On "Integration" and Language.
I've been turning this over in my head today, and I finally feel like posting about it.

I had my final lecture for Colonialism and Independence in South East Asia yesterday. Carl's one of those fascinating lecturers where you just feel quite overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in his brain. But that's rather beside the point.

We were talking about Malaysia and Singapore, and the problems they've had with ethnic divisions, particularly between Malays, Chinese and Indians. With reference to Singapore, there was discussion of Lee Kuan Yew's enforcement of multiculturalism, where he decried Malay and Indian "ethnic enclaves" (point of note for those not aware; Singapore has a Chinese majority). His solution was to put everyone in lovely new public housing, but place restrictions on the number of each ethnic minority allowed to live in each housing block. The effect? A Chinese majority in each housing block, to keep those uppity Malays and Indians in check.

Whilst I doubt Western countries would go so far as to legislate that only so many of each ethnic minority is allowed to live in a particular area, the seemingly endless stream of complaints about minorities 'secluding themselves in their own communities' and 'enclaves' and 'ghettos' and such like seem, to me, to come from the same idea. An at least subconscious feeling of discomfort that there are places in our society where whites aren't a visible majority. A failure to understand that maybe people of colour need those spaces and communities sometimes, because all other spaces are dominated by whites. In a community that's 'integrated' the way most whites would consider 'integrated', whites still dominate. Because too many whites would likely perceive a truly integrated community as not integrated but 'overrun by minorities'.

In a related note, I'm tired of white people assuming that anyone speaking a different language in public is one of "those dirty migrants who won't learn English". Unless you look white, in which case everyone praises you for how learned and multicultural you are and how clever you must be for learning another language. No, I'm not bitter or anything. But seriously, more than half the people who've been all "Oh, I could never learn another language, you're so clever" back when my Cantonese skills weren't nearly as deteriorated as they are now, have also trotted out the "dirty migrants who won't learn English properly" trope. And it makes me want to scream and throw things. Because honestly, "Oh but I wouldn't move to another country" only goes so far. Because we don't tell migrants who've learned English that they're so clever. They just get derision when they haven't, or when they struggle. We expect them to do it like it's easy. Not to mention the fact that I've had way too many whites, after praising me for being so clever, withdraw that praise after I mention my mother is Chinese, because then apparently my language skills are because my mother won't integrate and is trying to brainwash me against my Australianness and what does my father think about all this? *beats head against wall*.