story told just enough times to feel like fact A single incident becomes a narrative a narrative becomes a policy a policy becomes a wall built not of brick but of belief And sometimes leaders step forward not to steady the fear but to shape it to pander to it to sharpen it to stoke it …to use it They point they name they divide They promise protection while planting suspicion Because fear gathers crowds faster than truth ever will But I have also seen another way a country that understands its future is not behind it a country that grows because it lets others grow within it A place where new voices do not erase old ones but widens the chorus Where identity is not diluted but expanded We are not weaker for opening doors We are not lost for changing shape We are what we choose to welcome So, I say it again not quietly now I am an immigrant I am Canadian And I know this much the nations that clothe themselves in fear may feel strong for a moment but the ones that remain open even when it is hard or uncomfortable those are the ones that endure!
Bio: Brian Sankarsingh is a poetic firebrand, a sharp, thoughtful storyteller who walks the crossroads where Caribbean folklore, social justice, and the human condition collide. He is a truth-seeker who questions political tribes, challenges lazy platitudes, and writes with a deep pulse of empathy, always pushing for nuance whether you're exploring grief, cultural identity, or the monsters that haunt cane fields and hearts alike. He blends advocacy and art seamlessly. He is part historian, part philosopher, part bard, driven by a hunger to illuminate overlooked stories and empower marginalized voices.
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