Weeh this quora thread is an eye opener…real experiences of people who left big jobs and family to start from bottom tier in canada…huko racism is also known as 'canadian experience '…filtering process/racism
To me she looks like someone who just loves to complain. Why not get groceries and prepare your own meals kwa keja ama better still just pack up and go back to your country of origin. I believe life is what one makes it to be especially ukienda kwa wenyewe.
YES! I have and still do. I am of Turkish descent and was born and raised in Germany. I have lived in Turkey for about 12 years of my life and moved to Canada as a skilled immigrant in 2010.
The most important question you have to ask yourself is: What do I want in life?
If your answers are: Financial freedom, great career/income, adequate housing, good weather - then CANADA is not your destination.
My experience of Canada is quite limited to Vancouver BC. And to some extent Toronto ON. As you might know, these are the two major immigrant clusters in Canada.
Finding a good job/career with a good income is almost impossible if you don’t have Canadian credentials (it’s even hard with Canadian credentials).
Housing is terrible. You will be stuck in a 1 bedroom apartment that is extremely overpriced and pay at least $1600/month for nothing. You will share a washer and dryer with all the other tenants in your building. Apartments neither have the room nor the facilities to hook up a washer and dryer in your own place. If you want to have ‘the luxury’ of being able to do laundry at home, your rent automatically goes above and beyond $2000 easily (still a 1 bedroom apt though)! I don’t even want to get started on BUYING a house or an apartment. That’s impossible! Please refer to http://vancouver.craigslist.ca and check out the apartments and rentals ads.
SOLUTION: Go to college/university and get a new in demand career!
ANSWER: GOOD LUCK! Now that you’ve immigrated here and are a resident, most in demand programs will put you on a waiting list for up to 3 years.
Let’s say you were lucky and got in - who is going to pay for tuition, fees, expenses, rent etc? Education is not free in Canada, and books are around $100–250 for each course. You must be available during the day because there are no night or evening universities here. Your BARE minimum monthly expenses as a single person here will be around $2600 (not including tuition fees and other school expenses etc). Edit: BCIT in Vancouver has part-time evening courses but unfortunately course availability is not guaranteed and they cost more or the classical waiting list issue.
HEALTH: Family doctors/general practitioners are readily available and you should be able to get an appointment in 48 hours. BUT if you need to see a specialist then things change. I once had to wait 3 months (not exaggerating!) to see a dermatologist. And when I saw him, he asked me to go and purchase the medicine and come back to have it injected by him again. And the next best appointment available was in 3 weeks. The same goes for cardiology, and it perhaps even worse.
WEATHER: Vancouver summers are amazing! 4–5 months of very comfortable and beautiful weather. But for the rest of the year: it’s raining all the time, it’s damp, it’s overcast, it’s cold. And this is the BEST weather you can get in Canada. Other provinces are -20 C.
FRIENDS/PEOPLE/NETWORKING: People are superficially friendly. Everyone will say hi, smile, ‘excuse me’s en mass. But when you really want to become friends with someone, they withdraw from you. ‘Real’ Canadians don’t like to be bothered - and most Canadians will regard a new friend as a bother. They’d be way happier to sit at home and watch Netflix and have a glass of wine, beer than meeting up with friends for some socializing. Dating is horrible too! I don’t even want to talk about it.
EDIT: Please read this article on alcohol consumption in Canada published by a Canadian newspaper: Canada ranks third in the world for drunkenness (and 20% know they need help): report
RESULT:
So, if you’re really coming from a bad place/country etc. Yes, Canada might be an option. It’s definitely better to be in Canada than in a war torn zone or such.
But if your goals are financial freedom, great career/income, adequate housing, good weather - then CANADA is not your destination.
I suggest the USA, Germany, Switzerland to some extent, Ireland (especially if you’re in IT/Software).
I hope this helps.
Some of the other answers here demonstrate this resentment of immigrants which lies beneath the surface of a country that portrays itself as an immigration angel, yet in actuality has a shrewd and rather non-humanitarian attitude to immigrants compared to its ‘neighbor to the south’ and the nations of Europe.
Canada has a merit-based immigration system. Roughly 65% of immigrants in Canada are taken for their economic value to Canada, while in the USA 65% are taken for humanitarian reasons - family reunification. (See link at the bottom). Canada also seeks immigrants who bring money! Once these immigrants get here, they find themselves having a harder time finding work than immigrants in the USA, because the place is flooded with highly qualified people, with a relatively small population and a finite economy due in part to the declining population. They face an underlying attitude amongst the well-established class that you should start out at the bottom, and get out there and shovel snow and work your way up, even if you were a nuclear physicist in Iran. This is the ‘Canadian experience’ issue, which is a watered-down, polished up version of racism. You only have to read a few of these answers here to have that attitude demonstrated. Canada is a great country and I am being a bit harsh in this judgment, but Canadians tend to judge America as racist, when Canada has its problems too. America’s open discourse on this issue is a part of its process of striving to form a more perfect union. The noisy debate on racism in the media makes its problems seem worse than they actually are. Canada’s desire to differentiate itself from this perceived racist mess in America results in its own problems being swept under the carpet.
But… this question asks, why is Canada bringing immigrants when there is no opportunity? (Again, the attitude of the established class - I got my job, you immigrants go shovel snow and work your way up!) The reason Canada is doing this is both economic and social (and the two are related).
It’s very simple. If you got more out of them than they get out of you, they would not let you move there. As a person who has lived and dinyad the chicks of the UK, US and KE; east or west, north or south, home is best.