How Immigrants’ Resilience has Made Canada Better | Melissa Grelo | TEDxCentennialCollegeToronto
Summary
TLDRThe speaker, a proud child of Filipino and Portuguese-Brazilian immigrants, recounts her parents' journeys to Canada and their relentless pursuit of the Canadian dream. Through hard work and resilience, they overcame challenges, providing a foundation for their children to succeed. The speaker reflects on her own identity crisis and career shift from education to journalism, driven by her parents' values. She highlights the impact of immigrants on Canada's progress and the common narrative of immigrant success, embodying the spirit of perseverance and the pursuit of dreams.
Takeaways
- 🌏 The speaker has been asked about their ethnicity throughout their life, reflecting on the challenges of assimilation in a predominantly Caucasian community.
- 🏡 The speaker's parents immigrated to Canada from the Philippines and Portugal, seeking opportunities and embodying the resilience of immigrants.
- 👨👧👦 The parents' hard work and sacrifices, such as working multiple jobs and supporting their families back home, were aimed at creating a better life for their children.
- 💃 The mother's journey from the Philippines involved overcoming professional challenges, like her teaching degree not being recognized, and adapting to various jobs to support her family.
- 🐎 The father's entrepreneurial spirit led him to work in landscaping and as a grocer before pursuing his dream of owning a horse farm, showcasing the immigrant's drive to succeed.
- 💑 The parents met at a club, and their marriage in 1973 marked the beginning of a family that would grow to include the speaker and their sister.
- 🏘️ The family faced economic hardships during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s, which impacted the father's horse farm business significantly.
- 📚 The speaker excelled academically, achieving high grades and earning a university degree, which reflects the high expectations immigrant parents have for their children's education.
- 🔄 The speaker experienced a quarter-life crisis, questioning their career path in education and ultimately transitioning to journalism, highlighting the importance of following one's passion.
- 🎤 The speaker's success in television, including hosting a talk show and interviewing notable figures, is attributed to the work ethic and confidence instilled by their parents.
- 🏆 The speaker's achievements are seen as the realization of their parents' dreams, emphasizing the immigrant narrative of striving for a better future for their children.
Q & A
What is the main theme of the speaker's life story?
-The main theme of the speaker's life story is the journey of her immigrant parents, their sacrifices, resilience, and the impact they had on her life and success.
What challenges did the speaker face growing up in a homogeneous community?
-The speaker faced challenges such as being treated differently, ridiculed, and ostracized due to her different ethnicity and appearance in a mostly Caucasian community.
Why did the speaker's parents move to Canada?
-The speaker's parents moved to Canada in search of opportunities for themselves and their future children, as they came from different countries with dreams and aspirations.
What difficulties did the speaker's mother face after moving to Canada?
-The speaker's mother faced difficulties such as her teaching degree not being recognized, working multiple jobs, and supporting her family back home financially.
How did the speaker's father start his life in Canada?
-The speaker's father started his life in Canada with almost no money, few friends, no family, and limited English language skills. He initially worked in landscaping and on an assembly line before venturing into entrepreneurship.
How did the speaker's parents meet?
-The speaker's parents met at a Latin club in downtown Toronto during a night out with friends.
What was the economic situation in Canada during the period of 1974 to 1982?
-Canada experienced two recessions between 1974 and 1982, which greatly affected discretionary spending and led to near bankruptcy situations for many businesses, including the speaker's parents' horse farm.
How did the speaker's parents' backgrounds influence her own work ethic and success?
-The speaker's parents' backgrounds, particularly their resilience and hard work, instilled in her a strong work ethic that translated into her success in education and her career in television.
What career change did the speaker make after completing her university degree?
-The speaker made a career change from education to television by obtaining a diploma in broadcast journalism, which led her to become a news reporter, news anchor, and eventually a host.
What was the significance of the speaker's talk-show 'The Social'?
-The significance of 'The Social' was that it represented the speaker's perseverance and tenacity, as well as the realization of her passion for television, and it was recognized by industry executives and her parents.
How did the speaker's immigrant background shape her identity and sense of self?
-The speaker's immigrant background shaped her identity by making her proud of her heritage and understanding the sacrifices her parents made. It also influenced her sense of self as she learned to embrace being different and to value hard work and resilience.
Outlines
🌏 Embracing Diversity and the Pursuit of Opportunity
The speaker reflects on their life-long journey of identity, shaped by their multicultural background as a child of Filipino and Portuguese immigrants in Canada. They discuss the challenges of assimilation in a predominantly Caucasian community and the resilience of their parents, who sought opportunities in a new country despite hardships. The speaker's mother, a teacher from the Philippines, and father, a former military man from Portugal, both faced significant struggles and worked tirelessly to support their families and achieve their dreams. Their stories highlight the common immigrant experience of hard work, sacrifice, and the pursuit of a better life for their children.
🏠 Building a Life from Scratch: The Immigrant Entrepreneur
This paragraph delves into the entrepreneurial spirit of the speaker's father, who started from humble beginnings in Canada and gradually built a successful horse farm business. Despite facing economic recessions and financial hardships, the family persevered, and the business eventually thrived, even garnering media attention. The speaker also touches on the broader impact of immigration on Canada, highlighting how immigrants contribute to the country's education and economic success, and how their children often surpass their parents' achievements, thanks to the high expectations and strong work ethic instilled by their immigrant parents.
🎓 From Education to Identity Crisis: A Journey of Self-Discovery
The speaker shares their personal educational achievements and the work ethic they developed from their upbringing on a horse farm. Despite excelling in school and beginning a career in education, the speaker experienced a quarter-life crisis, questioning their true calling. After a period of introspection and with the support of a business coach and psychologist, they made a bold transition from education to journalism, a field they were passionate about. This leap of faith led to a successful career in television, where they have covered significant events, interviewed influential figures, and continued to challenge themselves professionally.
🏆 Achievements and the Immigrant Legacy
In the final paragraph, the speaker expresses gratitude for their parents' sacrifices and the foundation they provided, enabling them to achieve their dreams. They recount moments of personal and professional triumph, including creating and hosting a successful talk show, and receiving recognition from industry leaders. The speaker acknowledges the pride their parents have for their accomplishments, which they view as the ultimate goal of their parents' immigrant journey. The narrative concludes with a celebration of their identity as the child of immigrants and the legacy of resilience and ambition they carry forward.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Ethnicity
💡Assimilation
💡Resilience
💡Immigrant
💡Opportunity
💡Recession
💡Work Ethic
💡Education
💡Success
💡Identity
💡Dream
Highlights
The speaker reflects on the question of their identity and ethnicity, which they've been asked since a young age.
Raised in a predominantly Caucasian community, the speaker discusses the pressures of assimilation and the challenges of being visibly different.
The speaker's parents emigrated from the Philippines and Portugal seeking opportunities, showcasing their resilience and hard work.
The mother's journey from the Philippines to Canada, taking on multiple jobs to support her family and her siblings' education.
The father's entrepreneurial spirit, moving to Canada with limited resources and eventually establishing a successful horse farm.
The story of the parents' meeting at a club, which led to their marriage and the formation of a multicultural family.
The economic challenges faced by the family during the recessions of the 1970s and 1980s and their perseverance.
The speaker's academic achievements, excelling in school and obtaining a university degree with high distinction.
The speaker's career shift from education to journalism, driven by a passion for news and storytelling.
The launch of the speaker's talk show, 'The Social', and the recognition from a network president.
The speaker's experiences covering significant events and interviewing influential figures, including celebrities and world leaders.
The speaker discusses the immigrant experience in Canada, highlighting the contributions of immigrants to the country's education and economy.
The impact of immigrant parents' high expectations on their children's pursuit of higher education and future success.
The speaker's realization that hard work and resilience are key to achieving one's dreams, as exemplified by their parents.
The speaker's identity as a proud daughter of Filipino-Canadian and Portuguese-Brazilian parents, who sacrificed for a better future.
The speaker concludes with a message of gratitude for the opportunities provided by their parents and the Canadian dream.
Transcripts
[Music]
what are you I guess that's the question
I have been asked most throughout my
entire life starting at a really young
age maybe three four or five and usually
what the person wanted to know was my
ethnicity the thing is this is not
always something that I wanted to share
so readily I was raised in a homogeneous
mostly Caucasian community where
acceptance there came by way of drastic
assimilation not by drawing attention to
your differences
so being different like having brown
skin or having yellow skin maybe
speaking with an accent you were treated
differently you were ridiculed perhaps
you were even ostracized yes I wanted to
be known as a human first not as a
Filipino Portuguese Brazilian like what
are you again but here's the thing not
fitting in yeah
that's pretty difficult but my parents
they packed up
they picked up and they moved across the
world from their respective countries in
search of opportunity for themselves and
their future children now that takes
resilience so who is the beneficiary of
their toil of their tears
well me for sure but I'm gonna argue in
fact all of us all of us who call this
great country of Canada home my abundant
mother was born in the Philippines she
was one of seven children and she
emigrated to Canada when she was just 28
she was looking as many immigrants were
looking for more opportunities and she
bought almost the sole financial
responsibility of supporting her family
all back home and then sponsoring each
one of them to come to Canada her
teaching degree was not recognized here
so she did various jobs until she
finally landed something full-time with
the municipal government in housing so
for the next two years she worked almost
seven days a week
so from 8:30 in the morning until five
o'clock in the afternoon that was her
day job and then she did her night job
six to ten o'clock at then see
our IP and all of this was for one goal
yes certainly to support herself but it
was also to financially support paying
the tuition of her siblings back home
and supporting her family well around
the same time a young man from Portugal
fresh out of active military he decided
to leave his family and his country to
begin to fulfill this wild dream of
training horses he traveled around
Europe he wanted to learn from all of
the Masters and then he realized that
what he wanted to create he was already
flourishing right across Europe and that
was setting new sights then on where
could he fulfill this dream and that's
when he set his sights on the New World
Canada with almost no money few friends
no family and just barely this much
English he landed in Toronto to a
growing Portuguese community so he
didn't know the language but what he did
know was work and he didn't know how to
work very very hard he found refuge on
friends couches strangers couches he
finally got a lucky break getting a job
landscaping and then finally on an
assembly line building cars but his
entrepreneurial spirit started to bubble
up again so he got together with a few
friends and with their money they were
able to buy an apartment up top and it
actually had a grocery store on the
bottom so overnight he literally became
a landlord and a grocer and over time he
was able to put enough money together to
begin achieving his dream of horse farm
fame okay so this is where uh sure
the singer enters my parents story so
you may the know the song and if you do
feel free to sing along with me
I wanna make love in this club in this
club you know that song you know that
song and if you don't just get it on
your album music or Spotify afterwards
it's a good tune okay that wasn't
exactly my parents story if it was I
don't want to know about it but it was
more like they fell in love at the club
so one fateful night my mother and her
girlfriends had a very rare night away
out of work and they decided to go to a
club and that same night
my dad and a few of his friends they
ended up landing at that same club it
was a Latin club in downtown Toronto my
mother's friends all said no to dance
with this Portuguese stranger my mother
reluctantly said yes and you know he
must have been a really really good
dancer because less than two years later
they were married at City Hall and that
was 1973 so four years later I entered
the picture followed by my sister
Rosanna my father took his little nest
egg of savings after selling the
apartment in the grocery store he
combined it with my mother's meager but
steady government salary they obtained a
hefty mortgage I'm talking 20% interest
rate and higher and they bought a 20
acre farm in Caledon Ontario my father
slowly built up his clientele he started
knocking on neighbors doors he was
advertising his horseback-riding
business and one client turned into two
and then three then he had one horse a
couple horses 20 horses plus boarders so
he was completely on his own though
doing this couldn't afford any employees
so he was doing everything by himself
teaching training feeding mucking
watering turning out the horses
providing first aid he was doing it all
starting at 5:30 in the morning my
mother tells me she would never see him
until past ten o'clock every single
night seven days a week
my mother meantime she was commuting two
hours one way to downtown Toronto she
was balancing her job two young girls a
live-in mother she was exhausted he was
exhausted needless to say for both of
them rest was elusive but life was about
to get much harder between 1974 and 1982
Canada was hit hard by not one but two
recessions so discretionary spending on
fluffy things like horses yeah that
nosedived big-time the books were in the
red they faced near bankruptcy numerous
times took some time but the economy
eventually recovered the business slowly
got back in track and then started to
grow toronto star even wrote about it so
I shared my parents stories with you
not because they are extraordinary but
because they are extraordinarily
common my mother was one of more than
220,000 Filipinos that had entered
Canada from the early 70s through to 95
and most of the people were just like
her women aged 20 to 30 for Roman
Catholic relatively well-educated
proficient in English my father was one
of 55,000 Portuguese who immigrated here
just between 68 and 73 and this marks
the beginning of a brand new Canada a
change in Canada's immigration rules in
1967 - a merit-based point system
resulted in a massive shift of newcomers
where once 60% of newcomers were coming
from Europe mostly from the UK now more
people than ever were immigrating from
East India South Asia the Philippines
and 48% were visible minorities so back
then people were fearing this influx of
new faces but study after study after
study have shown one thing immigrants
make Canada better it's that simple an
internal report from the Immigration
Department credits immigrants for making
Canada one of the best educated
countries in the entire world so why is
this well not only do newcomers often
have university degrees it's their high
expectations for their children's
academic achievements that actually
appear to lead to the pursuit of higher
education in those very children in this
study 36 percent of the children of
immigrants aged 25 to 35 held university
degrees compared to 24% of their peers
with Canadian born parents so what
accounts for the difference in these
numbers expectation immigrant parents
expect their children to seek higher
education and in turn more due and
higher education leads to higher incomes
according to a study based on the 2016
census we me the second generation of
Canadians will out earn our parents no
matter where our parents come from
Europe Asia Southeast Asia Africa South
America as
as their children we will out earn them
20 to 50 percent in our lifetime so if
you are in this room right now and
you're somewhere between maybe your mid
30s to mid 40s this is us our success is
the realization of their dreams their
hard work their high expectations our
success is because of their resilience
and that resilience is contagious my
sister and I were born to a start-up
horse farm business and my father who is
a man of many things told us this you
know the son of a fish must learn how to
swim it's a good saying right make sense
let that one sink in yes so he owns a
horse business and he has two daughters
and guess what we are in the horse
business and if you have a farm of any
sort your value on the farm is based on
one thing and one thing alone how hard
you were so you heard all those tours
that my dad did well starting around age
four and five we picked up the exact
same chores seven days a week after
school and on weekends and in fact this
was my entire life until I left home in
my mid-twenties the work ethic I
developed on the farm translated I
believe into my success in school and in
life
so I worked hard I excelled in all
levels of education I graduated high
school with an over 90% average I went
on to attain a university degree my
Bachelor of Arts in psychology and
French with a second degree in education
in the intermediate senior division
teaching in grade 7 through to the end
of high school I graduated University
summa laude with the highest
distinction my mother especially proud
of that one so my father however he does
not actually have a post-secondary
degree but he believed that hard work
could get you farther than just smarts
alone he would say things like and still
says things like you know you don't need
a degree to be a bricklayer and I hear
they make really good money okay there
you go so listen I did not become a
bricklayer but as I said I did become a
grade seven and eight teacher and a few
years later after that I began
the master's program for gender equity
and education but that's when my world
as I knew it screeched to a complete
halt enter the quarter life crisis this
was it I was in my mid-twenties and
after years and thousands of dollars
spent in post-secondary education
working hard to make my parents proud
upholding their very high expectations
for me I no longer believed that
teaching was my calling I was having an
identity crisis of a new kind at this
point in my life listen I loved school I
loved being a student was I really
considering quitting a university
master's program yes yes I was and I was
totally torn up about it I've never been
a quitter
that's just me and I never wanted to
disappoint my parents and guess what I
was about to do both of those things so
here's the thing that I learned about
myself at this what I call the TSN
turning point of my life um just because
something comes easily to you it doesn't
mean it's the right path to follow the
lane of least resistance is simply not
for everyone
teaching yes it did come very naturally
to me but it didn't scare me enough and
it didn't challenge me
to stretch and to grow every single day
and that's when I did it I looked over
the cliff
I felt the fear of starting a new career
and I jumped after six months of
soul-searching with the help of a
business coach and a psychologist I
landed on journalism a long-held passion
of this news junkie so I made the giant
leap from education to television by
obtaining a diploma in broadcast
journalism so I got my first job on air
before I even completed the course and I
simply haven't looked back since
in 2011 several years into co-hosting
Toronto's number one Morning Show cp24
breakfast I pitched a talk-show idea to
see TV executives a few years later the
social was born
was very proud of my perseverance and my
tenacity but what made my achievement
especially sweet came the day of our
very first live show when we launched
the entire series when then president
the then president pulled aside and
spoke to my mother and he said do you
know how many people pitch me shows
every single day and then he said you
know how many of them actually make it
to air almost none but this one did you
should be very proud of your daughter so
there is a massive and highly talented
team that has been behind the
development and success of the show but
I credit the work ethic and confidence
instilled in me by my parents for having
the courage to follow the thing that
lights my soul on fire and that's
television it's been 12 years and I've
been challenged every single day on the
job I've been a news reporter a news
anchor and now a host and this job has
taken me to places I never imagined I
could go I went to the United States to
cover the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
in 2005 I co-hosted in a career high the
Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler in
2010 I've traveled to Hollywood to cover
the Academy Awards and I've interviewed
changemakers celebrities and news makers
like a few people you may recognize
Prince Harry Prime Minister Trudeau
actors Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo
Ryan Reynolds who is just as hot in
person ladies in case you were wondering
I do also do charitable work with Prince
Charles I've interviewed dr. Oz PK Subin
Chelsea Clinton Taylor Swift Sandra Oh
and oh oh oh so many more there have
been many pinch-me moments in my life
and I think for my parents as well but
I'm just guessing because I think in
true immigrant fashion parents don't
tell you to your face that they're proud
of you they just brag about you to
everybody else when you're not around
yeah but I think that I knew that I must
have made them proud recently because
they remarked to me several years ago
they said you know we don't have to
worry about you anymore and that was
probably the best compliment I could
have received
you see the fruit of their labor was not
necessarily their own success but rather
seeing their children succeed there's my
parents now there they are so when
someone asked me today what are you I
respond with the question is not what am
i it's Who am I I am the very proud
daughter of a Filipino Canadian mother
and a Portuguese Brazilian Canadian
father who sacrificed almost everything
to create and attained the Canadian
dream not just to achieve their own
goals but to provide the foundation for
their children for me to shoot for the
stars and to chase mine thank you
[Applause]
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