Helpful Hints from someone already here!

Hi All! I'm a born and raised Canadian. Just stumbled upon this site. I want to say I think it's awesome you guys want to live here. It IS the best place to go overall! (You gotta see how good the air is on the west coast). Anyways my Dad is Canadian and my mom is an immigrant from the philipines, our family has had it's ups and downs and I've seriously seen a lot of what canada has to offer. My family has been lower class on social assistance as well as upper class. So here are some hints I thought might help some of you get things right when you come.

First, BE CONFIDENT! Newcomers often don't realize how great life can be here until it's too late. As soon as you arrive get involved. It's going to be hard at first, but you DO NOT HAVE TO BE SECOND CLASS. The middle class and the upper class are more than happy to welcome you. Learn english well and take advantage of bursaries, loans, special programs to upgrade your skills or regionalize them to make money. A lot of newcomers think that they are different or alone so they work menial jobs because they want to stay outta the way of white people etc. Canadians want you to do your best, actually nothing pisses us off more than those that scape by on minimum wage or social assistance. You ARE SMART, you add perspective and in the end you are NO DIFFERENT.

2nd, Live where you REALLY want to live. Spread out and go where the grass is green. An all too common immigration error is people look to see where the most of their kind are residing, find a cheap property there and commit! ERR WRONG! Don't define yourself by your race, when you get here you're a Canadian. Unfortunately, you'll later realize that areas that are defined ethnically often tend to be the poor neighborhoods and the crime infested. I believe this has a lot to do with ethnic isolation. You have to get out there and be an active part of the WHOLE community not just an ethnic community. To Do: Check avg. salaries of neighborhood (available through rental papers often) check the schools around, look for crappy neighborhood giveaways like BARS on everyone's windows! Etc. This is Canada, you have a new standard here. You have the right to be SAFE and SUCCESSFULL. Hint* People don't know this but often properties in many of the UPPER class neighborhoods are actually very close or the same price as the poorer neighborhoods. SO PICK THE GOOD NEIGHBORHOODS! Don't worry if you don't see any other latinos/chinese/indians on the block, as soon as you move in they'll be one and you'll be welcomed.

3rdly, FAMILY FIRST! Remember it's not all about being able to make more money. It's about having the ability to spend time with your family and all of you enjoying it. Spend time with the kids, and help THEM TO INTIGRATE as well! Seriously, a lot of families make this mistake, the adults adjust to the new country and are ALWAYS working super hard, but they forget that their children need help adjusting too. Many really great and kind parents here have children that end up in gangs or isolated because they don't know how to create opportunities for themselves or get along with the other kids. The parents don't even know most of the time this is going on! Children have the benefit of being able to adapt quickly, they can master perfect english as well as all the customs etc. Encourage them to do this and keep an eye on them and make sure they are making the most of all the opportunities they will have here. This kinda leads to....

3rd, Canada has A LOT of opportunity for your children to develop and grow. But it's NOT EQUAL here and it's NOT A RED CARPET. You have to be careful and pick and choose. Education here is very often 2 tiered and you seriously have to take control of your child's development. There are always school rankings for every city. Check them out. THIS IS VERY important. Schools are very different for instance, in Vancouver where i'm from, which school your child attends in the public system is determined by boundries. One of the worst school's in Vancouver is right next to one of the top 5 schools. So which one you would attend is a matter of blocks. One has metal detectors on the doorways the other has about 85-90 percent university placement. What school your children attend will have a HUGE impact. Again, this is another reason for making sure you try to settle in the BEST neighborhood you can.

Well those are three things I thought would help as those are common pitfalls that seems to hold a lot of new families here back. Anyways, we need skilled people! Come over if you're a doctor, engineer, etc. or come willing to learn! Immigration in Canada rocks and I'm all for it! We're not the U.S. we don't want you to come and cook food or wash our cars, we want you to bring skills or bring your talents and learn skills when you get here.

Anonymous 21 Jun 2006, 08:09 - Report