Guys and ladies, just got back from Canada after a 2.5 months long stay. My initial plan was to land and then to come back to Bangladesh. Just want to give some of my thoughts about Canada (these are exclusively my private thoughts)
1. Canada is a beautiful/scenic country. Everything is so organized and clean. Living standard is awesome. I lived my whole time in Toronto and i heard the western part of Canada is even nicer. So, great place to live - no doubt.
2. Canada has a fantastic welfare system under which poor/unable people can easily lead their life without the need of working even. Besides such welfare, they have good benefit from Government that would provide level of assistance to its residents, especially those newly landed.
3. School system is great. I have relatives there whose kids are going to school. I have a 3 years old and may be someday he would go school there as well. But i observed the system very closely this time and i just loved it.
4. It has a strong Bangladeshi presence in some part of Toronto. Not all. However, you still can get deshi food, spices, vegetables, fishes etc. However, they are rather costlier than usual foods there. Halal foods are also available at most places.
Now the other side of the coin:
5. Living in Canada is very expensive. Prices of commodities/services are more expensive than that of other neighboring country such as USA. I lived in USA for 10 years when i was student there. And everything is automatically 1.5 times more expensive in Canada, if not more.
6. Tax is more. Canada runs on more of a socialistic system and government takes care of a lot of basic needs. That is why, you pay more taxes. But, yeah, they give you all the support you need to survive at least.
7. Everything is somewhat more bureaucratic in Canada. From simple thing to get a phone line to open a bank account. You need to produce a lot of paper works. However, once you get your PR card, things get easier i believe. But all the service charges are really high compare to USA or even Bangladesh. Mobile phone plans are ridiculously high. Wireless coverage is not that strong either. I went out of Toronto several times to surrounding cities and even the best telecom provider there (Rogers) used go on and off. Bank tries to charge a healthy amount of service charges just to maintain an account with them. Once again i am just comparing with Bangladesh and USA here. Europe is much more expensive than Canada, no doubt.
8. Immigrants are less likely to find jobs at their field of expertise. Overall, there is a shortage of employment in Canada. I tried checking out some employment magazines and in 80% of it was filled with training course/skill enhancement offers from colleges and institutes; rather than real job postings. Odd jobs are there; but even those are hard to find sometime since there are long waiting for that.
9. Life style is very lethargic or should i say slow? People are very laid back down there compare to any part of the world i have visited. They move slowly, walk slowly - may be because they have sense of security within themselves. So, no rush in doing anything. I kinda grew up in a very fast paced life in US. Also, i believe Dhaka is even more lively in some cases. It sometimes fell to me there are no people around. Its so quite. All together in Canada (the second largest country in the world) population is around 3 crore. I think Dhaka has almost 3 crore people itself!
It seems to me if USA is regular Coca-Cola; then Canada is DIET Coca-Cola! Just to compare...
But, i loved it there. 2.5 months went by real quick. and i am surely would not abonded my plan to settle in Canada down the road. But i think i need to be little older to be adjusted in that life style. May be in another 10-12 years. Till then, i plan to keep the residency somehow.
Just my thoughts... once again, i love Canada and i consider this as my second home now -no question about that.
Thanks for your time!
Ref: http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/all-bangladeshi-applicants-forum-t19664.13995.html
