It’s hard to notice being on the UW Campus for the majority of our stay, but in fact, there is really a growing immigrant population choosing to settle in mid-sized cities such as Kitchener-Waterloo. I remember reading an article from Nicholas Keung, who specializes on reporting topics related to immigration in the Star. Here’s the article “Why Immigrants Fare Better Outside GTA.”

He says that more immigrants are choosing to settle in the mid-sized cities because it has a lower cost of living, and poses less competition in the job market. I find this article interesting because people often settled in y’know the Big-3 gateway communities (Tor, Mon, Van).

Anyways, why I’m bringing up this topic is that I’m beginning to witness this trend. I was at the Philip/Albert Dollarama with my parents when I moved my things back to Waterloo. There was a middle-aged Chinese lady and judging from fashion, looks like a newcomer. She approaches me and asks me something in Mandarin about some product she has in her hand. I, knowing absolutely no Mandarin, asked my dad to go find out what she’s asking and help her out. Then staring at the two go at it. After when they finish I curiously asked what she was asking. She apparently was asking whether the product in her hand was detergent.

It was bleach.

Apparently, she was indeed a newcomer to Waterloo from Mainland China. It’s weird because that feeling felt so familiar to me. In a way, I kind of identified with her, it seemed like it was my family 15 years ago when we settled here. Obviously and luckily, my parents are fairly fluent in English, but nevertheless, the feeling was familiar.

Yes, it seems Waterloo is becoming 15-years-ago-Markham, where you are just happy to see someone of the same kind. I remember in our street in Markham, there was this other Chinese family, which we became very close to, and would just converse and talk just because we were the same. We share similar values, food, and language. It brings that homely feeling.

Of course, it’s not the case anymore in Markham.

I’m intrigued at the lifestyle of immigrants living in a place such as Kitchener-Waterloo. Even myself, who have settled and have adapted the culture for so long, still feel the culture clash when you leave the realm of the University. When you go to the Galaxy (or even Tuesday night Louies before the beer kicks in), I still get that feeling of being a minority. The life in UW is definitely not consistent with the life in the surrounding city. If even I feel this notion of culture clash, I can even imagine what the Chinese lady felt— not knowing the language, not understanding the culture. And what sucks is that there really isn’t that social support for these newcomers.

I really see that KW’s cultural landscape will for sure change in the next decade, however, I truly commend these families who decided to live here when there’s hardly a sign of anything culturally familiar.