For Many Immigrants, Depression's a Part of Life in Canada

[Cornerguy1]

Originally Posted by Robynator

True, but if you were successful in your old country, you're probably hoping to be successful in your new adopted country too.

The article's highlighting immigrants who were successful engineers and university professors in their old country, who were hoping to take on similar jobs in Canada - but cannot. As a result, they're not experiencing that same kind of success in Canada and can't build up the same kind of wealth in Canada that they had in their former country.

When you're jobless, you're typically not thinking of quality of life. You're thinking "how am I going to support myself? My family?" You're thinking survival.

All of which makes one wonder just how much research some of these folks put into their moves before they made them.

While it can certainly be disappointing to not have your professional credentials seamlessly transfer to a new country, a prudent person would check stuff like that out before taking the plunge.

[Robynator]

I agree Cornerguy.

I also think, however, that the Canadian government makes it a little misleading. Perhaps not misleading, but there's a bit of disconnect between what the Canadian government requires for immigration, and the qualifications required to get employed into the chosen industry.

For example, as you know, if you're a university professor, a doctor, an engineer or a nurse, you're basically a shoe-in for Canadian immigration. And yet, if you successfully immigrate to Canada, you still likely have to requalify or take certain exams, or whatnot, before you'd be able to be legally employed by whatever industry you work in.

So it's really a 2 step process.

Step 1: Does Citizenship and Immigration Canada recognize my experience enough so that I can immigrate? Yes? Great! Okay, I've got my foot in the door.

Step 2: Do industry professionals in Canada recognize my experience or will I have to retrain, requalify by taking courses, a university program, an exam, etc? Yes? Great! But...

Okay, it's a 3 step process.

Step 3: Is there actually demand for my profession in my chosen city?

It's often step 2 and step 3 which are overlooked by immigrants because it's not an official part of the process to immigrate into Canada. There's no official source which holds their hand through the process of "if you want to be a teacher in BC, go to this website and see what you need to do in order to be qualified as a teacher. IF you want to be a nurse in the province of Ontario, see this website, blah blah blah. If you want to practice law in Quebec, go to this website and see all the things you must do before you can gain employment. Blah blah blah" And that's what's up to the immigrant... which brings me back to the original point of it being somewhat misleading.

[Cornerguy1]

No question, Robynator, that there's a disconnect between government requirements and the requirements of industry, but I'm not sure it's government's role to hand-hold on what, to me, seems an obvious and important facet of migration.

And I quail at the thought of the sheer number of additional civil servants needed to administer an efficient placement program.


There comes a point where folks have to accept some personal responsibility.

[aggo]

Originally Posted by Cornerguy1

No question, Robynator, that there's a disconnect between government requirements and the requirements of industry, but I'm not sure it's government's role to hand-hold on what, to me, seems an obvious and important facet of migration.

And I quail at the thought of the sheer number of additional civil servants needed to administer an efficient placement program.

There comes a point where folks have to accept some personal responsibility.

Damn straight. Now suck it up, you darn immigrants.

[Vichel]

I don't mean to sound cold but I've known of and still know of quite a few Canadian-born residents working in jobs they are overqualified for. When I lived and worked in Vancouver, it wasn't uncommon for people to have a tough time finding jobs in their chosen field. At my Vancouver workplace there was a guy in the mailroom with two Masters degrees and several years experience in Toronto. He decided it was a foot in the door, and good on him. He worked his way up quite quickly. I did the same here in Perth when I returned. I'm now in my profession of I.T. but I did various temp jobs in data entry, property management and legal assistant before I finally settled into my current job. And I'm an Australian-born citizen.

And I also cringe at the way "depression" is just thrown about to describe going through a tough patch in life. Having friends and family with true diagnosed depression, and seeing them not even able to manage the most basic of functions as human beings, and two of them taking their own lives, I have a problem with some study bandying about the word "depression" like this. Life has its ups and downs.

[kkgg7]

Originally Posted by sunshineleith

Unless they came from a really wealthy country like Qatar or Kuwait or something, I doubt they would be complaining about the quality of life in Canada.

Canada has, hands down, one of the best ratings for "quality of life" in the world.

We are not talking about life quality in general, but that for a specific person. The country does offer good life, assuming you have a good stable job and an established social network etc. But for a new immigrant, it is completely different story.

Don't forget things are expensive here in Canada as well if someone is from a developing country. I personally know someone, after arriving for not long, always walk for half an hour to buy grocery just to save the $4.5 TTC fare, because $4.5 in many other places of the world is enough for a 10km taxi ride.

Not to mention a sudden lack of social activities. Let's face it, people are generally friendly, but if you are from a different culture, it is extremely hard if not impossible to be real close to any locals.

I am aware many immigrants, especially men, choose to leave Canada and return to their native country after getting the Canadian citizenship. Think about it, there must be a strong enough reason why people would choose a country with a GDP per capita probably one tenth of Canada's.

If you still don't understand, try to imagine, will you be willing to move to Japan or South Korea for the rest of your life when there is a job offering you twice as much as you are making now? Life quality is not always about money and social protection.