Надявам се че линковете, които постнах ще бъдат полезни за някои, най-малкото за да видите че и хора от други националности също изпитват затрудненията, случили се на много от нас. Както и да оцените, че Канада не е някакво чудо, което може по магически начин да реши проблемите ни.... Тези които слушат местните новини, контактуват с хора от други националности и участват в други форуми (интересен е например www.britishexpats.com, има и много други) могат да видят много мнения и съвети през погледа на британци, американци, германци, японци и т.н. и да разберат, че проблемите, които срещат не са уникални и вината не е в това, че имат по-лоши квалификации например; както и да видят, че проблемите, които съществуват в България или в Швеция съществуват навсякъде по света. На мене лично ми прави също впечатление по-толерантният тон в другоезичните дискусии, пък и сравнявайки какво съм прочел в тези форуми и тук стигам до извода че ние сме си сериозни расисти - само си помислете колко пъти сте видяли думата "мангал" в тези наши постинги и в какъв контекст... Е, аз не съм циганин, но си мисля че положението в което живеят циганите у нас май е много пряко свързано с нашето отношение към тях... Интересното е че тук видях също много забележки към това как изглеждат кебекарите, колко са били дебели англосаксонците и т.н. - та си мисля, нямаме ли огледала да се видим колко сме красиви ние и да се замислим как ли изглеждаме в чуждите очи - аз например забелязвам че много от нас имат доста несиметрични черти, например криви носове
- добре, че тук хората не са расисти като нас, че иначе май няма да видим добро... А проблемите, които срещаме са проблеми също за много от другите националности, което може да е информативно за кандидат-емигрантите и на някои това знание може да им е от полза.Ще завърша само като си позвоя да цитирам 2 постинга от www.notcanada.com, които на мен лично много ми харесаха, желая успешен ден на всички.
Nov 21, 2005
:idea:
I also found out about this website from W5 and think
that it is a good thing that someone is showing the
flip side of the canadian immigrant experience. I have
also persuaded people not to immigrate to Canada - not
out of any malice or ill will, but because I knew that
the teaching jobs that they had been promised in
Toronto, would not materialise.
I have read a large number of the comments on this
page and wanted to respond to them in a calm and
dignified way.
I am a British Immigrant to Canada and a Permanent
Resident of New Brunswick, where I have lived for over
2 years. In general I am happy here. At this time of
year the weather is not my favourite topic of
conversation, but had I wanted balmy conditions I
would have moved to Hawaii;-)
Firstly to respond to the issue of fake foreign
qualifications. Yes, I am aware that foreign
qualifications can be forged and that this does need
to be taken into account
However, firstly, immigrants are asked to provide
large numbers of supporting documents - not only
certificates. These are much more detailed and
difficult to forge. If there was any question of
authenticity the certifying body would then be
contacted to verify a persons qualifications.
Secondly, this is not the problem. People from well
known universities and colleges with a world wide
reputation for high standards from countries in
Europe, Australasia and the USA are also suffering
from the Canadian system of recognising
qualifications. This is not as issue of protecting the
Canadian public from fake doctors. It is Canadian
Professional associations wanting to keep foreign
professionals out. They simply do not want the
competition.
Which raises the question, if there is a risk of
Canadians losing out to foreign born professionals,
why are they being recruited to come to Canada? It is
not the fault of a New Zealand Physics teacher or a
Kenyan Cardiologist that Canadians see them as a
threat to their own jobs. These professionals were
asked here at the request of the Canadian government,
and have had to pay handsomly to come here to do jobs
that they were led to believe there was a shortage of
Canadian skilled workers to fill.
Believe me when I say that we do not want to steal the
jobs of Canadians. We do not expect special treatment,
or to be pushed to the front of the queue. We would
just like to be treated humanely and to compete on a
level playing field. If we are not needed, then please
do not invite us here in the first place.
As for the issue of ethinic diversification. It is
true that people fear what they do not understand, and
this goes in both directions. Sadly many Canadians
feel threatened by the presence of coloured faces and
unusual accents at the local superstore, despite the
fact that these people bring variety to the country.
From the other perspective, immigrants moving to
Canada have to give up a great deal to come here. They
arrive with a small suitcase of their belongings and
try to build themselves a new life. Every day they are
making an effort to fit into a world that is very
different to that of their birth. At this point the
more xenophobic will respond that they should go back
there but please remember that in the case of the
skilled workers, they were invited here by Canada!
If I was to move to China, even if I spoke fluent
Chinese I would still prefer to speak my native tongue
in my spare time. I might well hang out with other
English Speaking expats and cook British food at home.
I would probably listen to British and American music
and read British novels. I would in all likelyhood
listen to the BBC WorldService or Voice of America.
Yes I would try to learn about Chinese culture, but I
would not like to lose my own.
In fact if you visit most countries in the world you
will find the Europeans and the Americans and the
Canadians doing a frankly lousy job of integrating.
Instead, prefering to hang out with other Expats
taking part in Expat activities. Why then should
immigrants to Canada not seek the same kind of comfort
zone?
Finally, it is important to remember that Skilled
Workers move to Canada to work and not live of Social
Insurance. For that reason most Skilled Immigrants do
take low paying, Dead end jobs, to keep themselves
sane, to try to make contacts, to socialise and learn
about their new home. They are making an effort that
many (but not all) Canadians under the same
circumstances would not.
So in summary
If Canada really needs doctors, nurses, other health
professionals etc something drastic needs to be done
to improve the system of qualification recognition,
which from my own experience I can assure you is
highly flawed.
If Canada does not have any need for Computer
Technicians, Engineers etc then CIC needs to make that
blatently clear to potential immigrants. Immigrate at
your own risk!
Canada is already a multicultural society. It is not a
European or British Nation it is Canada and Canada
encompasses people of all ethnic backgrounds with the
exclusion of none. If this is not the case than Canada
should cease to pretend the be the USA's more friendly
big brother. If people want Canada to be what it
historically was then we should all pack our bags and
leave the indigenous to take back their land.
This is not about preferencial treatment. It is about
fair treatment. It is about respect. I hope to
goodness that no Canadians ever get treated with the
level of indignity that I or other immigrants have had
to suffer, (not I should stress, at the hands of the
Canadian people, who are every bit as friendly as the
books say!) but at the hand of smug beaurocrats who
get paid handsome salaries to make our lives
miserable.
Rachel Harris
:idea:
Hi fellow immigrants. I would like to share with you my experience and
conclusions.
I can tell you that there is no perfect country. There are different
factors that may affect how positive or negative may be your experience
in a new country. Some of these depend on you and some don’t. Happiness
may depend on how well you adapt (in those areas that you can) and
accept (those things that don’t depend on you). Sounds simple but it is
not easy. I’m still trying to apply my own wisdom to my own problems.
In my case I came from Mexico almost 5 years ago with my wife and 2
young kids. I originally studied a BSc in Electronic Engineering in my
country. After working for 9 years for American companies based in
Mexico (Hewlett Packard and Microsoft) I decided to study a Masters
Degree (MSc in Computer Networks in London England) getting a
distinction and the highest marks in my class. We spend some time
traveling in around the world. Then I went back to Mexico City and
started a small consulting company in my area; business was great but it
was still Mexico with all its known problems: insecurity, pollution,
high population, bad services and corruption. So, guess what, we came to
Vancouver Canada in February 2001 (I assume this story sounds familiar
to many of us coming from “developing” countries).
My first two years were just terrible. Absolutely nothing was happening
here. I was just getting small contracts here and there; 2 days here, 4
hours there, 1 week over there and in the middle several days or weeks
earning nothing to “feed the family and pay the bills”. I even had a one
year contract with IBM Canada working for the BC government that was
canceled after 2 months because my job was given to a Canadian guy that
happened to be a close friend of our customer. IBM was forced to hire
the guy or loose the big contract. Money to my surprise started being an
issue (first time in my life). In the same way my self esteem was
weakening (again, first time in my life).
I was lucky; even if Canada was not providing any income Mexico was
still there ready to give me interesting projects (you may change the
country name for Hong Kong, Korea or Iran and my experience may be
similar to yours). I went back to Mexico about 7 times during those two
years and I was able to participate in very challenging projects that I
still don’t have here in Canada. What was the formula? People knew and
trusted me; I had my own network of contacts while in Canada I had nothing.
I came back to Canada with new money to pour into the local economy.
Nevertheless, I was tired and depressed after spending so much time away
from my family. I was even more depressed while thinking over and over
again about the way to get local opportunities.
I finally had the energy to re-focus again. Something important is that
I never took a job in a different area. I am an engineer and I’ll work
as an engineer – I said to myself. I finally found a job in a small
startup company as the network engineer. I finally moved to Bell Canada
were I work today as a contractor.
Am I happy, you may ask?
Let me answer, first the pros about living in Canada:
-There is security, peace and freedom. I don’t constantly think about
somebody kidnapping my kids and robbing or killing us. We don’t live in
a country full of violence whose leaders only think about how to start a
new war (don’t forget WW2 or many other current leaders).
-Beautiful BC is one of the nicest places to live; air is clear, nature
is everywhere and it is still not very crowded (obviously compared to
Mexico).
-Kids are learning English (we cannot deny that originally the British
Empire and now the American influence made it the key to “open the
world”; could be Latin, Greek or French in the past, today it is English
and god only knows what will it be in the future).
Don’t ask me about the education system here in Canada; my answer is
still quite ambivalent.
-Multiculturalism. I agree Canada has no culture of it own, has many. As
a Latin American guy I can tell you that it is an incredible experience
to share this place with people from South East Asia, India, Middle
East, East Europe, Africa and obviously West Europeans and their
descendants. There are so many religions, traditions, cuisines and
languages to experience.
The Cons:
-I still feel as an outsider. I constantly feel people don’t fully trust
me. I may “speak with an accent” and I feel they think I “think with an
accent”. Even if I have all the capacity and experience (20 years in my
case) to take ownership and personal responsibility for many projects,
they still only let me be “the qualified doer”. Professional development
is one of my greatest expectations that still has not been satisfied.
-As a family we finally managed to have some friends. Most of the
immigrants from our own and other countries; only one immigrant can
understand what another immigrant is going thru (even if you speak
Spanish and the other person speaks Korean, Cantonese, Farsi, Russian,
Punjabi, Polish or Arabic we all feel the same). I still feel that
because we don’t start a conversation talking about the weather, hockey,
golf, your dog and many other trivialities Anglo-Saxons love and use to
start a conversation, we’re still not fully accepted and we frequently
feel lonely (I cannot generalize, there are few good people open to
learn from an immigrant).
-In terms of money it is the same story; we can now economically survive
with a local job but we’re not saving. I cannot understand how all these
Canadian guys can think so much about retirement; in my case keep
working is the only formula as far as I can see. The local trend is just
about spending to survive.
My conclusion:
Things I cannot control
-The weather. We have to get used and even enjoy all Canadian seasons.
Winter time is a good time to gather with friends, read, plan future
activities and learn some of the winter sports.
-The government. I don’t know you guys but in my case I don’t expect to
change it; we have to take it as it is. I wish they could give us much
more “weapons” during our first days in Canada but that is not the case.
As we say in Mexico: “Help yourself that God will help you”; in our case
the government. We’re all on our own so we have to be proactive, don’t
wait for “daddy government” to do it.
-The Canadian society. I don’t expect to change the way they think. They
may be very ignorant in many international and cultural aspects, be very
arrogant and appear to have very high self esteem (again, I cannot
generalize but this is the trend) but again, there is little I can do to
change them.
Things I can control
-Play the “Chameleon Game”. Try to mimic their ways and even their
accent without loosing your own identity (keeping a little bit of you
own accent can help show culture and experience). We humans like what
resembles us. In the same way we dislike what looks strange (that’s why
many of us may simply don’t like a person because his or her sex, skin
color, accent or religion is different but don’t let yourself be guided
by these appearances; a nice person may be ready to deal with you if you
wait and don’t let yourself see the exterior only).
-Don’t idealize other countries. As I said, there is no perfect country.
I read many of you discussing about having better opportunities in the
USA or Europe. They also have their own problems; especially if we
discuss issues like minorities, violence and discrimination. Remember,
your neighbor’s grass may look greener but it is also grass like yours.
-Don’t give up and keep trying and trying and trying. Our best friend or
worse enemy can be ourselves. In reality we’re alone in this world and
we’re the owners of our own destiny (sorry but I’m not a religious
person if you were thinking about miracles or winning the lottery). If
we’re not getting what we dreamed is because we stopped trying. If I
don’t like my present job, I should never stop looking for alternatives.
Don’t fool yourself doing something that has no future.
-Be content and learn to accept your life and all the positive things
you have. Don’t let all negative thoughts control you (like many of
those included in this forum). Keep yourself positive.
In conclusion, here we are in Canada away from our own families, friends
and culture. It is up to us to take advantage of the things we have here
or simply go back and be happy knowing that we had this opportunity to
view the world with different eyes.
Enrique Waizel
Vancouver, Canada
а за самото покритие няма кво да говорим
??