From: The Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples/Iraqis/Muhammad A. Shuraydi
Except for the old Iraqi-Chaldean community in Detroit, Michigan, immigration is a new phenomenon for Iraqis. Iraqi Canadians are reluctant to talk about their experiences to outsiders in view of their distrust of others, fear of retaliation by the Iraqi government, and the desire to avoid recollection of the painful experiences that compelled them to leave their homeland.
Kinship networks are vital to Iraqis. The traditional family structure in Iraq is patrilineal, extended, and endogamous, but it has been evolving. Although the nuclear family has become dominant, the extended family remains important at the social, political, and economic levels. The father’s authority is not open to questioning; males are preferred to females; and the father is usually named in accordance with the name of his oldest son. ( Abu means the father of; for instance, Abu-Ahmad means the father of Ahmad.) Premarital sex by men is condoned, while such activity by women is forbidden. Marriage within one’s own extended family is preferable to marriage to outsiders. The behaviour of sons and daughters should adhere to traditional norms, and deviation from that standard reflects negatively on the entire family.
In Canada, the generation gap and the existence of two competing value systems are both affecting this ethos. During the early years of settlement, and in view of the difficulty of adjustment, the entire ethnic community may seem like family while one’s own family, both nuclear and extended, is essential. At the same time, however, the authority of the father, and of parents in general, which has been decreasing throughout the Arab world, is being strongly challenged by children born in Canada, who are more open to Canadian values.
Interaction and social gatherings are confined to homes yet, even within Toronto and Montreal, group conflicts do exist. The earliest arrivals function primarily at the private level, with the Arab-Canadian community as their reference group, and they are well adjusted, with some of them successful professionals or businessmen. Their children have internalized the Canadian way of life. Recent immigrants who already have relatives in Canada are ordinarily sponsored, counselled, and assisted by them.
The patterns of formal association among Iraqis are new and voluntary, as revealed most notably in the Iraqi Canadian Society in Toronto and Iraqi House in Montreal. They help Iraqis adapt to Canada and develop ties with the general society, and they disseminate information about the ethnocultural heritage of Iraqi Canadians. Gender equity is the norm; the president of the Iraqi Canadian Society is a woman.
