With July very quickly coming to a close, and our month of Sikhism just on the horizon, I thought I would take the opportunity to bring to light a local piece of news concerning Sikhs in Canada.

I found this bit of news through the lovely and informative ReligionNewsBlog, which I highly recommend for those interested in current events in the religious world.

The Canadian government has reversed a decade-old policy that forced Indian Sikhs with the common last names Singh or Kaur to change their surname before they could immigrate.

Singh is a very common last name for male Indian Sikhs, and the same goes for Kaur for female Sikhs.  In the interests of easier and faster processing, the Canadian government felt that such common names, “do not qualify for the purposes of Immigration into Canada.”

I was kind of offended when I read this, and I couldn’t believe that my rather liberal and open country was rejecting people because their name was too common and a bit of a bother.  Though the article points out that most Indian Sikhs, “also have a traditional family surname that they normally use for the immigration application,” thus not making it an impossible or difficult hurtle to jump.  It still seems kind of needlessly disrespectful and unfair.

How would you feel if the country you were looking to live in demanded that you change your name before entering?  What name would you have picked?