hip onto the land of a new world awakened new excitement at the thought of freedom in such a beautiful place, a place of rebirth. SETTLEMENTCanada is where the reconstruction of many immigrants’ lives began. Once off the ship, people started going in all different directions, many depending on the location of their connections or sponsors. From the ports, people boarded trains to “journey into the heart of Canada …to meet church officials or family…or employer[s] who had sponsored them”(Ganzevoort, 1988: 79). Settlement was in various locations and in varying numbers. Many people settled together in similar ethnic groups in order to maintain their culture and affiliation. Through this they could achieve a sense of place with little alienation in their new home. Some drew comfort from large numbers of similar people, however, my family did not settle amongst a Dutch colony. My grandfather’s main goal was in establishing his own family where they were provided with the best opportunities and making their lives as prosperous as he knew how. He did this through hard work and determination. They traveled to Alberta where they met his brother who was already a resident. Here they settled on a farm. The Dutch were classified as preferred immigrants in contrast with non-preferred (Bone, 2000: Ch.4). Preferred immigrants may have experienced fewer barriers, but faced barriers nonetheless. Language, which is a key component of ethnicity, is one of those barriers. My grandmother’s solution to this was to never allow her children to speak Dutch (Bouwmeester, 2000). This way they learned English faster, were less different and fit in faster at school. Today not one of eleven, second-generation Dutch-Canadian, children speak fluent Dutch; and not one of my 33 cousins, third-generation Dutch-Canadians can even understand the language when spoken. This was a very fast loss of culture. Diversi...
