Culture Brokers: Stories from 1.5 Generation Immigrants

For this season's finale, we sat down with Mofi and Eniola to learn about their experiences immigrating to Canada from Nigeria as first generation immigrants. Check out Mofi on her podcast, Our Favourite Things: https://podcasts.apple.com/a/podcast/our-favourite-things/id1196938782. Eniola is a content creator and fashion designer, and you can find her at @EniolaHu https://www.instagram.com/eniolahu/

The hosts reflect on Tahseen's wedding, one year since the launch of the podcast, and the immigration story of Mana's family.

In this episode, Mana and Tahseen sit down with Andrew Do and Sadi Muktadir, the food critics and faces behind 6spots - their platform for sharing interviews conducted with restaurants/eateries in Toronto by immigrants and new Canadians. We talk about food being used as bragging rights for Canada's multiculturalism and aspects that are typically not part of the conversation: food aesthetics, gatekeeping in food media, the regional dishes that often don't make it to the menu, cuisine as a reflection of immigration policy, and learning to fight back when kids told you your lunch stank. Make sure to check out 6spots @ http://www.6ixspots.com/archived, and remember to support local businesses! Andrew can be followed on Twitter @ADoAboutThings, and Sadi can be followed on Instagram @6thirst.

In this episode, Mana and Tahseen explore how to navigate familial conversations without reverting to the 16-year old versions of ourselves. We also talk about our sense of rooted-ness, what equity means for us as 1.5 generation immigrants, and the conditionality of integration in Canada. 

In this episode, Mana and Tahseen sit down with Hamza Haq, the actor most recently recognized on the CTV series Transplant. Hamza also happens to be a fellow 1.5-er. The conversation covers a lot of ground - from the stigma about pursuing a career in art within immigrant families, to navigating shame, leveraging audacity and ultimately learning the hard way what carving your own identity looks like. Make sure to check out Hamza's Ted Talk: https://youtu.be/UZaYtX6gZa0

Tahseen and Mana reminisce about summer trips back home, and the privilege and/or burden of always knowing there is more than one way of doing things.

Tahseen and Mana explore the unique dilemma facing 1.5 generation immigrants - to consider different cultural systems and deliberately choose which pieces will be passed onto future generations. 

Mana and Tahseen talk about entitlement as an indicator of social cohesion, and how different generations of immigrants have subjective standards for racism.

Mana and Tahseen talk about the small moments that trigger the feeling of "otherness" in immigrants, and the power of language in reinstating a sense of belonging to our authentic identities.

In this episode, Tahseen and Mana talk about growing up as proud Canadians, coming to terms with inequities in social capital, and what it means to turn existential angst into something productive for newer generations.