“In the middle of class, he would be like, ‘Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist, terrorist.’

And I would tell the teacher, and the teacher would just tell him to quit it. And he would just keep calling me ‘terrorist, terrorist, terrorist…’” (Bashir)

The effects of 9-11 resonate. Bashir is just one youth-gang member we hear in remarkable research by Hieu Van Ngo, at the University of Calgary.

Listen:

“You go to Tuscany, you go to Crowfoot, they got the clubs and different things for kids.

“You go down there (southeast), you have not much…. Why not put the same things that they put in rich communities?” (Salim)

“And I’m like there (pointing to the bottom), that’s what I feel like, you know. These … light-skin guys, they get away with everything. Me, I’m Black.” (Awok)

“Yeah, basically if you struggle, and there is another kid that struggled, then ‘Let’s meet up.’” (Matak).

Ngo interviewed 28 Calgary youth-gang members. Each immigrated here as a child, and each struggled to belong — at home and at school.

There’s so much attention on our aging population. But Ngo points out another important number: foreign-born kids are going to double to 30 per cent of Canadians under 18 in a few decades.  

Some thrive, others don’t. Sure, they’d hoped to play hockey. Or to skate. Both too expensive.

Their parents struggle, and the kids do, too. Violence: They know it.

Then, they don’t fit in at home, in their ethnic communities, or at school with whites.

Ngo disputes the claim that kids import problems. Youth gangs are a made-at-home phenomenon, he argues. Anger? These youth mentioned “anger” 102 times in the interviews.

“They were resentful of unfair treatment due to their disadvantaged position: parent versus child, student versus teacher, police versus civilian, black versus white …” Ngo writes.

Gyan says: “I look in the mirror, it’s like f–k the world straight up. F–k everybody.”

So the kids hang together for protection. Do drugs. Smoke. Vandalize.

Survive.

Yet, there is hope.

Some mention connecting with sports, religion, a teacher, a community police officer.

Ngo says when we hear about youth gangs, all we hear about is crime. He thinks we need to hear more about underlying issues. And innovative solutions.

He’s done more than his part in setting the scene.

Read Van Ngo’s work online: centrefornewcomers.ca

– Contact Janice Pasky at calgaryurbancompass@metronews.ca