An Immigrant’s Memoir: The Contentious Struggle for National Identity Amid a White Nationalist Campaign Against Immigrants of Colour

By Abdullahi M Arale

The book is a nonfiction, storytelling memoir, narrated by the author himself from his personal immigration dilemmas in terms of early migration experiences to Canada, his ensuing struggles for establishing legal status and equally striving to fit into the Canadian society, through the process of integration. Through this chronicle, the book emphasizes the need for social justice that is equality before the law, equal opportunity for employment and equal justice and treatment for all Canadians irrespective of their skin color, national origin, faith and sexual orientation. It strives in this historical and experiential narrative to expose the undeclared racial and religious battles percolating in Canada since its inception, manifesting themselves in racist and discriminatory public displays often organized and carried out by a racist, white nationalist section of society, against immigrants about which no one, specifically, ‘white Canadians’ do not want to talk about, never mind taking a clear position against it. The book strives as well to shed light on “the European superiority myth” (Hughes, 08, 2015) and [ Why Europe is the superior civilization; why not China” ( Landes, spring 2006)]” which both authors ascribe the principle causes of bondage, death, disease, crimes against humanity to this very Eurocentric mindset. Equally, as reported by Andrea Smith the author of “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy is attributable to the genocide against Indigenous Peoples of the African, Australian and North American continents (Smith, A).
The author, as a new Canadian, experiences prejudice and stereotype in a university classroom. He envisioned that white supremacists must not use university venues as a platform for their bigoted views. Hence, he decides to write a book addressing the myth of euro superiority. In this work, the author disposes cruelties used by north American white settlers to enslave black people, massacre, humiliate and dispossess Indigenous peoples ‘lands. Notwithstanding of its defeat in WWWII, ,Euro superiority thrives to this day, causing social disunity here in North America and elsewhere. Five-point proposals are put forward to empower Canadian institutions as well as citizens against white supremacy ideology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jun 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781663224262

Abdullahi M Arale

The book is a nonfiction, storytelling memoir, narrated by the author himself from his personal immigration dilemmas in terms of early migration experiences to Canada, his ensuing struggles for establishing legal status and equally striving to fit into the Canadian society, through the process of integration. Through this chronicle, the book emphasizes the need for social justice that is equality before the law, equal opportunity for employment and equal justice and treatment for all Canadians irrespective of their skin color, national origin, faith and sexual orientation. It strives in this historical and experiential narrative to expose the undeclared racial and religious battles percolating in Canada since its inception, manifesting themselves in racist and discriminatory public displays often organized and carried out by a racist, white nationalist section of society, against immigrants about which no one, specifically, ‘white Canadians’ do not want to talk about, never mind taking a clear position against it. The book strives as well to shed light on “the European superiority myth” (Hughes, 08, 2015) and [ Why Europe is the superior civilization; why not China” ( Landes, spring 2006)]” which both authors ascribe the principle causes of bondage, death, disease, crimes against humanity to this very Eurocentric mindset. Equally, as reported by Andrea Smith the author of “Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy is attributable to the genocide against Indigenous Peoples of the African, Australian and North American continents (Smith, A). The author, as a new Canadian, experiences prejudice and stereotype in a university classroom. He envisioned that white supremacists must not use university venues as a platform for their bigoted views. Hence, he decides to write a book addressing the myth of euro superiority. In this work, the author disposes cruelties used by north American white settlers to enslave black people, massacre, humiliate and dispossess Indigenous peoples ‘lands. Notwithstanding of its defeat in WWWII, ,Euro superiority thrives to this day, causing social disunity here in North America and elsewhere. Five-point proposals are put forward to empower Canadian institutions as well as citizens against white supremacy ideology.

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Copyright © 2021 Abdullahi M Arale.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-2425-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-2426-2 (e)

iUniverse rev. date: 06/04/2021

Contents

Acknowledgment

Preface

Introduction

Part I—Immigration and the Resurgence of White Supremacist Ideology

Chapter 1: Immigration Experiences: Early Euphoria versus Unavoidable Hardships

Chapter 2: The Journey North

Chapter 3: Mixed Feelings of Relief (Hurrah I Made It) and Sadness (What Am I Doing Here?)

Chapter 4: Limited Mobility

Chapter 5: Taking Odd Jobs

Chapter 6: Deceived and Taken Advantage of Due to Cultural Incompetence

Chapter 7: First Serious Exposure to Racism in Canada

Chapter 8: Consequential Spread of White Nationalism/Supremacy

Chapter 9: The Ideological Applications of Racial Superiority

Chapter 10: Discrediting the European Superiority Myth

Chapter 11: Application of White Supremacy Dogma

Chapter 12: White Settlers’ Conquest of North America (the New World)

Chapter 13: Tightening the Loop around the Indigenous Neck

Chapter 14: Indigenous Children and Residential Schools

Chapter 15: Building White Supremacist Institutions in the Conquered Land

Chapter 16: Establishment of Anglo-Saxon Subgroup Supremacy in Canada

Chapter 17: Temporary Defeat of White Supremacy in the Post-War Period

Chapter 18: Steps towards Social Policy Reforms

Chapter 19: Correcting Past Wrongdoings against Indigenous Peoples

Chapter 20: Resurgence of White Nationalism

Chapter 21: Stand-Off between White Nationalists and Immigrants

Chapter 22: Immigrants’ Attitude towards Their New Country

Chapter 23: Refugees’ Instinctive Desire for Self-Restoration and Reinvigoration

Chapter 24: Canadians’ Expectations of Fellow Immigrant Citizens and Vice Versa

Part II—Recommendations for Thwarting White Supremacy

Chapter 25: True Political Representation for all Canadians

Chapter 26: Mixed Member Proportional Representation

Chapter 27: Strengthening Canadian Hate Crime Laws

Chapter 28: Sensible and Up-to-Date Immigration Policies and Settlement Programs

Chapter 29: Patronizing Attitudes towards Immigrants Must Stop

Chapter 30: A National and Foreign Policy Vision Reflective of All Canadian Citizens’ Views

Conclusion

References

Acknowledgment

I hereby acknowledge my children, Nasra, Maryama, Kawsar, Mohamed, Abdisamad, and Theresa J Warren, a close friend of mine, who motivated me to get on with this writing project at times of sluggishness and indecision on my part. I thank them for motivating me to select an interesting topic, relevant to the current, pressing political issues in North America and in the world in a broader sense. Because of your pep talk and encouragement, I would not have been successful in written this memoir all by myself. Thanks very much indeed.

Preface

The author’s biography: Education

Abdullahi M Arale holds a bachelor’s of arts in DLS (teaching English as a second language), a bachelor’s degree in political science and a bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Ottawa.

In addition, he holds a master’s of education from the Ontario Institute for Graduate Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.

Author’s profile

It is a bittersweet feeling that comes with examining my lifelong learning journey reflectively, especially when it encompasses experiences from different cultures, values, educational systems and systems of governments. I was born in a time when my country of origin was still under the direct influence of its former colonizer, Italy, with respect to economic, social and educational development. In my teenage years, I lived in the former Soviet Union for four years. In my early twenties up to my early thirties, I lived in my native country, Somalia, where I served in the military and went to war for it. Within that decade, I got married, had my children and lived there as a fully productive citizen of the state.

From my early thirties to date, I live in Ontario, Canada, where I raised children, got a higher education and led a peaceful life. Having lived in such diverse geographical regions with diverse cultures and having been exposed to such different civilizations, way of lives and systems of government, I came to the conclusion that culture, identity and loyalty change with one’s changing circumstances and realities of life. For instance, at one point, I was a citizen of my birth country, Somalia. At another time, I was a temporary resident of the Soviet Union. And presently, I am a citizen of Canada. Here, I’d like to share with you how my lifelong learning experiences shaped my citizenship statuses, identities and civic duties in the noted periods and spaces within a chronological timeline outlined here.

From 0 to 5

This time frame was my first venture out into my immediate physical environment. Within the norms of informal learning, I effortlessly and unintentionally acquired ample knowledge about my native language, parents, community and environment. Within this period, I learned that I was my father’s son and my mother’s child. I came to understand also that, outside my family, I belonged to a clan within a greater tribe. I also came to understand that I had one God to worship and Mecca and the direction or qibla to face when praying to this God.

I acquired also in this time frame a good knowledge base about the universe and the environment around me. For instance, I figured out that the sky, the earth, the stars, the trees and the water were major life-and-death natural elements that had absolute control over my life and livelihood. Correspondingly, I made the connection that water came from the sky, fell on earth’s soil and grew green grass and fresh tree leaves—essential to the family’s livestock, who would give us milk and meat. The learning experience of this time frame highlights the concepts of identity, belonging and loyalty, which had become an essential social instrument for my survival along the difficult road ahead in my life.

Age 6 to 12

This time frame was a period of cultural turmoil and identity dissonance. I started primary school in a well-organized formal classroom setting. During this period, I became a bicultural child unintentionally; early in the day, I would attend classes taught by Italian teachers, teaching students in the Italian language. And later in the day, I would go back home, where pressing issues affecting my family’s immediate living concerns were discussed.

These different realities on the ground created a great deal of perceptual dissonance in my young mind. At home, I was back to my reality—listening to stories and tales of Somali folk legends and taking part in traditional Somali children’s play. On the other hand, in the classrooms, I identified with my Italian teachers, as they represented my future aspirations of individual progress and were gentle, agreeable and easy to socialize with, which helped me feel good about myself.

I learned from this informal learning in a formal learning setting (Daniel Schugurensky) that loyalty and belonging did not exclusively relate to biology and blood ties, like some tribal cultures proposed. For instance, at one time, I thought I belonged with my Italian teachers for their pleasant socialization, and at another, I felt belonging with my substitute Soviet mother, who gave me no less love than my biological mother. As a result of this overwhelming pouring of cultures into my life and heart and mind in such a short time, I missed an opportunity to gain a basic civic education that children of my age, in other locations, may have acquired related to their native countries.

Age 13 to 17

This time frame was the most dramatic and eventful period in my life in terms of citizenship and civic virtues. Rejection of the status quo (dependency on foreign aid, social stratification, tribalism, and so on) was the highlight of this period. As part of the 1970s’ socialist/leftist third world revolutions, a military regime took power in Somalia. Soon after their takeover, the regime got rid of the democratically elected civilian government, nationalized all foreign-owned assets and scrapped the generations-old Italian educational system, replacing it with one that reflected the country’s national symbols and character—a brand-new Somali national curriculum. The whole country was mobilized. National literacy programs were initiated.

Equality before the law was proclaimed by the regime. This included equal employment opportunities for all citizens and equality of women and men in all dimensions of society, such as education and reproductive rights. This stirred a great deal of animosity between genders across the Somali society.

The following incident highlights one woman’s struggle for an equal opportunity for education with her husband. My mother fought against her husband’s (my father’s) attempts to drag her back to the past. She enrolled in an adult night school for a career advancement course, which she could not have done under the previous civilian government. My father, probably feeling like he was losing control of his wife, enrolled in the same course in the same classroom with her. In the classroom, through passive aggression, my father would behave belligerently towards teachers and students. Looking back, I see that my father’s presence in the classroom and his disruptive conduct was nothing more than a cheap trick intended to embarrass my mother in front of her peers, so that she would quit school and run back home where he wanted her to be. Eventually, my father was sensible enough to understand that my mother was serious about hanging on to these newly found rights. And as a result, he removed himself from the school.

All over the country, across the air waves, patriotic songs and poems were played on the radio twenty-four seven. As an easily impressionable adolescent boy, I was hypnotized by and attracted to these nationalistic drumbeats, to the point where I resented earlier associations with my Italian teachers in and out of the school.

It was in this time period that I learned much about the history of my country, particularly the conquests by the Italian, British and French and their subsequent occupations of it. This biased deconstruction of history created an aggrieved indignant bearing towards the Italians, the British and the French. In this nonformal learning, I was told repeatedly that, in order to be a reliable citizen, I had to be vigilant, active and ready for my country’s defence against foreign interventions.

Notwithstanding these great citizenship and patriotic revivals by the regime, still citizens did not have freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom of thought.

I believe it was in this time frame as well that I learned about the concepts of citizenship and identity. Through situational and experiential learning (Kalb, 289–96), I came to understand that Italians were foreign forces that had occupied my country for decades and that the Somali land belonged to the Somalis only. Through this experiential, nonformal learning, I realized that social change began within my own family. Watching my mother in action, rejecting my father’s behaviour and attitude that represented the status quo was an eye-opening experience, which probably facilitated the changes I made later in my life.

Age seventeen to twenty-four

This was a period of venturing out to the world to launch my career. The highlights of this period were traveling abroad, learning about other countries’ system of government and local people’s cultures and respecting other people’s ways of lives, no matter how strange they might have looked in the beginning.

Due to the hyped nationalism infused in me by the military regime, at 17, I enlisted in the Somali Armed Forces as a cadet officer, swearing to defend the country’s borders from internal and external aggression. For the following four years, I lived in Odessa, a large Soviet port city on the black seacoast, now in Ukraine proper.

Parallel to the regular military teachings and training, I was equally acquainting myself with the local people’s culture and their world views and lifestyles on the street level. I learned through socialization (Merrifield 2004) from my host family the symbols and cultural expressions of the local people.

I remember one culture shock that stirred quite a commotion within my sponsor family. I left with my sponsor family for the weekend to visit their collective farming home. When we got there, the family (mother, a son and a daughter, and me) were all sick and depressed due to the cold winter weather we’d travelled through. Mother, Valentina (Mamushka), gave each of us half a glass of a red substance I was not familiar with. Mother told me it was good for me. By the time three-quarters of the substance was down in my belly, my body started to loosen up, my eyes grew wider, and a strange sensation took over my body. I became delirious and probably drunk; it was a homemade red wine that turned me into a wild boar. I started to throw up and urinate on myself. Mother and my adopted siblings came to my rescue; they wrapped my body with heavy blankets and laid me down in front of a home heating furnace. A few hours later, I was back to normalcy.

What I learned from this adventure was that this family was no different from my own in terms of how they treated me and indulged me with love. Mother would sometimes come unannounced during the weekend to the military college quarters where I lived. She would ask the authorities if she could take me out for one or two hours. During this period, I learned about other people’s unconditional love for me even though I wasn’t related to them.

I also learned that, beyond politics and nationalism, there are values that are universal for all societies. For instance, my adopted mother in Ukraine did not know whether I had a faith or not. When I told her I believed in God, she simply said, Does this God care about you as much as I care about you?

I said, Probably yes.

Then all is good, she said.

When I enquired about her faith, she told me with apparent indifference, My grandparents believed in Jesus before Lenin came.

I guess the English proverb look before you leap has a great relevance to this experience—demonstrating that preconceived notions and distorted prior knowledge do not equal truth. As a young man, I came to the Soviet Union with the stereotype that Soviet people were brainwashed Communists who worshipped their politburo (the Communist party’s central committee) and had no insights and thoughts of their own. On the ground, I found a different reality—the local people, to whom my adopted family belonged, were honorable, proud people with autonomous individual values and thoughts.

*     *     *

In short, my access to these diverse cultures, values and civilizations, without a doubt, made me a better person, in terms of understanding and respecting the diverse traditions and customs among humankind more than I would have if I’d remained in Somalia to this date. I also believe that my access to different systems of governments made me understand the differences among systems of government and equally appreciate and respect democracy over dictatorship and authoritarianism. Having lived under authoritarian systems both in the Soviet Union and in Somalia, I learned that having food on the table and a secure job cannot be the only goals citizens should live for and aspire to. I found in Canada something that no other country could have granted me—individual rights, freedom and liberty.

Introduction

What is the book about?

The book is a nonfiction, storytelling memoir. Narrated by the author himself, it chronicles his personal immigration dilemmas—his experiences of early migration to Canada and his ensuing struggles establishing legal status and, equally, striving to fit into the Canadian society through the process of integration.

Through this chronicle, the author emphasizes the need for social justice—that is, equality before the law; equal justice; and equal treatment for all Canadians irrespective of their skin colour, national origin, faith and sexual orientation. In a, through his account, he authenticates and confirms the difficult journeys and predicaments refugees and migrants run into in their struggle to reach safer countries in Europe and North America. Such dilemmas including modern slavery, barbaric killing, human trafficking, rape and sexual exploitation by sinister, illegal, borderless, underground organized criminals.

The author strives as well in this historical and experiential story to expose the undeclared racial and religious battles that have percolated in Canada since its inception, manifesting themselves in racist and discriminatory public displays often organized and carried out by a racist, white nationalist section of society against immigrants about which no one, specifically, the Canadian-born population, wants to talk—never mind taking a clear position or a noteworthy action against it. The lack of resolve on the part of the population to confront this evil bigotry nearby them in a significant public way is, to a certain extent, giving a green light to white nationalists to harass and perpetrate violence against racialized and religious minorities to the bewilderment of the immigrant population—citizens of colour, that is.

The author also strives to shed light on the European superiority myth (Hughes 2015) and why Europe is the superior civilization, not China (Landes 2006). Both authors ascribe the principle causes of bondage, death, disease and crimes against humanity to this very Eurocentric mindset.

Equally, the author explores the concepts of indigenous genocide and false beliefs about motivations for immigration. As Andrea Smith notes in Indigeneity, Settler Colonialism, White Supremacy, white supremacy is attributable to the genocide against indigenous peoples of the African, Australian and North American continents (Smith in HoSang, LaBennett, and Pulido 2012). In the analysis, the writer endeavours to challenge and refute the utterly false narratives of nativist Canadians and their white supremacist counterparts concerning immigrants’ ulterior motives for coming to Canada. Smith explicitly asserts that immigrants do not come to Canada with a plan to alter Canada’s population demographics and, in the final analysis, to replace white people with themselves (white genocide conspiracy theory). In response to this deceitful accusation, the author describes in detail the real causes behind refugees’ exodus from their countries of origin and the catastrophic dilemmas they encounter during their migrations towards the West.

The author will also include a deep analysis of another commonly accepted false narrative asserted by white nationalism in white majority countries as a response to the influx of refugees from Third World countries. This is the belief that the refugees’ primary goal is to occupy white people’s turf and take advantage of the available social welfare, consequently draining all financial resources and forcing host countries to declare financial crises and bankruptcies.

Contrary to the altered and humanized version of their history, European superiority is an old, bigoted and vicious ideology concocted in the 1600s. Over the following four centuries, it’s been developed and enhanced, marketed and used to promote white supremacy over all other earth-dwelling races without believable theories.

The author proposes several recommendations as to how Canadians as a society could overcome this frightening ideology of Euro supremacy and rally around the flag for unity and coexistence among themselves with respect and mutuality. The narrative concludes its analysis of the topic at hand on a positive note, pointing out the many reasons for which Canadians should be proud of their country’s social, economic, and technological achievements, which must motivate them to keep their country together in the wake of this menacing resurgence of white supremacy.

In this, the author wishes to engage the young section of his audience. This group never had an opportunity to fully understand their country’s consummate maintenance of rule of law, supported by democratic governance, strong legal