I was really close to just responding to this by calling you names, but that's not helpful. Instead I'd like to just put down some things I've observed and respond to you how I would respond if you were a person sitting in front of me.
I'm a high school teacher in Canada in the small city that has taken the second highest percentage of immigrants and refugees in the entire country over the past half decade. These are some things I have learned.
First, this idea that immigrants, and especially Muslim immigrants, are somehow unappreciative of their new lives in their new home countries, is a myth from what I can tell. I've talked with a number of refugee students who came to Canada after a few false starts in neighbouring Middle Eastern countries. They have all told me that they felt unwelcome in those places, and they have nothing but gratitude for the acceptance and opportunity they have received in Canada. I've taught girls in high school classes who haven't been in school since they were 7 or 8 years old who are over the moon excited at their opportunity to be educated. They have none of the tools they need to work at the high school level other than their grit and enthusiasm. I've not met a single immigrant of refugee student, male or female, who has expressed any desire to change anything about our country.
Second, immigrant and refugee alike, these people are not a drain on the system. Yes, it takes some resources to get people set up on an entirely new continent, in an entirely new cultural context, among people who speak an entirely different language. But these are smart, resilient, resourceful people. People who escape deadly war zones, family in tow, to start over on a new continent, are not the type to put their feet up and collect handouts for the rest of their lives. I've taught kids who come to school from 8:30 to 3:30, go to work at some factory from 4:00 to Midnight, go home for 6 or 7 hours of sleep, and come back to school the next morning.
Third, cultural divides are not fixed. People adapt and assimilate. They WANT to adapt and assimilate. But they need time and patience and support, just like you would if the roles were reversed. I taught a girl last year who entered my class at the beginning of the semester wearing the Niqab. About half way through the semester she showed up with her face uncovered, reintroduced herself (I'd only seen her eyes up until that point), and never covered her face again. I'm an English teacher. I've had a number of girls write journals and essays and stories on their emerging thoughts on the possibilities of marrying for love. It's an amazing thing to see them look around at their classmates, and process their new opportunities, and actually desire something better for themselves and work to make that happen.
I'm not an apologist for countries or religions or cultures that treat their people like garbage. But I am a supporter of the people. They are not what they are so often portrayed as being. Those of us who believe in showing sensitivity to their very unique situations as they work to adapt should not be confused with those who are allied with an anti-western agenda.
Likewise, and perhaps more importantly, we should not confuse the obstacles that these people encounter in their efforts to adapt with evidence that they share the anti-western agenda of the people who often use them as tools to attack the west and try to burn it down. Those people have no more genuine interest in the well-being of Muslim migrants than they do in the sanctity of Black Lives.
