I'm not wasting my breath because I'm not arguing. People like my posts because I'm mostly unbiased and paint both the good and the bad parts of the picture. People fail to understand what's a discussion and what's an argument, or what's criticism and what's complaint. I don't care, the data is there (55% haven't become citizens, 30% looking to leave very soon). I only share info along with my personal experience. When I'm researching something on the internet, I'll want to hear both good and bad experiences because the reality is the sum of them all. My first post included both my good and bad experiences. It's just insane that people get seriously butthurt because some random stranger said something about some random foreign country on some random website.
There isn't a single country that has literally everything perfect. But this won't change the fact that Canada is a cold, boring country with a ponzi scheme of a real estate market, unbelievably shitty and small job market, high taxes, low paychecks, and a joke of a health care system (if you call it a system). I'll enjoy the passport, sure, but I'm sane enough to understand I'll just take all I can from any country and not be completely dense to the point I'm literally arguing with random strangers online for what they might have said about some random foreign country.
I think a lot of your criticisms are valid.
However, as we all know you don't get everything in one place. You also have to make a lot of effort to live an interesting life here, probably more than you would in Europe and the US, and that's mainly because there is not as much of an emphasis on having a strong social life, among Canadians. But I can also tell you through my own experiences, that if you try to be a lightening rod for social interaction, a lot of people are going to be receptive to it because it's something they lack and want more of, but don't have the time or proactiveness to pursue themselves. One of the main challenges here is to meet and cultivate relationships with people who are likeminded, want to go out on the weekend, have fun, etc.
What I mean is, if you build it they will come. And also remember there are lot of other people who move to Canada as well and want to build a social network here too, and they are also usually game to join into building something.
In all honestly, many of the criticisms you've made apply to other places too. I've heard in Australia people are even more closed off and it's even harder to crack socially, so it's just part of the immigrant struggle. But you just have to try your best to make a life for yourself here.
But I completely understand someone moving from Europe or Asia to here, and struggling with the individualistic way of life. Everyone is sort of in their own silos, especially the locals. To be honest even you will have trouble integrating people as you get to know more and more of them.
Canada is not for everyone, I completely understand someone who was happy back home with all the social capital they've built growing up in their society, not wanting to throw it all away to come here and live the whole "metro, boulot, dodo" lifestyle, and having to start from zero in terms of building community. That's why people who have it good in their own country have to contemplate a lot of this stuff before and after they come here, especially as it's much harder to make the progress here that others managed to 10, 20 years ago. Now a lot of people who are earning well are still living month to month, and so the financial incentives to move here have certainly lessened over the years.
A lot of people think moving to Canada is like an evolutionary step where their life will just progress further on the same trajectory it did back in their own country. But the reality is it's a complete system shock, and not everyone understands that until they come here and figure out how difficult it is build a new life for themselves. Some people are better equipped at doing that than others.
