Here it is again......
Congratulations to those who've already got visa and preparing themselves to move to the land of opportunity. Yes, Canada is really a land of opportunity if you have patience and choose right track.
A Canadian senior citizen who used to be a social worker, once told me that 'Canada is a land of opportunity but you need to search for that and you need to give at least 2/3 years. After 4/5 years you'll be flying for sure if you are in the right track'. Reality is, you need to struggle for couple of years to get that opportunity and Yes, you NEED to give time.
I would like to share my 2.5 years’ experience to prepare yourself before moving to Canada. Here 'PREPARE' doesn't mean what you can bring with you and what not, how much money you can bring and how, where to live, what to eat bla bla. I’ve already shared all these information earlier. Here ‘PREPARE' means Prepare yourself for struggle to start a brand new life and a better future. Everything I’m writing here is only and only from my personal experience. I request not to take it otherwise.
Let's say you born and brought up in Dhaka city, studied in good school, college then graduated from a recognized university. A lot of people know you, you have friends and family and you have your own network and connections. Still you need to fight with others and struggle to get a good job and to make your life stable. Now think about Canada, no one knows you here [except if you have friends or family living here]. Everything...I mean everything is new to you starting from people to life style [unless you wanna stuck to Bangladeshi community]. Now think logically and practically, how you expect to get a job here in the same or related position as you were in Bangladesh or even a good job where no one knows neither your capability nor even you. Furthermore you are way behind from people living here in any category. Why and how? Simple……you moved from a third world country to a first world country. Believe me you are way behind as I was 2.5 years back and I’m still learning.
Now the scenario is you can get a job as soon as you land in Canada. Like in Tim Horton, Starbucks, Dollarama, Walmart, Shoppers Drug, Pizza Pizza, Cosmetica, Petro Canada, Esso, hotels and restaurants, packaging, warehouses, security jobs and many more. Those are, some say surviving while others say odd jobs [though every job is respected here]. To me that’s a startup. You can earn a lot of money by doing those kind of jobs. You can even buy a luxurious car or even a house.
Now tell me, do you really need to graduate from universities, get PhD/Master’s/Bachelor’s degree to make coffee/snacks for people or serve them or check cash for the customers or packing goods in warehouses? Your answer is NO and you are laughing, right? But unfortunately, I saw a lot of Bangladeshi highly educated people working like that. They work 12-16 hours a day, do 2-3 jobs in min. wages [or may be a bit higher than the min.], work in weekends also, do cash jobs [to skip tax and legal working hours]. Work with less educated sometimes even uneducated refuges [now I’m talking like racist]. They only return home to sleep. Sometimes they couldn’t manage to spent time with their kids. They have luxurious cars, their own house though. But is this why you wanna move to Canada leaving all your friends and family behind? I believe your answer will be NO again and it has to be a big NO. It doesn’t mean that you don’t need to do that kind of work. Yes, you need to do that, I’ve also went through that but for the time being not for the rest of your life.
May be you are wondering that there must be a reason behind that and wanna ask, ‘If Canada in not able to give me my profession related job or even a good job, then why they needed all our educational certificates, professional experiences bla bla with application?' Yes, there is a reason behind and yes these type of questions came in my mind too. I’ve asked these questions to Canadians [Not Canadian Bangladeshis]. All the answers were similar and that is, they really wanna use your talent, your experience but at the same time they want you to upgrade yourself, they want you to fit with them, they want you to be part of them to be in the same row. They need all those documents to check and to be sure that you are capable to upgrade yourself easily. You have to understand that everything is new and different here.
Now the main objective of writing this essay is to let you know the reason behind those educated Bangladeshi people working 12-16 hours and request couple of things to all the immigrants who’s going to land tomorrow or the day after.
The first reason for those people is they’ve started working as soon as they land and think that Ok I’m earning a lot and here every type of work is equally respected so it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, where I’m working and I have my own car and house and they pretend to be happy.
Second is, they didn’t upgrade themselves. They thought that they have enough educational qualification and knowledge to work here. But the reality is, they waste their time and savings looking for jobs with their education and experience. A few of them got lucky [who have studied abroad] but most of them failed and became frustrated, curse the system, curse the country, curse the govt. and at the end either they went back to Bangladesh or they start working like that and stuck with the system to earn extra as they don’t have any savings. Some of them pretend to be happy earning enough money having luxurious cars and own detach duplex house.
Third and most vital reason is keeping themselves away from local people other than Bangladeshis. They think that, we are immigrants so Canadias gonna treat us as 3rd class citizens. So they don’t even try to upgrade themselves, don’t explore anything, get whatever comes first, always look for corners to scape form the legal things and run for money leaving their family behind. They think that they migrated just to earn money. They always try to find the worst part of this country as well as they did back in Bangladesh [I believe so]. They are the worst. They’ll always try to pull you back. Give you fake and irrelevant information knowing nothing. Give you all kind of 3rd class ideas to earn money. Always try to show you the bad part of the system. Believe me you need to keep yourself away from them.
However, there are lot of Bangladeshi immigrants who are doing really well here in their own educational and professional background. They don’t work 12-16 hours a day. They earn enough money working only 40 hours a week, 8 hours a day. The rest of the time they spent with their family. Now tell me, do you need to pretend to be happy or you ARE happy? Trust me, more than 90% of them upgraded themselves. If you know anyone doing well in their own profession, just ask them how they got in to the position. I‘m pretty sure the answer will be the same, struggled for 2/3 years may be a bit more or less.
Now, my kind request to you all, please keep patience, prepare to struggle only for 2-3 years. Invest this time from your life to upgrade yourself. Get Canadian educational certificate of your related field. You need to study here regardless whatever educational degree you have from BD, if you wanna get a good job. Canadian govt. gives you as much as $30,000 loan [OSAP for Ontario] for your study including your living expense. You only need to pay them back the student loan [which is not more than $11,250 for 3 semester which is one year program] in long term [9.5 years] installment with 3.5% interest. My highest recommendation to take that opportunity. Please explore your surroundings, roam around, explore the culture, explore life style, do volunteer works to learn the system, interact with new/local people, talk to them [not only Bangladeshis], don’t keep yourself only in Bangladeshi community. You don’t wanna travel 12,000km only to be with other Bangladeshis here. Canadians are really good. They are ready to accept you as Canadians. You just need to fit with them. Please look for available facilities that Canadian govt. provides to new comers. There are hell lot of them. Everything is online now. You just need to google. Please be open and move from your comfort zone. You can get a lot of startup jobs by which you can earn a lot of money, can buy car or even a house but those are not meant to be your kind of job. You didn't spent 4/5 years studying in universities to work as a donkey here, do you? When your friends or relatives from Bangladesh might ask you, what you do? Can you tell them proudly that, I am a waiter/waitress in Radisson Hotel or Uber driver or security guard in CN Tower though you have luxurious car or even a duplex detach house with a swimming pool? Though all jobs are equally respected here, somewhere in the corner of your heart you won’t be happy, you won’t be satisfied with your Canadian life.
অনেক ইংলিশ কপচাইসি, অনেক জ্ঞ্যান দিসি, অনেক আজে বাজে কথা বলসি, এখন নিজের কথা বলে শেষ করি। আমি বুয়েট থেকে পাশ করা আর্কিটেক্ট, আমার বউ ডাক্তার। দেশে আমার নিজের ফার্ম ছিল আর বউ স্কোয়ার হস্পিটালের ডাক্তার ছিল। দেশে আমার status বুঝতেই পারছেন [বরাই করলাম একটু]। আপা ও ভাইজানেরা, অনেক আশা নিয়ে অনেক স্বপ্ন নিয়ে আড়াই বছর আগে ২০১৪ এর সেপ্টেম্বর মাসে আমি যখন কানাডাতে পা দিয়েছি তখন আমার বউ ৪ মাসের প্রেগ্নেন্ট। পরিচিত অনেকের অপরিচিত ও অন্যরকম চেহারা দেখেছি। জ্ঞ্যান দেয়ার মানুষের অভাব ছিল না কিন্তু ২৫% ভালো জ্ঞ্যান হলে ৭৫% আজাইরা। অনেক frustrated ছিলাম। বউ পারলে সারাক্ষন আমাকে বকে [আপু/ভাবিরা ভাল বুঝবেন]। ৭ দিনের মাথায় কাজ শুরু করেছিলাম যাতে savings-এ হাত দিতে না হয়। যারা ঢাকায় থাকেন তারা জানবেন, বাবু বাজার ব্রিজের নিচে নৌকা থেকে কাধে করে যেভাবে চালের বস্তা নামায়, আমিও Canadian style-এ সেভাবে একটা প্যাকেজিং কম্পানিতে ৮ ঘন্টা দাঁড়ায় দাঁড়ায় অনবরত [প্রতি আড়াই ঘন্টায় আধা ঘন্টা বিরতিতে] ২৫-৩০ কেজির ব্যাগ লোড করেছি। বেতন ঘন্টায় $১১.২৫ [-ট্যাক্স]। -১০/১৫ ডিগ্রি তে কনকনে ঠান্ডা বাতাস আর স্নো এর মধ্যে বাস থেকে নেমে ১/১.৫ কিলোমিটার হেটে কাজে গিয়েছি। ৪ মাসে আমার ওজন ৮১কেজি থেকে ৭০কেজিতে নেমে গিয়েছিল gym-এ না গিয়েই। ঠান্ডা আর পিচ্ছিল বরফের মধ্যে প্রেগ্ন্যান্ট বউ কে নিয়ে বাসে আর হেটে ডাক্তার দেখাতে নিয়ে গিয়েছি [ঢাকায় আমার নিজের গাড়ি ছিল]। ২০১৫ তে আমার মেয়ে হবার পর ঠান্ডার মধ্যে ওকে কম্বল মুরিয়ে প্যাকেট বানিয়ে ডাক্তারের কাছে নিয়েছি। গাড়ি কেনার পর একটু extra পয়সা কামাই করার জন্য আমিও weekend-এ cash-এ food delivery-র কাজ করেছি। ২০১৬ তে আমার ১ বছর বয়সি মেয়েকে ৫-৭ ঘন্টা ডে-কেয়ারে রেখে যখন ২ জনে একসাথে পড়াশনা শুরু করলাম তখন অনেকে অনেক রকম ভয় দেখিয়েছে। কারোও কথায় পাত্তা না দিয়ে আমি সপ্তাহে ৪ দিন কাজ করেছি আর ৩ দিন পড়াশোনা, আমার বউ সপ্তাহে ৫ দিন পড়াশোনা ও ৩ দিন volunteer করেছে । ৬মাস পরে [জুলাই ২০১৬] আমি design related একটা চাকরি পাই। বেতন $১৭ প্রতি ঘন্টা। ৩ মাস চাকরি করে মজা পাচ্ছিলাম না বলে চাকরি ছেড়ে দেই। তখনোও অনেকে টাকা কামাই করার আজাইরা বুদ্ধি দিয়েছে কারন বাঙ্গালী এখানে একটা কাজ না পেয়ে আগেরটা ছাড়ার সাহস পায় না। জানুয়ারি ২০১৭ থেকে নিজেকে আরেকটু upgrade করার জন্য আরেকটা program-এ ঢুকি সেই সাথে আরেকটা চাকরি পাই। অবশ্যই আগেরটা থেকে ভাল। Now I’m working as a project coordinator in a commercial interior design firm and my wife is doing her placement in Toronto General Hospital as clinical research associate.
I don’t have my own house or a luxurious car yet [পুরন একটা গাড়ি চালাই]. But still I’m happy so far cuz I’m working in my own field, can spend time with my daughter and wife. Frankly speaking, I feel happier [being rude... Tongue] when I saw those Bangladeshi people, who once gave me *censored word* ideas to earn money, avoiding me cuz I’m working with Canadians in a corporate environment within this short time. I can proudly tell people where I work and what I do, I can also upload pictures where and how I work in facebook....... Tongue।
মাত্র আড়াই বছরের অভিজ্ঞতা অনুযায়ী ভাবতে পাড়েন অনেক বেশি পাকনামী করছি, অনেক বেশি আজেবাজে কথা বলছি...অনেকে বাংলাদেশি বিদ্যেষিও বলতে পাড়েন...তাতে আমার কিছুই যায় আসে না... পরিচিত অনেককে এত frustrated হতে দেখেছি যে ভালো লাগে না। বুয়েটের মেকানিক্যেল ইঞ্জিনিয়ার, ঢাকা মেডিকেলের ডাক্তার, আই.বি.এ. থেকে এম.বি.এ. করা মানুষজনকে এখানে ১০-১২ বছর থাকার পরও এখনও ঐ start up job করতে দেখে খুব মন খারাপ হয়। সময় মত আমি আমার রাস্তা চিনে ফেলেছি...আপনাদের নিজেদের রাস্তা খুজে বের করার একটা উপায় বললাম মাত্র...ভাল হলে আপনার ভাল, খারাপ হলে আপনারই খারাপ...খারাপ হলে আমাকে ডেকে ২টা গালি দেয়া ছাড়া কিছু করার নাই আর ভাল হলে আমাকে শুধু বললেই হবে যে আমার কথা কাজে দিয়েছে...আমি টরন্টতেই থাকি। কিন্তু ৪-৫ বছর পরে আফসোস কইরেন না কেউ please.
So ladies and gentleman, Be prepared to be frustrated, cry out loud, yell at yourself, pull your hair out, get cursed by your wife, curse yourself, curse the country, curse the Govt., curse the cold but please please please keep patience, explore your surroundings, don’t hesitate to talk to local Canadian people and last but not the least don't lose hope.
Cheerio.
