*eyeroll*

[conuly]

In the comments to an article on the immigrant experience and cultural bereavement, I found one particularly annoying person saying something about how some people in places with a lot more homogenity are used to taking to their neighbors and leaving their doors unlocked, and are worried that more immigration may change that and therefore we should all be nicer to those people.

Now, I happen to know for a positive fact that there are at least four different languages spoken in the home on my little block (English, Egyptian Arabic, Spanish, and some South Asian language but I don't know which one - and actually, come to think of it, it's entirely possible my Belgian neighbors speak either French or Flemish at home... we actually have a surprising number of native French speakers on this block, or we did before two of them died, but then, Belgian Americans are everywhere) and if I go just a teensy bit further around the corner there are at least one or two more, depending on how many countries the newer East Asian neighbors come from. And there are definitely more than four or six countries represented!

I could ask them all what languages they speak, because I talk to my neighbors, and occasionally about things other than the neighbors none of us like.

As for unlocked doors, half my neighbors seem to live on their porches when they're home, and judging from the way the kids run in and out, I'm not sure all their doors even lock at all.

Diversity isn't the issue. Distrust is, and it's so uncalled for.

God, what a thoroughly obnoxious comment.

Comments

[sabotabby]

What horseshit. My neighbours in the immediate block or two hail from at least five different countries that aren't Canada and we all look out for each other. We don't leave our doors unlocked because there are a high volume of people around in general—we live in a city!—but when I lived in an almost exclusively white suburb, we didn't leave our doors unlocked either. But we text each other to hide packages if someone gets a delivery and isn't home, or if there's a weird dude following women in the neighbourhood, or if my stalker shows up. And we hang out together on porches or bar patios or, more recently, in someone's house if we all test first. The kids all play in the street together. I've never lived in such a friendly place.