I arrived at the court house before Coffee – I beat him there by about, oh, 20 minutes. And as I stood in the lobby, watching people enter the building and get in line for the Immigration Court room, I got teary eyed. Most of them looked absolutely blissful; the culmination of endless years, no doubt, of hard work and effort and concern and fear and hopes and all that other good stuff.
In an amusing twist, I’ve been learning a great deal about social services for immigrants lately. In one class, my fellow students discussed some of their thoughts about “what immigrants are like” and I was rather shocked to hear some of the (negative) comments. I offered up my own perspective; immigrants, for the most part, have had to work very hard to get into Canada. The process is not easy, nor straight-forward, nor inexpensive. I can’t speak about the process for refugees (yet!) but I don’t imagine it’s any less of an emotional process.
Coffee’s voyage from American to Canadian citizen started in 2001. It meandered for a while, due to some issues beyond his control, but it was smooth sailing for the most part.
We were fortunate enough to be able to afford the fees to hire an immigration lawyer to assist us. Consider that he, and I, are both well-educated and speak English naturally – and consider that we both felt more than a bit overwhelmed by the paperwork. It seemed as if every form had the words, “If you fuck this up, we’re not giving you back your money and you might be denied entry and you’ll have to go back from whence you came and we might kill you just for fun.”
Everything was worded in such a way as to make both Coffee and I concerned about our ability to fill it in “properly”. We didn’t want to lose money, of course, but the bigger issue was that we didn’t want Coffee’s application to be denied for any reason at all. There were a lot of boxes to check, places to sign ONLY IF YOU ARE X or Y but NOT if you are Z! and .. let’s just say that I’m not sure I could have emotionally survived the waiting period without our lawyer involved.
I cannot fathom how scary that process must be for someone who doesn’t have all of those things in their favour.
So, we had the intelligence to do this and we still wanted a lawyer. We had the ability to pay for that lawyer and to take time off from work to meet with him during office hours. We spoke English and were able to communicate effectively. We had a zillion friends who sent letters of reference confirming the ‘reality’ of our relationship and our love and our commitment to each other.
And we were still scared.
So I looked at the people coming in to the lobby and I wondered how stressful, how hard, how incredibly difficult it was for them to get through the process. And how much relief some of them must be feeling.
It’s now 2010 – 9 years after we sorta’ started this process – and so, this morning, I was completely teary-eyed in the lobby. By the time we were actually seated in the court room, however, I was pretty much flinging snot and weeping.
By the time it was over and everyone stood to sing “Oh Canada”, I was pretty much done for – I had to literally choke down the sobs. While grinning.
And no, I didn’t have any kleenex.
And yes, I was dressed up – wearing makeup – and that makeup wasn’t really in place afterward.
The ceremony was, in my opinion, extremely Canadian. I don’t mean in the stereotypical ways – there were no moose or mounties in the room. There were no Tim Horton’s coupons handed to anyone. No toques.
But it was, for all the formality and legality, extremely friendly and welcoming. The judge made some jokes; a World War II veteran spoke and told about his childhood. A few politicians spoke – I tuned them out. :) There were small quips made about how everyone could sing along to the national anthem because they were going to play the music loudly enough to drown out anyone who couldn’t sing on key. Jokes about photographs.
To paraphrase the judge, “You are one of us now. You are a Canadian with all the rights and privileges that accompanies that citizenship. You are here because other immigrants came before you to make this a wonderful country and now you can help us continue to make it a wonderful country.” A lot of pride in being Canadian but not in any way that felt uncomfortable. Plenty of talk about democracy and how we are a peaceful country.
22 countries were represented in the 46 people who were sworn in. Twenty two!
The swearing-in was done in both English and French – a word or two at a time – and everyone said both. The joke was made, too, that everyone could go home impressed with their new ability to speak French..
When things ended, I pretty much bolted from the courthouse, still weepy, to return home and try to salvage my makeup (fail!) before dashing off to school for my first class.
It was a perfect ceremony. A mix of formal and informal. Lightheartedness and reality.
And I am JUST FINE with having cried my way through the entire thing. It was unspeakably happy. :)
Coffee is now a full, legal Canadian citizen. He can vote. He can apply for a passport with a maple leaf on it.
Seriously, HOW AWESOME IS THAT??
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