Spanish is an official language.
Apology accepted. Now put some action behind those words.
Absolutely nothing.
Fleeing TO the US? From Canada? It is to guffaw.
I don’t know if there is a specific issue with gays who want to immigrate to the U.S., but as things stand, in general, this country takes in more legal immigrants than all other countries combined. And this is legal immigration we’re talking about. Sure, we make you jump through hoops, and there are ridiculous restrictions on those in the process of becoming legal residents, but I’d have to say this makes our immigration policy appear more easygoing overall.
I wish I had the job skills & confidence to go.
Our family did it. Of course, that was back in 1977.
Without getting too specific, our immigration attorney advised us that there was currently no path to permanent residency for Mr. Mallard, a Briton with a graduate degree. The best we could do was jump through the hoops for legal but impermanent residency, and then wait and see if anything changed.
This thread was meant to be more light-hearted: yes, I’m breaking up with America, but I always stay friends with my exes, and that includes countries. America is big enough to forgive me mouthing off, and I hope I’m big enough to get over the perceived injustice. I’m just going to wallow in a few months of bitterness, America is going to ignore me, and then things will be fine between us. We’ll bond over taxes every April.
Is it easier to become a permanent resident and then a citizen of the USA if your are married to an American as opposed to simply living in a relationship with an American?
Well, here’s how I would describe it in a few sentences. There were French-speaking colonies in North America. Over the course of the 18th century, they were ceded to Britain (Acadia – now Nova Scotia – became British in 1713, for example). For the next two centuries, two main linguistic groups coexist in British North America and expand across the country, but through numbers and government policy one of them is marginalised to irrelevance outside Quebec, and has second-class status even inside it. That’s also the point at which indigenous languages become suppressed: as long as there were few Europeans in Canada, people were content to have them and the Natives live in largely separate settlements, but as the whites spread across the continent they encroached on Native land. Some aboriginal languages have survived to this day and have been enjoying a revival in the past half-century.
Some 50 years ago, the modern Quebec nationalist movement, which holds Quebec, not Canada, as the territorial and political entity of the French-speaking linguistic group – which doesn’t in itself imply independence – starts to gain steam. As a reaction to this, the federal government declares itself bilingual (and declares that the country is a multicultural one) and pays a lot of lip service to the idea. But several parts of the country feel that this idea is largely useless to them, and at this point parts of the country have started moving apart anyway. This brings us to today.
If you’ve got any questions about this short history of language relations in Canada, feel free to PM me, or better yet, to start a thread.
The main difference here is that most Spanish speakers in the United States today come from relatively recent immigrant groups. Texas, New Mexico, etc., were inhabited by some Spanish speakers when they were annexed to the US, but for the most part they are not the origin of America’s Hispanic population.
And of course, as mentioned, Spanish is an official language of some US states, New Mexico being an example.
Puerto Rico is a different case: it’s a largely Spanish-speaking territory with a large population that predates annexation by the US. That may very well be part of why it’s still not a state today.
This is the reason why Spanish is becoming an increasingly present language in the US, but let’s not forget that French speakers are immigrating to Canada. And no, not from Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon; rather from France, Africa and Haiti.
Wow, Hypnagogic Jerk, thanks for that. I knew the situations weren’t really parallel, but I wasn’t aware of many of the nuances you give. (And, of course, I’ve conveniently ignored the deep history of French in the continental U.S., too.)
So:
P.S. America – Sorry to slander you on the language and multiculture angle. I’ve heard from some of Canada’s friends, and some of yours, that what I said wasn’t really true below the surface. Like I told them, I’m just a little bitter right now and not always seeing clearly. I won’t do it again.
P.P.S. – This doesn’t mean I want to get back together with you, or break up with Canada. We all have our flaws, and I think pretending you’re more bilingual than you are is kind of cool.
Wedding bells in the air? I want a happy ending, dammit!
Oh, and welcome to Canada.
Thanks! I think this is the happy ending: after 9 years together (including 3 transatlantic long-distance years in the middle), we finally have a place to live where we can both stay indefinitely.
America tracks down Dr. Drake and calls him
Drake, Honey, please, please take me back. I know you think you love Canada right now but I can’t live without you. It’s just that I love you so much and I only want what is good for you. If only you’d stop being so selfish with this gay thing, I wouldn’t have to punish you. It’s like the time you dyed your hair just to antagonize me. If you would only grow up and take care of me like you should.
Canada is only using you. Canada doesn’t love you like I do. Once Canada finds out about all your faults, Canada will dump you and then you’ll have nothing. YOU’RE NOTHING WITHOUT ME! IF I CAN’T HAVE YOU NO ONE ELSE WILL!!!
I think you got yourself a homicidal stalker there. :eek:
With nukes! :eek:
Eeeeh. It’s probably not the real America anyways. All kinds of loons out there these days. Better call the police just in case.
This is when our strict gun control laws, enforced at the border, come in handy. 
I’m not too worried. All the countries I love have a dark side. I like it because I think I can be the one to change them (democracy!).
How Canada sees the rest of the world: http://s-ak.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/web03/2010/4/25/16/how-canada-sees-the-rest-of-the-world-6734-1272228626-75.jpg
I don’t know, shouldn’t there be a little “not so good friends” over Denmark :D?
Nah, we even have a territorial dispute over an island with our friends with benefits.
Applications for adjustment of status to permanent resident for immediate relatives of US citizens (i.e. spouses) are currently processing in 2-3 months. But it’s total bullshit that only heterosexual couples are eligible.
Well, that’s pretty efficient, I’ll grant you. I don’t know if our situation is strictly parallel, since Mr. Mallard was applying from scratch from outside the country without any status at all in Canada. I was only mentally comparing the U.S. visa process, which was not based on our relationship, to the Canada visa process, which was, so it’s a bit apples and oranges.