As I travel down 120 St (Scott Rd), in Surrey, I am fascinated by the width of the street and a distinctly foreign atmosphere. The sides of the road are lined with store fronts with Punjabi characters advertising clothing, sweet shops, passport photo agencies, and banks.
I venture into one of the shops with curiosity and peruse the skirts, lengas, shawls and jewelry. I look over at the shop attendant and register a stare of curiosity and almost disapproval. For the first time I feel awkward and aware that I don't belong. I wonder, is this hostility I am experiencing? I may have detailed knowledge of culture, language, food and clothing having lived and been educated in India for years of my childhood, none the less here in Canada my Anglo-Canadian skin betrays me. I am not Punjabi and I feel I do not belong.
Ofcourse Canadian cities offer ethnic mixing and intergration. My best friends are Latino and my brother's are Iranian. But once we move to the city edge, experiences like mine along Scott Road become all too common. Abbotsford, Richmond, Surrey, Coquitlam (just to mention the suburbs of the Lower Mainland) become the zones of ethnic isolation. It is no wonder that my appearance in a Surrey Punjabi shop is met with stares and curiosity. With such a large Punjabi community in Surrey what is the necessity for inter-cultural interaction and mixing?
Evidently Canada is a society of many ethnicities and cultures. There are all the cultures of all immigrant groups that come, which are so pleasantly preserved within the suburban setting.
But what culture is being created for Canada? A culture of isolation, spectacle and fear?
