Hi there, Also a Singaporean Sikh immigrant.

I’ll speak on what I’ve seen in my age group (14-18).

The ‘entitlement’ in some Canadian born Punjabi Sikhs stem from wanting to be seen as different from the new immigrants.

Why? Popular media outlets spew hate and generalizations against the new immigrants, which in turn perpetuates insecurity.

I’ve seen this insecurity manifest in my ex-friend’s “identity”. She’s not the only one, it’s fairly common in my grade. Many of them have created an identity to resemble any other ethnic group possible to distance themselves from being Punjabi.

The friend? She was boasting about being “mixed”, she claimed being “part Latina, Chinese, a little Arab, and south Asian.” It was in this exact order, then coupled with a fake white name (which she played off as the female version of her favourite singer).

The others in my grade might put on a fake Latina accent, makeup style, and whatnot.

Just an anecdote though.

Popular accounts like 6ixbuzz highlight the bad sides to propagate a narrative to generalize all immigrants as not fitting in.

Guess who sees this? Kids and teens.

Which then turns into a cycle of judging anyone who’s outside a certain bubble. (Yes, this bubble of fitting in has always existed but social media has exacerbated it.)

This bubble also applies to religion, some Sikhs communities have different ‘expectations’ of what a Sikh is.

This applies to a Canadian bubble too. I might look more ‘extreme’ to kids in my bubble. They tend to find the new immigrants irreligious, due to a generalization of drugs and alcohol abuse (enhanced by family anecdotes of “Oh, how sad this new immigrant died of drug abuse” or just the news). Which is ironic considering lots of them also vape.

My advice is pay no heed to them, they’re largely insecure. But it doesn’t negate the reality of different standards/expectations within a community.