Dunlevy: In first book, Toula Drimonis looks at belonging in Quebec

We, the Others is an insider’s look at the immigrant experience, and life as an allophone. Hint: It’s not always easy.

The timing couldn’t be better, really. With the Quebec election campaign in the homestretch, with Coalition Avenir Québec Leader François Legault linking immigrants to extremism and violence (he has since backtracked), Toula Drimonis offers a view from the other side.

The journalist and socio-political commentator’s first book, We, the Others: Allophones, Immigrants and Belonging in Canada, was released last week by Linda Leith Publishing. Mixing personal and family history with a researched and critical overview of federal and provincial responses to immigration over the years, it’s an insider’s look at the immigrant experience, and life as an allophone in Quebec. Hint: It’s not always easy.

“I wanted to write this book for very personal reasons,” Drimonis said. “My dad passed away about eight years ago. I was in mourning, thinking about him and his life. He was a typical first-generation Greek immigrant. He came here in the ’60s, worked extremely hard alongside my mom to build a life here. Neither had much of an education. They worked long hours in the restaurant industry. I grew up surrounded by that, knowing how exhausting and unforgiving it is.”

At the same time, Drimonis was monitoring the ongoing rhetoric by Legault and certain pundits about the supposed incompatibility of immigration with the protection of the French language and Quebec culture. Not to mention the revived debate around secularism law Bill 21 and language reform legislation Bill 96, in which allophones and anglophones are often treated as scapegoats.

“There are all these examples of othering,” Drimonis said, “treating others as a threat or a menace, saying ‘They’re not like us.’ It really inspired me to write this.”

Using the story of her parents’ immigration to Canada as a leaping-off point, Drimonis branches out to explore multiple facets of what such displacement entails, and the dreams, determination and sacrifices it requires. Chapter by chapter, she breaks down tenacious stereotypes about immigrants and refugees (“dirty, untrustworthy, and lazy manipulators of the system”); the indignity of having to shed one’s different-sounding name; the loaded question, “Where are you from?”; what happens when languages collide, and converge; and the fraught yet frequently beautiful manifestations of successive waves of second- and third-generation immigrants becoming fluent, fully integrated, full-on Quebecers, despite what some would have us believe.

She professes her love for the French language, agreeing with the need to protect it while disproving the prevailing party lines pitting immigration as the enemy to its preservation.

“I wrote this book for everyone,” Drimonis said. “I wrote it for immigrant kids such as myself, (who have an ability) to belong everywhere, but there’s this lonely feeling of not feeling you’re accepted anywhere. And there’s this feeling of not being good enough, like you’re a Quebecer on probation — you have to prove your allegiance.

“I also wrote it for francophones and anglophones. As an allophone, I often feel like I’m sitting on the sidelines, listening to both groups argue. As a political junkie and writer, it’s extremely fascinating; it also makes you want to jump out the window. I wrote this for them to see another perspective.”

While she’s aware she might ruffle some feathers, Drimonis sincerely hopes her book might also help francophone Quebecers see things in a different light. Far from Quebec-bashing, We, the Others, she argues, comes from a place of love.

“I truly believe the average francophone Quebecer has an open heart. People are open here. If I can touch them in that way — by talking about my parents and explaining how hurtful this public discourse can be, how it affects people and makes them feel they don’t belong – it might allow them to understand things on a more profound level.”

tdunlevy@postmedia.com

twitter.com/TChaDunlevy

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