Immigrants...You Just Gotta Love 'Em...

[Rob A.]

While looking for one thing I found another...

I came across this ...it's an Italian story, but I think probably applies to many immigrants...

One day we got lost in Pordenone. On a long drive from Udine to Bassano we took a wrong turn and found ourselves in a newly built area of Pordenone. The streets, sidewalks, green lawns and house designs were all a reproduction of a new subdivision in Toronto. We were lost, but we were back in Canada. It was a disorienting experience. These former immigrants to Canada had returned to Friuli, but had wanted to reconstruct their Toronto neighbourhood. They wanted both worlds: to live in Friuli, but in a Canadian style, and probably with Canadian dollars.

....there's more...it's a bit long. ...here's the link if you want to read on...

http://www.athabascau.ca/cll/pivatoessa ... riters.htm

...now I'm not singling out Italians...I was brought up in a community with lots of them...

...but it seems immigrants are always wanting to be somewhere else...When they were in Canada these same people probably thought constantly of Friuli... Now they think constantly of Toronto...

So maybe this phenomenon explains some of the Suomenjenkkiläiset ...or Suomen"kanuck"ilaiset ...

[otyikondo]

"Niinpä hän lausahti syvälle sisimpääni syöpyneen, arvatenkin monen suomalaisen siirtolaisen
kokemuksen: – Kun kerran on matkannut Atlantin yli, niin aina on väärällä puolella.

[Mattlill2000]

Also Toronto and a lot of other towns and cities in Canada were built by Italian Construction Labour and a lot of the design features on these homes have a strong Italian influence with it with houses built in the early or mid 1900's onward. I suppose you can say this group of people are giving back what they took with them in a way.

[Rob A.]

"Niinpä hän lausahti syvälle sisimpääni syöpyneen, arvatenkin monen suomalaisen siirtolaisen
kokemuksen: – Kun kerran on matkannut Atlantin yli, niin aina on väärällä puolella.

Well... Kyyneleet pois Argentiina!!...searching for the quote lead me to an interesting story about "Colonia Finlandesa"...not that my Finnish is up to totally undestanding it, but it's good practice anyway...

http://www.merimieskirkko.fi/lehdet/mmk2_06.pdf ...at page 16...

And I suppose, in the end, the "Immigrant's Dilemma" is related to this age-old "evil", or "good", depending on your perspective... :

Only Hope was left within her unbreakable house,
she remained under the lip of the jar, and did not
fly away. Before she could, Pandora replaced the
lid of the jar.

[Rob A.]

Also Toronto and a lot of other towns and cities in Canada were built by Italian Construction Labour and a lot of the design features on these homes have a strong Italian influence with it with houses built in the early or mid 1900's onward. I suppose you can say this group of people are giving back what they took with them in a way.

Indeed...that is true...it's hard to imagine Canada, particularly places like Toronto and Vancouver...and many of the smaller industrial towns, too , without that tsunami of Italian immigration after WW II ...When I first read your post, I immediately thought of the city of Vaughan... on the northwest edge of metro Toronto... I checked the demographics and was not at all surprised to find in the ethnic origins section...Italian...43.96%....the next largest group...Jewish...16.9%...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaughan%2C_Ontario

Apparently the Italian governmment requires a visa for exit and entry into the city...

"Buon giorno!! Parlate italiano!!"...