Lesson 13 — Activity 2: Impact on Indigenous Peoples
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Lesson 13 — Activity 2:
Impact on Indigenous Peoples
Warm Up
In this activity, you will learn about the impact of immigration on Indigenous peoples and communities.
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From the perspective of many Indigenous peoples and leaders, Canada does not adequately address the needs and issues facing Indigenous peoples, and immigration is believed to make these issues worse.
The most significant impacts of immigration on Indigenous peoples and communities include:
Urban expansion: When more and more immigrants move into Canada, we run out of land to supply them with. Therefore, we begin to intrude on the ancestral lands of the Indigenous peoples.
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Job and education opportunities: Immigrants could take jobs and educational opportunities that could be given to Indigenous people. The immigrants come over and occupy jobs for less pay making it difficult for Indigenous people to get jobs, which affects their quality of life. Many First Nation groups have difficulty finding education, training, and employment opportunities. This causes issues to arise when Canada allows immigration of skilled workers and professionals.
Stereotyping: Immigrant and Indigenous individuals learn many negative stereotypes about one another. This is aggravated by the perception that newcomers are receiving better treatment from the Canadian government. Prejudices that exist within immigrant groups against Indigenous people are most often the stigmas and attitudes that are prevalent within Canadian society. Because newcomers to Canada receive so little information about the history of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit people, they are unable to understand the devastating effects of government policies on these communities and individuals. Immigrants are often left to collect information from popular culture and media misrepresentation instead.
Although Indigenous peoples are still dealing with the harmful effects of colonization and residential schools, a new threat looms for these people. Immigration could likely be the next great obstacle that Canada’s First People have to overcome in the fight to improve their lives. Canada is a multicultural society, and people come from all over the world looking for greater opportunities in the hopes of improving their quality of life. The result could be that the Indigenous peoples of Canada could be overlooked for these opportunities in favour of the new immigrants coming to Canada.
There are some things that we can all do to foster positive relationships between Indigenous and immigrant communities:
- Remain respectful and open-minded about one anothers' cultures and perspectives.
- Work together in an effort to maintain and revitalize cultures and languages.
- Reflect on how race and identity overlap and whether experiences of exclusion and discrimination can become points of “shared difference” between people.
- Host joint community events to promote cultural exchange and raise awareness within all members of our shared community.
Self-check!
Try This!
Try the question below on your own first, and then click on the tab to check your answers! You can look back in the lesson to find the answer.
What are three significant impacts on Indigenous peoples due to immigration?