NOT all the same
When we lived in Toronto in the 1990s, we would take long journeys to Manitoba for Christmas and summer breaks. On one trip we stopped in at the Clearspring Mall in Steinbach, as I (Arley) had to pick up some food. Janice and the girls waited in the car. Janice said, “Let’s see who can see Dad come out of the store first.” They waited and waited; Dad wasn’t coming, but lots of other men were. Suddenly one of the girls blurted out, “They all look the same, Mom! They all look like Dad!”
Generalizing
How quickly and naturally we generalize people. Today, as more newcomers are coming to Canada it is easy to do the same—to lump them into one singular group, as if they were all the same. We are the West, and they are the Rest, to use the title of a controversial analysis of Western civilization (Civilization: The West and the Rest by Niall Ferguson).
To be true, categorizing humans into groups is normal. The problem is when we place people into only one group. We often do this based on a person’s religion or cultural area. And while a person’s religious or cultural allegiance is very important, when we do this, we reduce people to something less than they are. And they remain outside of our group.
We all belong to a variety of groups. A person can be, at one time, a Canadian citizen, evangelical Christian, German-speaking Mennonite ancestry, politically conservative, female, athlete, young mother—each category is a distinct affiliation, though some categories are more significant than others.
However, cultural and religious distinctions are important, and we begin to understand people who are different than ourselves in this way. In this article, I want to highlight similarities and differences of the many newcomers arriving in Canada, and as we will see, they are not the same as each other.
Warm and cold cultures
One helpful way to describe differences is to talk about people coming from warm or cold cultures. Sarah A. Lanier has a very easy-to-read book on understanding different cultures and societies, Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot- and Cold-Climate Cultures. This book would be especially helpful for Sunday school or small group studies or mission groups.
People from warm cultures are seen as being more relational and community-oriented.
A “warm” culture does not refer to weather, nor does “cold” mean cold-hearted. Rather, people from warm cultures are seen as being more relational and community-oriented. On the other hand, people from cold cultures value order and structures, even though they like to think of themselves as social and sociable.
Generally speaking, people from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America are from warm (relational) cultures. They will emphasize aspects of life such as:
Personal relationships.
Making sure that there is a “good-feel” in communication.
People are more important than time and efficiency.
Greetings and tea come first, then the actual business, if there still is time.
The extended family is more important than the individual. They cannot understand the Western world’s senior citizen homes.
In contrast, Europeans and North Americans emphasize aspects of life such as:
Tasks and jobs. We quickly ask each other, “So what work do you do?”
Facts. Communication is to provide correct information.
Time and efficiency are very important.
Logic and order. We must emphasize what is right in contrast to what is wrong, irrespective of who the wrong or right person are.
An individual and their rights are more important than the group.
This distinction is helpful, and Caucasian Canadians would do well to intentionally “warm up” and stretch themselves to be more flexible and relational. We may think we are relational, but easily overlook how individualistic we have become, in comparison to communal cultures. Consider these examples:
One or two individuals live by themselves in a large multi-bedroom house.
We think it obvious that our daughters and sons date and select their life partners without parental involvement. After all it is her or his own choice.
We send our elders to senior citizen homes, to live by themselves. (Janice and I spent three weeks in Pakistan in autumn 2022. In our numerous family life seminars we were amazed at how unanimously educated Afghans and Pakistanis condemned the practice of seniors living alone in large institutions, without their families.)
We can’t imagine having five or more people show up as guests in our homes, and maybe even stay for the night, as large as our homes are.
At the same time, we need to guard ourselves from lumping into one basket all warm-cultured people who come from thousands of varied groups and societies.
Other classifications
We could categorize people by large geographical areas such as Middle Easterners, Central Asians, Latinos or Far East Asians, South Indians and so forth. We can divide people by religions and so we have Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Catholics … but that does not mean they are the same as each other.
Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (2011) divided the world into 11 major civilizations, though his work has received a barrage of criticism because it minimalizes human beings by making them members of just one group. (See Amartya Sen, Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny.)
Each person naturally belongs to a society, where people speak a common language, work together, play, socialize and eat.
We can also compare cultures based on the country people come from—although this is not ideal because most countries are made of up of numerous distinct social groups it is probably the place to start. (Geert Hofstede, the Dutch specialist on international organizational culture, has written profusely on values based on nation states, on the passport a person holds. This is not ideal, because there are usually numerous distinct social groups in a nation.)
Just individuals?
Some would rather not classify people at all. Everyone is an individual, unique to themselves. But each person naturally belongs to a society, where people speak a common language, work together, play, socialize and eat.
This is the natural way of humans where members of a society stick together—as the saying goes, “birds of a feather flock together.” Part of every individual’s identity is the group(s) or society they belong to.
A matter of respect
So, back to the newcomers who are coming to our neighbourhoods. Yes, they are individuals, but they come from specific nations and societies. The easiest and most respectful way to describe newcomers is according to their passport nations, the countries that they come from: Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Pakistan, India Punjab and more.
Yes, it is difficult for many Westerners to know who is who from this maze of nations, and so we can easily make wrong assumptions, such as:
We may assume that people from Africa (or the Far East or the Middle East) will naturally connect with each other. It may be so, but they might also be historic enemies and their languages may be mutually unintelligible.
We hear that someone comes from Iran and is a committed Christian. We have a Syrian neighbour and feel this could be an ideal opportunity for the two to meet. But let’s be careful, the Iranian and Syrian speak different languages.
An Asian man wears a turban, so we assume he is a Muslim. Interestingly, many truck-drivers in Canada come from the Indian Punjab and belong to the Sikh religion. A tight turban is part one of the Sikh’s articles of faith. Then again, many Sikh men do not wear turbans!
Yes, there are many similarities, and varied levels of similarities, but also many differences. (There are also many similarities we may have with newcomers from other languages and religions).
Language: Arabs and Afghans speak very different languages from each other. They cannot understand each other. Arabs speak Arabic; Afghans speak Dari (Afghan Persian) and/or Pashto. Yes, their orthography is the same, just like English letters are the same as French letters, but that does not mean that an English speaker can speak French, or the other way around. And each language will have different dialects as well, which can almost be unintelligible to each other.
Arabs speak Arabic; Afghans speak Dari (Afghan Persian) and/or Pashto. Yes, their orthography is the same, just like English letters are the same as French letters, but that does not mean that an English speaker can speak French.
Ethnicity: It is interesting to learn about a country a person comes from, then we can dig deeper. There are many social groups in each country. A Pakistani from the Christian minority is very different than a middle-class Muslim Pakistani businessperson. Arabs may all speak Arabic, but a desert Bedouin from Iraq will look at life very differently than an Iraqi Orthodox Christian. from Egyptian Arabic. Strictly speaking, Egyptians are Coptic not Arab, but that is for another lesson.
Religion: Not all Egyptians and Syrians are Muslims, and not all Muslims are the same! The Muslim world is itself a complicated mosaic of languages, cultures, and societies. In broad sweeping generalization, we could talk about fundamentalists, traditionalists and modern reformists, never-mind the many secular and agnostic and cultural Muslims.
What adds to the confusion is the Sunni-Shi’ite divide. When you meet an Iranian, you can be 99 percent certain that they are from a Shi’ite background. And, most Iranians who have come to the West are secularized and have rejected their Islamic faith, though they may still call themselves Muslim. On the other hand, only 15 percent of Afghans are Shi’ite, most from the distinct Hazara people, many of whom are now coming to faith in Christ. The sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria has been because of their Shi’ite-Sunni divisions.
It is good to be aware of and respect these religious differences and not put all Muslims into the same boat.
Foods: Yes, Iranians and Afghans will shop in an Arabic ethnic food store, but while Iraqis will enjoy falafel and humus, Iranians and Afghans are not used to these foods. Pakistanis enjoy hot curries, while Afghan cuisine is different from both Pakistani and Iranian dishes. Though we may all shop at Superstore, we don’t all eat the same food!
Entering cultures
When the Word became flesh, our Lord engaged with the culture of his time. And because of the incarnation of the Word into the world, we continue to do the same. We too are sent and become incarnate in the cultures of the world. It was for this reason that the missionary movement has had a unique interest and passion with languages, cultures, and societies (or people groups).
The late Lamin Sanneh, scholar from Ghana, wrote in his ground-breaking work, Translating the Message, “Christianity is remarkable for the relative ease with which it encounters cultures. It renders itself a translatable religion, compatible with all cultures.”
Our calling
Yes, newcomers are entering the Canadian landscape and engaging with our cultures. We need to help them learn to integrate into Canadian ways of life (let’s hope the good ways!). At the same time, we want to care for and show real interest in their lives and the worlds they have come from. Of course, we cannot all become specialists in sociology or cultural anthropology. It is mind-boggling—how to keep track of so many cultures and nationalities.
At the very least, we can respect people from other societies. This means we acknowledge and appreciate their societies and be aware that newcomers have distinct cultures from each other.
But at the very least, we can respect people from other societies. This means we acknowledge and appreciate their societies and be aware that newcomers have distinct cultures from each other. Here are a few ways to expand ourselves.
Read up on Middle Eastern or Asian countries. Iraq and Iran are very different from each other!
Become a student of geography and cultural anthropology.
Dare to try new foods.
When you meet a newcomer, ask them questions about their family or their country. Most of us (including newcomers) love to talk about our families and homelands.
Pay more attention to international politics and news from around the world.
Enjoy World Cup football (soccer). Too bad the football championship games in Qatar are over now!
As Christians, we love people as individuals, and part of individuality is the nation or society they come from. And as we enter their worlds, we enlarge our own worlds as well.
