My mother, Catherine Morfitt neé Harrison is an immigrant from England.

She
moved here shortly after she married my Canadian dad in 1999.
Me and my (very) English Mum
Yellow: my mum
Pink: me
Blue: my dad (a few lines)
Everything in this interview really happened.

Me: Ok, hi Mummy! So, you are an immigrant in Canada from England! What
brought you to this country?
Mum: Well I emigrated in 1997, wait no that’s wrong!
Me: It’s ok I won’t put that part down.
Mum: I emigrated in 1999 but I married a Canadian citizen in 1997 and that’s
when I started the process of becoming a Canadian immigrant, to get my
permanent status card.
Me: What was the journey like?
Mum: I had come over before for Christmas to meet your dad’s family and see if
we could find a place to live there. So we did make some arrangements before
emigrating. I didn’t just randomly decide to one day.
Me: What was the process like to come here?
Like the application process and stuff.
Mum: Well gosh, it was such a long time ago, I don’t remember exactly but it was
a kind of complicated thing, you needed various things such as a health check, I
had to have X-rays, I had to have all my fingerprints taken, I had to have a police
background check. I also had to fill in the point form, and by the end of it nobody
wanted me as I barely had any points! I don’t speak French at all…
Me: Oh yeah you REALLY don’t
Mum: I REALLY don’t, and I don’t (to dog) Winnie stop! And I don’t get many
points as an actress because Canada doesn’t want those kinds of jobs. Really
the only thing I did have is the fact that I married a Canadian citizen.
Me: Yeah?
Mum: It cost quite a bit of money though, your dad had to sponsor me.
Me: Oh really? So you were a family immigrant.
Mum: It was quite expensive.
Dad (eavesdropping): Worth every penny!
Mum: (laughing)
Me: Dad please. We’re recording this.
Mum: I remember it certainly wasn’t cheap!
Dad: (joking) yeah I questioned if it was worth it.
Me: (sarcastic) haha. Dad, please leave. Ok so…
Mum: It was kind of tricky, you can’t come over until you get the card, and once
we landed in Canada me and Ian were separated. I was taken somewhere and
had to wait an awfully long time for them to process me. That was probably the
worst but out of everything. There were lots of Chinese immigrants there at the
time and people were really rude, the officers were shouting at them and it was
just awful. Because I was English they were mostly nice to me. I think the system
is made to be intimidating and a bit frightening on purpose.
Me: So you’d say there was some white privilege there?
Mum: Well, I don’t know if it was white privilege exactly. Actually, yes. I did think
about complaining about it but was a bit scared. There certainly was a difference
between how they treated me and people from other less wealthy countries. I
certainly found it quite frightening and can only imagine what it was like for them.
Me: What are some challenges you faced?
Mum: I think the main thing was that it took a lot of time, I think it must have been
a few years for the paperwork and everything to come through. It wasn’t a quick
thing, it was quite a long process. You had to have interviews and things like that
done. There were so many bits and pieces that you had to do, if you weren’t an
English or French speaker I imagine it would have been very difficult.
Me: Ok, I think that about wraps it up. Thanks so much Mummy, I love (to dog)
WINSTON, NO!

End of interview

Reflection
I really enjoyed this interview with my mum, I learned a lot about the immigration
process and how small things can make a difference. She said that the worst part
of the whole immigration process was waiting to be processed at the airport in a
terrible small room with rude immigration officers making her wait for hours and
hours and shouting at people who don’t really speak English. Just small things
can really make a difference to someone’s immigration journey.