-
uit se A MULTICU

Education, employment concern local Iranians

(This ts the third instalment in
the North Shore News? ia-depth
series on multiculturalism by
reporter Kate Zimmerman, Today's
feature examines the experiences
and attitudes of newcomers to the
North Shore from the three major
groups making up the area's immi-
grant population: Asians, lranians
aad the British, Next Sunday, the
News will focus on tvo immigrants
from Africa and examine the avail-
ability and mandate of training in
English as a Second Language.)

BAHMAN SHIRAZI believes
Iranians have a better chance
of making a life for themselves
in the U.S. than in Canada.

By Kate Zimmerman
News Reporter

This, despite the fact‘that both
‘countries are ideal international
models of a multicultural country,
said Shirazi: “Canada by law, and
the U.S. by attitude.”
. As a-spokesman for the Iranian
Community, Association, Shirazi
has listened to many of his fellow
immigrants’ stories. !

He’s heard how their years of
experience and education are disre-
garded here and how they are
forced into menial jobs. He believes

the situation is worse for the more -

’ than 20,060 Iranians.on the North
_ Shore than elsewhere in Canada,
‘and a far cry from the nurturing
environment of
California, where the largest popu*

: lation of North American Tranians,

(500,000) resides. :

_ #2, Shirazi’s brother is ‘a vice- -presi-,

. dent of finance -for a. large

Numbers represent numbers
of immigrants.

‘Southern.

American acrospace company in
California who nets US$ 100,000
per year.

He is thriving in a country
which Shirazi believes shows little
evidence of the racism experienced
by Iranians on the North Shore.
Opportunities abound for immi-
grants there, with thousands of
Iranian businesses flourishing in
Southern California.

Meanwhile, he said, [ranians
who have been successful in
Europe and the U.S, come here and
fail.

According to Shirazi, the aver-
age Iranian immigrant brings a lot
of money into his new country.

{t's commonplace for highly
educated parents to arrive here with
$60,000 in their pockets along with
a dream of eventually owning a
home, finding a job, and providing
higher education for their children.

Several years later, with neither
mother nor father able to find work,
the family winds up on social assis-
tance.

There are numerous challenges
for them to face.

“Initially, there’s a language
problem,” Shirazi points out.

Iranians also face difficulty in
having their credentials recognized.
And then there's the prospective
employer’s negative attitude toward
visible minorities.

“Because there’s a feeling that
there’s not equal opportunity in the
job market, Iranians tend to estab-
lish their own businesses,” Shirazi
said.

A quick: drive up Lonsdale
proves his point; many awnings and
\storefronts include information in

Farsi.

But this doesn’t necessarily ~

Ss
=

Australasia Ba
North and
Central America F
South America
Caribbean |
Pacific islands |

*LIDS data (Landed Immigrant Database System). From
the Report of the Multicultural Task Force: “Strength

Through Diversity,”

presented to North Vancouver District.

Source: B.C. Ministry of Finance and Corporate Services.

CALLUS:

983-2208

NEWS graphic Robyn Brown

“AMY CHANG

mean more job opportunitics for
other Iranians.

“I know of large [ranian busi-
nesses where no Iranians or few are
working,” Shirazi continued.

Irinians who are out of work are
often not fully informed on the job
market, he noted.

“Canadian employers don’t
place ads in franian newspapers.”

The inability to provide for their
families is as demoralizing for
franian parents as it is for parents
anywhere, if not more so.

Another of the issues worrying
the community is the low quality of
education at Canadian schools,

“Purents are afraid their children
will fall behind international stan-
dards and international competi-
tion,” Shirazi said, adding that aca-
demic standards are lower here than
they are in fran.

Newcomers also fret about the
cost of higher education, and the
limited space for students. Iranians
here are concerned, as well, about

racially motivated violence in

schools. a

Combined with the high cost of
living on the Narth Shore and the
lack of employment opportunities,
these problems contribute to a gen-
eral sense of dissatisfaction.

But Shirazi believes the situa-
tion can be alleviated: “We need to
help the Liberal government in its
job creation plan to realize their full
potential and try to create an atti-
tude and practice of equal opportu-
nity. This should start locally and I
propose a job placement commis-
sion be assigned to this task.”

Funded by the municipalities
and social services, he said, this

» body would coordinate all the dif-

ferent services immigrants require.

EDs

LTURAL MOSAIC

NEWS Photo Terry Peters _

NORTH SHORE businessman and iranian community leader
Bahman Shirazi outlines:the problems he and other Iranian
immigrants face in adjusting to life on the North Shore and ;

elsewhere In Canada.” = ’

Newcomers strugale e to find their.
place in a ee community

likens
Canada’s immigrant experi-
‘ence te being invited into an
enormous house by people _

who need you to help pay t the '

rent. . - .

. By Kate Zimmerman

News Reporter

Eventually, the original tenants
start to realize that the new tenants
are different from them, and they
have a difficult time adjusting.

“This feeling is both ways,” said
Chang, who moved here as an
“independent” immigrant from
Hong Kong last August.

Upon arrival, she started work
immediately at a Vancouver insur-
ance firm, the Hong Kong branch of
which she worked in for 11 years.

“Imagine that the new people
living in the big house are not told
the regulations of the house; what
you should or should nat do.”

No one told the Hong Kong
Asians who moved here, far
instance, that it would offend
Canadians if they built enormous
houses,

“I’m sure those people do it

because they think it’s nice for °

them,” she said. “They don’t do it to

“66 It’s 5 worse
‘than (being) deaf,
~ dumb and blind if -
you don’t speak the
language.99

offend or make people’s lives mis-
erable.”

The practice is de rigueur in
Hong Kong. People, there, realize
when they buy a home that their
view might be obliterated the next
day if someone decides to build in
front of them — that’s just the way
it is.

When they move to Canada, and
particularly view-crazy Vancouver,
no one warns them that this is not
the way to endear oneself to one’s
neighbors.

Chang’s friend Winnie Cheung
occasionally hears negative rum-
blings about Asians.

A resident of West Vancouver,
Cheung got into Canada under the
“family reunion” classification. And
though she hes generally felt wel-
come, there have been nasty under-

$$ 4.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:
Is it necessary to kill animals after they have attacked people?

‘currents — racial: snubs against her.

two ‘children and resentful com-_
ments from adults who target peo-
ple from Hong Kong as responsible
for so-called “monster” homes. :-

But, she said, “It’s nothing per-
sonal. On the whole, they’re pretty
- friendly.”

But nanny Lisa Martin says that”
as a newcomer, she may not be a
visible. minority, but she still finds
that Vancouverites very much stick
to their own.

The 21-year-old native of
Eastbourne, England, has been
working on the North Shore for
almost two years and will soon be
eligible to apply for landed-immi-
grant status, But the cool reception
she has received from members of
her own generation is making her
question whether she wants to settle
here permanently.

Martin and her friends, who are
all English nannies, go to clubs in
Vancouver and mix with Canadians.

“We do meet them,” said Martin.
“But it doesn’t last long.”

It’s even harder when English is
not an immigrant’s native language.
People from Hong Kong who come
here knowing very little English
tend to gather in other neighbor-
hoods where Chinese is a common

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