Where Are You From?

Some of my immigrant (& not so immigrant) friends have turned to me in frustration saying "Why do they keep asking me where I'm from?!?!  I'm a Canadian citizen, I'm from Canada!"

The thing about this question is that some people who ask it are ignorant, some are lazy, and some are just curious.  In Canada (racists aside), there is a custom to learn more about someone who seems different.  It's a way of opening up a conversation in order to find out if what you know and think is true, or to learn things that you don't know.

And it doesn't just happen to immigrants and those who appear different.  When I was growing up in Alberta and a group of us who didn't already know each other would get together we'd ask each other the less politically correct version.  We'd sit in group and go around the table asking each other "So what are you?"  The person who was asked the question would then answer with their lineage - "My mother is ____ and my father is ____".  At this point anyone who wanted to learn more about those cultures would begin to ask questions.

It is, oddly, an open-ended question to further the goal of multicultural inclusiveness.  The more you know about and understand something that is or appears to be "different" and "unknown", the more inclusive you can be towards it.

Honestly, I would be more worried if Canadians stopped asking the question.  Because that would mean that they are far more likely to make their own assumptions and either force the "different" to conform or to exclude it and perhaps hate it.

I'm white & 3rd generation and I still get the question.  I mention that one side of my family is Irish and German, and the other side the Germans that fled the German genocide of the Russian revolution.  Most people don't usually know that there was mass violence perpetrated towards the Germans in parts of Russia, nor the devastation that happened to many who fled the iron curtain.  Just by asking, and my giving them the answer, we usually end up in a discussion about the effects of that on future generations.  In some cases, I've found out about similar situations in the families of the people I'm talking to.

Asking and being open to this question allows Canadians to learn more about each other's experiences and customs.  Learning more ways of doing things and learning about where a person came from brings new understanding about a person or people.  In the end, that willingness to be open can't really be a bad thing.

Addendum:  This does not mean that when they ask you, you cannot ask them, tho!  Just turn around and say "What is your family heritage?" or "And what are your ancestors?"