Thursday 9 June 2016

Following up on my family's roots, Where would i be without immigration

Devon MacLean

Ms. Kurtz

Eng 3U

Thurs, June 9th


Following up on my family's roots

Where would I be without immigration?

 If I had been asked where my family had came from before I took up on my family heritage, I would have said that my maternal roots are in Scotland and my paternal roots are in Quebec. I basically only had a vague idea on both and decided to talk to my grandmother about her mom, who I learned was born in Dundee, Scotland in 1925 and emigrated to Toronto in 1946. My great grandmother Ann Arnott was a war bride and ended up marrying a Canadian soldier by the name of Walter Alexander Hoping for a brighter future in Canada than Scotland had to offer at the time. She came over on a boat called the Queen Mary ship which the prime minister at the time was on (William Mackenzie)



Before starting this project I was rather unaware of why My great grandmother had emigrated from Dundee, Scotland to Toronto, Canada. After further research I learned that my great grandmother was one of 48,000 war brides who met and married Canadian soldiers during the second world war. Many war brides looked at Canada as a place of opportunity especially for my grandmother as Scotland's unemployment rate was higher than ever while Canada at the time had better financial opportunities (Scottishaffairs.com). My grandmother would have been coming back to Canada with her husband at a time of Canada coming out of a 6 year war and a decade of depression which meant Canada was on the rise for the first time in 10 years, filled with mass opportunity and great leaders, there was no wonder everyone wanted to emigrate to Canada which in the time period was also considered the promise land. After getting to Canada Ann became a nurse at the Toronto Grace hospital as for Walter, he worked for the largest manufacturing company in Canada at the time, Massey-ferguson which made things like farm machines and combines plies.



Shortly after Ann adapted to the Canadian lifestyle, her and Walter decided to raise children since Canada was such a suitable place at the time and ended up having three children one being my mom's mother who would live a life of Canadian culture instead of kilts and haggis. Although Ann did not let her children grow up without knowing they're heritage and kept some of the Scottish rituals in order, for instance my uncle got married in a kilt and bagpipes behind him. Some of the major push and pull factors for emigrants coming to Canada would have been. Overall I feel as though my great grandparents made the successful decision on immigrating to Canada but one question in the back of my mind being, what would my life in Dundee, Scotland be like?

Push Factor (Scotland)
Pull Factor (Canada)
Poverty & Unemployment
The ability to have a better life financially
Natural Disasters
Opportunity / future opportunity for children
The land was poor and difficult to grow crops on
Rights & Freedom
Collapse of the social structure in europe
Multicultural


Overall I feel as though my great grandparents made the successful decision on immigrating to Canada but one question in the back of my mind being, what would my life in Dundee, Scotland be like?
After doing some research on Scotland. I've noticed that there are some major differences between economy's, culture, landscape & culture. One thing that would impact my lifestyle is that sport in Scotland is mostly driven to Football, Rugby and golf, where as all my life i have played lacrosse and hockey although the physicality would still be there in the rugby, and i feel as though i could have enjoyed those sports. Another thing is the real estate market. Real estate is much more expensive in Scotland apposed to Canada although Scotland's landscape and architecture is extraordinary and is filled with castles and some of the nicest golf courses known to man. 
 
In conclusion I feel as though my life might have been substantially different to the one I live here in Canada, mainly due to different culture, costs of living, scenery and landscape. Although I will always be a Scotsman at heart.
 
 
Works Cited Page


-"TICR Appeal." TICR Appeal. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2016.
-”Scottish Affairs Law and Medical Negligence Claims Law.” N.p., n.d. Web. 09 June 2016.
-Flack, Derek. "What Industry Used to Look like in Toronto." BlogTO RSS. N.p., 2012. Web. 09 June 2016.
- Barbra MacLean. Personal Interview. June 2016






 





1 comment:

  1. Sensational word Devon. I enjoyed reading this it had a lot of hmm what should I call it? Pizzazz. I like how you included the appropriate amount of humor and seriousness for this assignment. I also liked how you mentioned sports in your article. Keep up the good work buddy.

    ReplyDelete