Global Culture

Jorge from Catenary has a brilliant post about life as an immigrant:

Being an immigrant can be an alienating experience: you come to a strange city and you just take it for granted –you’re there but you could be anywhere, the city’s history is a blur, it’s just a place where you sleep, eat, and work, it’s a space that simply is not home.

Making it home is laborious, but fascinating if you’re up to it. I’ve been in Toronto for more than 3.5 years, and I keep discovering corners and stories that make me appreciate it all the better.

At this point his post does a very interesting analysis of urban archeology, digging precious bits of information about his adoptive city from an old map, circa 1898. In the process of doing so, he has probably become more knowledgeable about Toronto (Canada) than many native Torontonias. And before I get all kinds of rants denying this fact, let me point out that I’ve seen this effect take place very commonly. In fact, I admit that it was only after I left my country of origin that I found myself interested in its history and culture in ways that were never so strong while I lived there.

It may be interesting to leverage the capacity that immigrants have to appreciate a city to such degree as this knowledge could provide important ideas on how a city must evolve. Combine this with the fact that certain immigrants have experienced life in many different places and you have a powerful engine to lead urban improvements.