Assimilation and Innovation: Immigration Entails New Cultures and New Atheists.

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]I think the idealization of assimilating new immigrants and new refugees, right? Rests on certain assumptions people haven't really examined or talked about honestly, like not even once in their lives for 5 minutes.

[00:00:21]If people come here from Somalia and they commit to learning the English language or they commit to learning the French language >> [sighs] >> and they get married to a local person who's born and raised in this culture inevitably the result will be a new and different hybrid culture.

[00:00:45]It's just not the case that they're going to get into a time machine and go back to what Canadian culture was in the 18th century or the 19th century or the 20th century and then proceed from there.

[00:01:00]Right? They are entering this culture at this moment in time when, you know, for example, the rules of sexual morality are totally different from what they were just 100 years ago, right? A period of rapid cultural change technological transition, so on and so forth.

[00:01:21]They are moving to Canada in the Instagram era. They're confronted with this culture that's new for us, too. It's new for anyone born and raised in Canada.

[00:01:32]And they have to decide if they're for it or against it. I saw two women walking down the street yesterday and you could tell this was one of those close friendships between two females.

[00:01:44]They've both come here as as immigrants or possibly as refugees. They speak the same language, they come from the same culture and they've been living in Canada for some number of years, I I And one of these two best friends had [snorts] totally embraced Westernization, modernization, de facto atheism.

[00:02:06]And it showed from head to toe.

[00:02:10]Even compared to white women who speak English as a first language in this city, she was wearing the sexiest outfit this climate permits at this time of year. Cuz it was pretty cold. She was showing a lot of skin. She was wearing a lot of makeup. She was putting a lot of effort.

[00:02:29]You know, no offense. You know, you could see she was kind of embracing you know, the culture of Instagram.

[00:02:37]And her best friend there was sustaining her traditional Muslim values.

[00:02:44]She again showed from head to toe.

[00:02:49]What does it mean to assimilate?

[00:02:51]It means producing a new and different culture.