Brutal Winter and a Jobless Immigrant family

[zaynahdream]

I hope and pray your condition will get better... Yes you can vent out in here, to release your burden. Tomorrow will be another day for you and your family... Keep the faith brother. Keep going....

 

[SFD]

Dear deerestlovelybear,

Heartbreaking story and I tell you what "Canada is a though place that it will either break you or make you"

I have a similar timeline like you; we came (whole family) about 3.5 years ago and we went through so many ups and downs money, emotional and labour wise. We came under the FSW Program like you.

After 3 years, I must say, our efforts, commitments and drive are paying off. My two oldest children are doing quite well at University of Toronto, my spouse is in school (again just to get something from here in her resume) and she is working full time. Lots of sacrifices, brutal winter, short summer and hardly getting savings...

When it comes to me, I have a management position with a U.S. company here in the GTA and while I am not making 100 k per year, I am building up reputation and credibility as Canada is no different than any other country when it comes to "It is not who you are or what you know, instead it is what people know about you and who knows you"

Have we gone through difficulties in every direction? Hell, yes....

My humble advice to you is to find a way to reinvent yourself, choose another field and above all, be confident, have faith and be strong my dear. There is no free lunch in life... For every deerestlovelybear, there are 500 thousands professionals on any given field better prepared and connected to the labour market. Way too competitive nation...

My hope is that your situation gets better soon...

Cheers,

SFD

 

[zaynahdream]

Dear deerestlovelybear,

Heartbreaking story and I tell you what "Canada is a though place that it will either break you or make you"

I have a similar timeline like you; we came (whole family) about 3.5 years ago and we went through so many ups and downs money, emotional and labour wise. We came under the FSW Program like you.

After 3 years, I must say, our efforts, commitments and drive are paying off. My two oldest children are doing quite well at University of Toronto, my spouse is in school (again just to get something from here in her resume) and she is working full time. Lots of sacrifices, brutal winter, short summer and hardly getting savings...

When it comes to me, I have a management position with a U.S. company here in the GTA and while I am not making 100 k per year, I am building up reputation and credibility as Canada is no different than any other country when it comes to "It is not who you are or what you know, instead it is what people know about you and who knows you"

Have we gone through difficulties in every direction? Hell, yes....

My humble advice to you is to find a way to reinvent yourself, choose another field and above all, be confident, have faith and be strong my dear. There is no free lunch in life... For every deerestlovelybear, there are 500 thousands professionals on any given field better prepared and connected to the labour market. Way too competitive nation...

My hope is that your situation gets better soon...

Cheers,

SFD

Well said and inspiring...

 

[Jaxon911]

One positive I see from this conversation is:

- Immigrants in Canada expect to have a good job, good standard of living and good quality of life overall!

I'm an Indian. I migrated to the UK about 4.5 years ago. Most (90%) of immigrants I know in the UK are quiet happily doing blue collar jobs, living on a shared accommodation. Pretty much none of them can afford an acceptable quality of life, still they're happily surviving in the UK.

From what I've observed, most immigrants from third world come over to first world with two goals "become a hero back home" and "secure a decent standard of living".

Pretty much none of them come over to the first world with a very focused realistic mentality that world outside their home country is going to be at least as hard to survive as their home country was. Everything works in relativity, if you're not better than others competing with you. you're going to lose.

Also one needs to know that it's far more harder to find a good job if you have years and years of work experience but if you're still doing same thing as people with only one or two years of experience do. For example, DBA is job that I think smart people with couple of years of experience also do. If you have 10+ years of experience and you've been manager of a division in a large company, then you've pretty good chance of getting job of your own level. But it's not the case if you're a technician with just few more years on your CV, of course having a family plus kids makes thing even harder.

Honestly, I think those immigrating to first world should come over only for one of following two reasons:

1 To become highly successful in your field / occupation and make good dollars!
OR
2 To survive no matter how hard life treats you!

If you can't fall in category 1, then at least don't complain about category 2. That was reality that you chose to ignore.

When you apply for a visa, nobody's promised you a good job, good life and a paradise. It was all self-imagination. That feeling of becoming hero back home, thoughts of uploading fancy photos on fb!

Just like east, west is also a world where humans live. And just like east, only smart and hardworking people in west succeed. Only difference is that those not strong enough to compete also manages to survive in the west!

Forgive me if my language sounded harsh, I didn't mean to insult or harm anyone. My only intention is to present a realistic picture and being a human, I could be wrong too!

I wish everyone good luck!

 

[SFD]

Zaynadream,

Whenever I have a chance to speak to newcomers in ELT Programs or anywhere else, I remind everyone "We chose to come to Canada, it was not the Government or Canadian People who gun pointed at us to come"

I deal on a daily basis with individuals from everywhere and I hear heartfelt stories you name it. I see how people give up easily and I do not blame them at all. Sara Winter, one of our Canada Miss Universe finalists is inspiring people to follow their dreams. go this link: http://missuniversecanada.ca/2014-national-finalists/sara-winter/

Giving up should not be part of our vocabulary!

I personally went throughout too much turbulence in my first 12 months in Canada that it was even affecting my family relationship: I was trying really hard to get a white collar job and things were not working my way. Savings were disappearing and I ended up so stressed out.

While I am not where I used to be when it comes to job position, I have not lost focus of it: it will take me 5-10 years, but I will get there (I had a prominent position working with local and international governments).

In summary, if you plan to come to Canada or if you are already here, one should be ready for chances in their life, culture, job industry patterns, and make yourself part of the system: what is the number one thing Canadian do in the morning? Check the weather! Then, make it part of your life, enjoy the snow, be thankful that you are alive to experience it. I have stopped blaming the Gov for this never ending immigration streamline and the whys...

"It is not where we are but where we are heading to"

Cheers,

SFD

 

[cyas33]

This thread is very interesting. I have lived in Canada for 7 years and know a lot of immigrants like myself and have heard varying stories. Canada is a unique place to immigrate to and I strongly believe that if you are educated and work hard you can make it here. i have many friends who I went to university here with who are doing exceptionally well in great jobs. When you immigrate to a place like Canada you have to be smart. I say it is a chance for a new start. You were a banker back home.....OK well in Canada your experience and education ma not be recognized , so guess what you have to make the effort to reinvent yourself, stop blaming the system. I always tell people, make the sacrifice ,,leave the children and wife or husband at home until you get settled, you are only setting yourself up to fail if you pack up everyone , come to Canada and expect to be a manager of a bank within weeks or months when you land. You are competing with other immigrants and Canadians for jobs. While sitting in our country we look online and see all these jobs available in Canada and think hey I can land a job soon as I get there.....they need people right! Wrong. I always encourage immigrants without Canadian education to go back to school and get educated. The immigrants that are doing well here, the majority has Canadian experience and education

 

[mead]

@deerestlovelybear
I can feel ur pain. I came here to canada to do my masters and now after spending so much still finding it hard to find a decent job. Problem is not that I am not qualified but however that I dont know anyone here and and have no references. I have given several interviews I have 10 years of experience but i have seen people who have friends/relatives in those companies get the jobs. I have also noticed recruiters follow a checklist and unless all items r not ticked on that checklist theydont call u for an interview. I am just venting havent given hope. I feel canada is wasting talent because they dont know how to hire or have bad recruiters.

 

[Inthemidst]

One positive I see from this conversation is:

- Immigrants in Canada expect to have a good job, good standard of living and good quality of life overall!

I'm an Indian. I migrated to the UK about 4.5 years ago. Most (90%) of immigrants I know in the UK are quiet happily doing blue collar jobs, living on a shared accommodation. Pretty much none of them can afford an acceptable quality of life, still they're happily surviving in the UK.

From what I've observed, most immigrants from third world come over to first world with two goals "become a hero back home" and "secure a decent standard of living".

Pretty much none of them come over to the first world with a very focused realistic mentality that world outside their home country is going to be at least as hard to survive as their home country was. Everything works in relativity, if you're not better than others competing with you. you're going to lose.

Also one needs to know that it's far more harder to find a good job if you have years and years of work experience but if you're still doing same thing as people with only one or two years of experience do. For example, DBA is job that I think smart people with couple of years of experience also do. If you have 10+ years of experience and you've been manager of a division in a large company, then you've pretty good chance of getting job of your own level. But it's not the case if you're a technician with just few more years on your CV, of course having a family plus kids makes thing even harder.

Honestly, I think those immigrating to first world should come over only for one of following two reasons:

1 To become highly successful in your field / occupation and make good dollars!
OR
2 To survive no matter how hard life treats you!

If you can't fall in category 1, then at least don't complain about category 2. That was reality that you chose to ignore.

When you apply for a visa, nobody's promised you a good job, good life and a paradise. It was all self-imagination. That feeling of becoming hero back home, thoughts of uploading fancy photos on fb!

Just like east, west is also a world where humans live. And just like east, only smart and hardworking people in west succeed. Only difference is that those not strong enough to compete also manages to survive in the west!

Forgive me if my language sounded harsh, I didn't mean to insult or harm anyone. My only intention is to present a realistic picture and being a human, I could be wrong too!

I wish everyone good luck!

True that

 

[deerestlovelybear]

I am very glad to hear some inspiring stories here. One thing I noted is that there are a lot of "subtle" barriers in the work place here. Before I came to Canada, I always thought highly about how Canada is a modern society which do not discriminate, which is truly a place of freedom where as long as one work hard and are smart enough one will be successful. That is totally the opposite here. If you are an immigrant, there are many different levels of discrimination, although nobody will be openly discriminated against you, the systems is designed in that way. If you are from a Western countries such as UK, Europe, Australia, USA or a highly developed countries, chance are you will find it easier than someone from a developing country. I have witnessed that myself, I tried to change my name to English name, I start to get more call and emails. I have seen people in my class who are both immigrants but the one from Europe and are white get the job easier, even though the other one from a developing country has more experience and I think they are equally good at communication skills. Having a heavy accent also heavily weight against you so there are even accent training consultants who help immigrants to change to "Canadian/North American" accent which I think is quite nonsense because I can see that the local people have no problem understanding foreign English Accent (Indian English for example) at all. And the ultimate barrier is that they do not value any non Canadian experience or education. No matter if you have a degree from USA or Tanzania, they will discount that to zero. Why do we go through all the hoops and spend money to get our education certifications validated to be equivalent in standard to Canadian certs for immigration but then they are not acceptable at all here? Canadian government should tell immigrants up front that your oversea qualifications will be useless and your job experience back home will not be counted and that every one will start at the same level of a high school fresh graduate. Another barrier is the expensive cost of living in big cities, Toronto cost of housing is rising to the roof but if we live in smaller town like Aurora, Guelph, Burlington etc then it is too hard to commute to city for jobs and to even attend job interviews. Most things in Canada is at least 1.5-2 times the price in the US while the wage is depressed so much here, I have heard that wage has not been increased for the past 20 years, not sure how true is that but the inflation rate is about 2-3% per year so standard of living must have been deteriorated a lot in Canada over the years.

 

[iceberge]

This is a false and deliberately misleading story.

Singalingali , you cannot say someone like that "This is a false and deliberately misleading story". If you were in Canada, you would realize the real situation . It's true in many cases, In my office someone work voluntarily weekly one day just to gain experience, he used to be a professional accountant from back home, worked in a good company for 15 years, while he came to Canada with a big hope, he fallen in a same situation like "deerestlovelybear" said. The man I know, was working as security guard last year after he didn't get any god job, then he laid off, currently he drives taxi. He and his wife always say why did I leave back home where I had god job better life, which I can't get back. I believe it is not for everyone, but it is happening with many people. Since I studied In Canada, I have my professional job, I would say who ever have education in Canada, for them not too hard to get professional job.

 

[deerestlovelybear]

Singalingali , you cannot say someone like that "This is a false and deliberately misleading story". If you were in Canada you would realize. It's true in many cases, In my office someone work voluntarily weekly one day just to gain experience, he used to be a professional accountant from back home, worked in a good company 15 years, while he came to Canada with a big hope, he fallen in a same situation like "deerestlovelybear" said. The man I know, was working as security guard last year after he didn't get any god job, then he laid off, currently he drives taxi. He and his wife always say why did I leave back home where I had god job better life, which I can't get back. I believe it is not for everyone, but it is happening with many people. Since I studied In Canada, I have my professional job, I would say who ever have education in Canada, for them not too hard to get professional job.

That's very true, it is very hard to get a good job without education in Canada. But it is very expensive to study too, for single it can be a bit easier because you can get study loan but that alone is not enough for studying and living. For family, the cost can be forbidden. And you need to study really hard, I only went for a diploma program here and the workload is so high it is very difficult to work even part time while studying full time. I can see that the most successful group of immigrants are those who came as international students from their undergraduate or college time. For skilled workers who are educated oversea and have work experience oversea, it is super tough to break in. Even if you went back to school and study, nobody will hire you if you are above 40 and apply for entry level job, that is the bad thing for me, after I got my diploma, I got many calls for entry level job when I sent the resume but when they saw me, they think I am too old for the jobs. In fact in one of the interview, the interviewer is like 20 something and he is very shock to see me, he thought I am 20 something too since I only put the diploma on the transcript

 

[SMCANADAVISA]

I am very glad to hear some inspiring stories here. One thing I noted is that there are a lot of "subtle" barriers in the work place here. Before I came to Canada, I always thought highly about how Canada is a modern society which do not discriminate, which is truly a place of freedom where as long as one work hard and are smart enough one will be successful. That is totally the opposite here. If you are an immigrant, there are many different levels of discrimination, although nobody will be openly discriminated against you, the systems is designed in that way. If you are from a Western countries such as UK, Europe, Australia, USA or a highly developed countries, chance are you will find it easier than someone from a developing country. I have witnessed that myself, I tried to change my name to English name, I start to get more call and emails. I have seen people in my class who are both immigrants but the one from Europe and are white get the job easier, even though the other one from a developing country has more experience and I think they are equally good at communication skills. Having a heavy accent also heavily weight against you so there are even accent training consultants who help immigrants to change to "Canadian/North American" accent which I think is quite nonsense because I can see that the local people have no problem understanding foreign English Accent (Indian English for example) at all. And the ultimate barrier is that they do not value any non Canadian experience or education. No matter if you have a degree from USA or Tanzania, they will discount that to zero. Why do we go through all the hoops and spend money to get our education certifications validated to be equivalent in standard to Canadian certs for immigration but then they are not acceptable at all here? Canadian government should tell immigrants up front that your oversea qualifications will be useless and your job experience back home will not be counted and that every one will start at the same level of a high school fresh graduate. Another barrier is the expensive cost of living in big cities, Toronto cost of housing is rising to the roof but if we live in smaller town like Aurora, Guelph, Burlington etc then it is too hard to commute to city for jobs and to even attend job interviews. Most things in Canada is at least 1.5-2 times the price in the US while the wage is depressed so much here, I have heard that wage has not been increased for the past 20 years, not sure how true is that but the inflation rate is about 2-3% per year so standard of living must have been deteriorated a lot in Canada over the years.

So I read and re-read your this post and can sympathize with you. But let me tell you some stuff here :

1. My masters degree (MBA) back home has been evaluated by WES to similar degree in Canada. My qualification has never been discounted ever by my employer, at interviews or anywhere. I do not know what your qualification is, but it's unlikely that a degree from an acknowledged university will not be accepted.
2. My high score in EE (935) is because of my job experience and educational qualification. So cant really agree with your comment around that.
3. While people do understand the English non-Canadians speak it is always good to improve on your accent. Communication is the key to building network and if your accent is different you would lose out on white collar jobs. Please look in Youtube to see free lessons on learning Canadian English.
4. I have lived in Europe and noticed how snooty people are. Canadians are extremely tolerant and that's why the government still encourages immigration.
5. Canada is still cheaper. In 2007 the rent I used to pay for a 400 sq. ft apartment in Scandinavia is 1.5 times more than the rent I pay for a 700 sq.ft. apartment in Alberta today. And you being in Toronto it is even cheap. Calgary is known for super-costly food and accommodation.
6. Instead of hanging on to saturated provinces try out Saskat, Manitoba etc. I know many people who first landed in Manitoba worked there for 2-3 years gathered Canadian work experience and then moved to Alberta.
You should thank God that you atleast have PR which means you are free to move around the country and change employers/jobs at your wish.

 

[deerestlovelybear]

So I read and re-read your this post and can sympathize with you. But let me tell you some stuff here :

1. My masters degree (MBA) back home has been evaluated by WES to similar degree in Canada. My qualification has never been discounted ever by my employer, at interviews or anywhere. I do not know what your qualification is, but it's unlikely that a degree from an acknowledged university will not be accepted.
2. My high score in EE (935) is because of my job experience and educational qualification. So cant really agree with your comment around that.
3. While people do understand the English non-Canadians speak it is always good to improve on your accent. Communication is the key to building network and if your accent is different you would lose out on white collar jobs. Please look in Youtube to see free lessons on learning Canadian English.
4. I have lived in Europe and noticed how snooty people are. Canadians are extremely tolerant and that's why the government still encourages immigration.
5. Canada is still cheaper. In 2007 the rent I used to pay for a 400 sq. ft apartment in Scandinavia is 1.5 times more than the rent I pay for a 700 sq.ft. apartment in Alberta today. And you being in Toronto it is even cheap. Calgary is known for super-costly food and accommodation.
6. Instead of hanging on to saturated provinces try out Saskat, Manitoba etc. I know many people who first landed in Manitoba worked there for 2-3 years gathered Canadian work experience and then moved to Alberta.
You should thank God that you atleast have PR which means you are free to move around the country and change employers/jobs at your wish.

Are you white European from Europe or Indian/Nigerian/Fillipino working in Europe before? I am afraid it is very different situation here. All these suggestions I have tried, and tried hard, but that only work when you still have money, once you ran out of your initial settlement fund, you are stuck and fell deep into poverty

 

[cyas33]

@SMCANADAVISA I agree with you 100%. This person has what everyone on this forum wants....PR! Use it man...stop the pity party and grow up! Instead of complaining why not try to improve yourself, re-invent yourself, make bold moves, take risks, change province, make some more sacrifices. Do whatever it takes to succeed. Canada is one of the few countries that allows that to happen...open your eyes man

 

[SMCANADAVISA]

Are you white European from Europe or Indian/Nigerian/Fillipino working in Europe before? I am afraid it is very different situation here. All these suggestions I have tried, and tried hard, but that only work when you still have money, once you ran out of your initial settlement fund, you are stuck and fell deep into poverty

I am one of those but being one of those did not fetch me any brownies here. I told you Europe is far less accepting. Can you answer few of my questions so that I can guide you with some suggestions. Ignore if you do not want to share personal information :

1. What is your highest educational degree and what did you specialize on? Was it from a private college or a good university of your country?
2. Is all your work experience in line with your educational qualification?
3. Do you have any Canadian work experience in the line of your educational degree or home country work experience? How many months/years?

If you are out of fund one option can be to send family back home and you try to find stability here. Once that happens bring them over. With this the expenses will go down manifold.