Visible minorities, pay heed - The grass is not green in Canada

[Flute]

If you are a visible minority (ie non-white) and planning to immigrate to Canada, think twice. If you are currently in another country and you are well educated, speak good English, have a stable job that pays a decent salary or a business that is doing well, have a family there that loves you, and the political situation in your country is stable (ie no civil war that endangers your life) - then I can assure you that the grass in Canada is certainly not greener than that in your country. So think twice before immigrating to Canada.

Read about my experience and benefit from the research I have done:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/discrimination-against-visible-minorities-in-canada-t275537.15.html

Follow the discussion on this thread, which I initiated, based on my personal experience as an immigrant in Canada since last 5 years:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/discrimination-against-visible-minorities-in-canada-t275537.15.html

Read this article titled, "Canada faces dramatic drop in citizenship, prompting concerns about disengaged immigrants"
http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2015/03/24/canada-faces-dramatic-drop-in-citizenship-prompting-concerns-about-disengaged-immigrants.html

And if you are thinking, that I am some run-of-the-mill immigrant, let me assure you that I am not. I earned 3 degrees from universities in Asia and am close to finishing my 4th degree from a law school in Canada. I also earned 2 dozen certifications in various technical/professional areas. I have over 15 years of work experience as a manager in RBC, BMO and a multi-billion dollar Asian corporation. I am also very hard-working, and barely avail any vacations. Despite this, I lost my job thrice in Canada. While in Canada, I have devoted my time and money to charitable causes, paid taxes, adhered to all laws and done everything to be a model immigrant. And yet, I face discrimination and have a hard time. Life in Canada is not as rosy as it looks from other countries. Yes, I agree that getting Permanent Resident status is relatively easier in Canada than in other countries. But the real struggle begins once you land in Canada. Visible minority immigrants have a hard time integrating into the local economy here. They find it hard to find and keep their jobs. I am really regretting my decision. And I am only trying to help you by saving you a great deal of trouble. Please stay away from Canada, this is the best advice you will ever get.

 

[Froze950]

Thanks..! You have a nice day!

 

[david1697]

Economy is the real problem in Canada today , IMHO.

P.S. I respect the opinion of OP, but it would be great to have one thread to discuss the same subject. Just my opinion.

 

[carl321]

If you are a visible minority (ie non-white) and planning to immigrate to Canada, think twice. If you are currently in another country and you are well educated, speak good English, have a stable job that pays a decent salary or a business that is doing well, have a family there that loves you, and the political situation in your country is stable (ie no civil war that endangers your life) - then I can assure you that the grass in Canada is certainly not greener than that in your country. So think twice before immigrating to Canada.

Read about my experience and benefit from the research I have done:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/discrimination-against-visible-minorities-in-canada-t275537.15.html

Follow the discussion on this thread, which I initiated, based on my personal experience as an immigrant in Canada since last 5 years:
http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/discrimination-against-visible-minorities-in-canada-t275537.15.html

Read this article titled, "Canada faces dramatic drop in citizenship, prompting concerns about disengaged immigrants"
http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2015/03/24/canada-faces-dramatic-drop-in-citizenship-prompting-concerns-about-disengaged-immigrants.html

And if you are thinking, that I am some run-of-the-mill immigrant, let me assure you that I am not. I earned 3 degrees from universities in Asia and am close to finishing my 4th degree from a law school in Canada. I also earned 2 dozen certifications in various technical/professional areas. I have over 15 years of work experience as a manager in RBC, BMO and a multi-billion dollar Asian corporation. I am also very hard-working, and barely avail any vacations. Despite this, I lost my job thrice in Canada. While in Canada, I have devoted my time and money to charitable causes, paid taxes, adhered to all laws and done everything to be a model immigrant. And yet, I face discrimination and have a hard time. Life in Canada is not as rosy as it looks from other countries. Yes, I agree that getting Permanent Resident status is relatively easier in Canada than in other countries. But the real struggle begins once you land in Canada. Visible minority immigrants have a hard time integrating into the local economy here. They find it hard to find and keep their jobs. I am really regretting my decision. And I am only trying to help you by saving you a great deal of trouble. Please stay away from Canada, this is the best advice you will ever get.

it doesn't matter how many degrees u have and how much work experience you have mate.

it all depends on how u interact with people and what you are?

as my dad says "you can't buy class" so your points won't apply to everyone. it all depends on the person and how that person has being brought up in the world.

 

[david1697]

It doesn't matter how many degrees u have and how much work experience you have mate.

It all depends on how u interact with people and what you are.

Those are excellent points! My grandpa always says "Even though you can't buy class, you still can buy a job" (and then he goes "HEHEHE ) , I am sure your dad would not argue with my grandpa.

The OP points won't apply to everyone. Exactly so! It all depends on the person and how that person has being brought up in the world. Great point, mate! What is minority, shminority? Once you buy a good job, you make nice gifts to big boss, and you become a manager, after this who cares about discrimination or what not ? Life is good , mate! Especially when you can buy excellent marks for your degree and a nice a job to reward yourself with

If you know how to be sneaky, how to use backdoor, how to make deals with corrupted people, you will do great ,whether in Sudan or in Switzerland doesn't matter!

Most important thing is: know how to buy a good job, how to kiss feet of your supervisor (so you can get promotion), how to shut up when you know your opinion is not welcome and how to be a good servant!

Learn to be a good servant, forget about your humanity, freedom and all the BS they talk about at school, be a corrupted man,as all smart men are, and all will be excellent!

Or else, be a Don Quixote , fight with windmills and make the whole world laugh at you, HEHEHEHE ;D ;D

 

[Flute]

Economy is the real problem in Canada today , IMHO.

P.S. I respect the opinion of OP, but it would be great to have one thread to discuss the same subject. Just my opinion.

I understand. But the audience for previous thread on discrimination is meant for those who are already in Canada and are either trying to find a job or are already working in a Canadian company, and facing challenges. On the other hand, this thread is meant to caution prospective immigrants who pack up lock, stock and barrel and immigrate to Canada; and the situation does not turn out to be as per their expectation. In fact, there are many prospective immigrants to Canada who might be in US right now. As all of us are aware, the US economy is doing extremely well, and therefore, anyone holding a job there is likely to be stable and make good money in the near future. The only downside to any visible minority who is currently working in US is that they might be on H1-B visa or L1 visa. Since a US Green Card takes several years to be processed, folks in the US are pretty frustrated. The lure of getting upfront Canadian PR status could be very alluring to those in US. That's where this thread comes in - we who are already in Canada need to caution them. In stark contrast to the US economy, Canada's economy is beginning to show signs of decline. Alberta's oil economy is in doldrums, and has created a ripple effect across all sectors of the Canadian economy, across all provinces. Bank of Canada has given a dire warning about the Canadian economy:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/stephen-poloz-warns-of-atrocious-first-quarter-economic-growth/article23681442/

During any recession, minorities, aboriginals and women (in that order) will be the first on the chopping block. So if you leave your nice job in US, UK, Europe and come to Canada; that is the most foolish thing you can do. Lets say, you have a job in IBM, Oracle or any such big company, somewhere in Asia, and you immigrate to Canada. After you land, you will have a hard time finding a job. Even if you find a job, you will be exploited because (a) you don't have a job in Canada and hence have less bargaining or negotiating power (b) you are a visible minority, and will invariably be typecast as someone not having many attractive alternatives, and hence, the low-ball offer will be deemed as a fair one by prospective employers.

In waiting to find a job after you immigrate to Canada, your savings will be depleted. Then, you will come under pressure. So you will then have to find what is commonly known here as a "survival job" - this is a menial job that pays minimum wage. You will have to wait tables as a waiter, lift heavy loads in a factory, stand for hours working as a cashier in a store etc. I have friends who came from Asia (with Engineering degree + MBA) and worked in all of the aforementioned menial jobs. My friend's wife had a PhD in Chemistry from a well-known university in a big country in Asia. She found a minimum-wage night shift job on an assembly line in a cosmetics factory in Toronto, working alongside Canadian workers who did not even have a high school diploma ! Once you are in that survival job, after a back-breaking shift, you will be so tired that you won't have the motivation to search for a job in your field. Besides, you will have to also work on your chores at home and tend to your family matters. Thereafter, you will be caught in that cycle on a daily basis. Soon, few years would have passed, and now the pattern is set. You, Mr.Smart Guy/Gal from Asia with Engineering degree and MBA (all first class, of course) will become a proud minimum-wage, night shift blue-collar labourer and continue to live in a basement with your family. That's the life that awaits you in Canada. Back home, your parents will be boasting that you and your family are living the Canadian dream and your friends and relatives back home and in other countries, must be green with envy, at your "good fortune"

I note that this thread has been moved to "settlement issues" whereas I had originally posted it under "express entry". My intention was to warn these people about the situation that awaits them here in Canada.

 

[david1697]

I understand. But the audience for previous thread on discrimination is meant for those who are already in Canada and are either trying to find a job or are already working in a Canadian company, and facing challenges. On the other hand, this thread is meant to caution prospective immigrants who pack up lock, stock and barrel and immigrate to Canada; and the situation does not turn out to be as per their expectation. In fact, there are many prospective immigrants to Canada who might be in US right now. As all of us are aware, the US economy is doing extremely well, and therefore, anyone holding a job there is likely to be stable and make good money in the near future. The only downside to any visible minority who is currently working in US is that they might be on H1-B visa or L1 visa. Since a US Green Card takes several years to be processed, folks in the US are pretty frustrated. The lure of getting upfront Canadian PR status could be very alluring to those in US. That's where this thread comes in - we who are already in Canada need to caution them. In stark contrast to the US economy, Canada's economy is beginning to show signs of decline. Alberta's oil economy is in doldrums, and has created a ripple effect across all sectors of the Canadian economy, across all provinces. Bank of Canada has given a dire warning about the Canadian economy:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/stephen-poloz-warns-of-atrocious-first-quarter-economic-growth/article23681442/

During any recession, minorities, aboriginals and women (in that order) will be the first on the chopping block. So if you leave your nice job in US, UK, Europe and come to Canada; that is the most foolish thing you can do. Lets say, you have a job in IBM, Oracle or any such big company, somewhere in Asia, and you immigrate to Canada. After you land, you will have a hard time finding a job. Even if you find a job, you will be exploited because (a) you don't have a job in Canada and hence have less bargaining or negotiating power (b) you are a visible minority, and will invariably be typecast as someone not having many attractive alternatives, and hence, the low-ball offer will be deemed as a fair one by prospective employers.

In waiting to find a job after you immigrate to Canada, your savings will be depleted. Then, you will come under pressure. So you will then have to find what is commonly known here as a "survival job" - this is a menial job that pays minimum wage. You will have to wait tables as a waiter, lift heavy loads in a factory, stand for hours working as a cashier in a store etc. I have friends who came from Asia (with Engineering degree + MBA) and worked in all of the aforementioned menial jobs. My friend's wife had a PhD in Chemistry from a well-known university in a big country in Asia. She found a minimum-wage night shift job on an assembly line in a cosmetics factory in Toronto, working alongside Canadian workers who did not even have a high school diploma ! Once you are in that survival job, after a back-breaking shift, you will be so tired that you won't have the motivation to search for a job in your field. Besides, you will have to also work on your chores at home and tend to your family matters. Thereafter, you will be caught in that cycle on a daily basis. Soon, few years would have passed, and now the pattern is set. You, Mr.Smart Guy/Gal from Asia with Engineering degree and MBA (all first class, of course) will become a proud minimum-wage, night shift blue-collar labourer and continue to live in a basement with your family. That's the life that awaits you in Canada. Back home, your parents will be boasting that you and your family are living the Canadian dream and your friends and relatives back home and in other countries, must be green with envy, at your "good fortune"

I note that this thread has been moved to "settlement issues" whereas I had originally posted it under "express entry". My intention was to warn these people about the situation that awaits them here in Canada.

Flute, what we have in US is Milton economy, and it is very much the same economy which you have in Canada, except it's not in as bad shape yet as Canadian economy is today (If you send hundreds of resumes you'd still get phone calls and some interviews in US, while in Canada you must "network" to get any response at all when applying for similar jobs. This being said, we now also have now PhD's and Masters degree holders desperately competing with each other to drive a bus or wait a table at a local fast food joint in the US).

And the worse it gets, the more advocates of Milton school of economics claim "the things go bad because you don't do enough of what we say you should be doing".
At this moment both parties (Dems and Repubs) execute the same Chicago school policies here. Since general public doesn't understand it, it gets frustrated with poor performance ,blames ruling party ,votes them out one after another, and then wonders why things don't get improved.

It's my understanding that this generation which we are part of will never figure it out. Ours' is too busy playing with iPhones and eating pop-corns, watching horrific news about some lunatic shooting random people in a movie theater, so we can talk about it for years while not asking what's wrong with this economy where PhD goes to drive a bus.

We will need a new generation, with a lot less PhD's (and a lot less stupid minds, but with much more common sense), who will vote the way that would motivate politicians to fix our economy.

This will probably happen during the lifetime of our children, at best we will be very old when it finally happens and won't benefit from it.

But, I just want you to know it: economy is the real issue now, both in the US and in Canada. Of course, when things get tough and tensions rise, being minority is not the best thing to be (I agree with you on that), but it's the economy which is the real issue we have today.

 

[mrbeachman]

as my dad says "you can't buy class"

What you call class, I call primitivism and peasantry.

You can certainly buy your way up in Canada

 

[david1697]

He made most excellent and true points, he is very smart and sophisticated man. How could peasant or primitive man make such points that are beyond the comprehension of a simpleton? Anyone who thinks it's an easy business to buy good grades and a job, kiss your way up food chain and become a 'big big boss' , rising above all kinds of silly losers, is way underestimating the practical usefulness of those unorthodox skills when economy goes down the drain.

 

[polara69]

It doesn't matter how many degrees u have and how much work experience you have mate.

It all depends on how u interact with people and what you are.

Those are excellent points! My grandpa always says "Even though you can't buy class, you still can buy a job" (and then he goes "HEHEHE ) , I am sure your dad would not argue with my grandpa.

The OP points won't apply to everyone. Exactly so! It all depends on the person and how that person has being brought up in the world. Great point, mate! What is minority, shminority? Once you buy a good job, you make nice gifts to big boss, and you become a manager, after this who cares about discrimination or what not ? Life is good , mate! Especially when you can buy excellent marks for your degree and a nice a job to reward yourself with

If you know how to be sneaky, how to use backdoor, how to make deals with corrupted people, you will do great ,whether in Sudan or in Switzerland doesn't matter!

Most important thing is: know how to buy a good job, how to kiss feet of your supervisor (so you can get promotion), how to shut up when you know your opinion is not welcome and how to be a good servant!

Learn to be a good servant, forget about your humanity, freedom and all the BS they talk about at school, be a corrupted man,as all smart men are, and all will be excellent!

Or else, be a Don Quixote , fight with windmills and make the whole world laugh at you, HEHEHEHE ;D ;D

DAVE..do not knock down Switzerland, I was born there!! There is no corruption, unlike Sudan! ;D

 

[Yodelgange]

Interesting perspective that I'd never considered before. Good info & thanks for sharing.

 

[jazibkg]

During any recession, minorities, aboriginals and women (in that order) will be the first on the chopping block. So if you leave your nice job in US, UK, Europe and come to Canada; that is the most foolish thing you can do. Lets say, you have a job in IBM, Oracle or any such big company, somewhere in Asia, and you immigrate to Canada. After you land, you will have a hard time finding a job. Even if you find a job, you will be exploited because (a) you don't have a job in Canada and hence have less bargaining or negotiating power (b) you are a visible minority, and will invariably be typecast as someone not having many attractive alternatives, and hence, the low-ball offer will be deemed as a fair one by prospective employers.

In waiting to find a job after you immigrate to Canada, your savings will be depleted. Then, you will come under pressure. So you will then have to find what is commonly known here as a "survival job" - this is a menial job that pays minimum wage. You will have to wait tables as a waiter, lift heavy loads in a factory, stand for hours working as a cashier in a store etc. I have friends who came from Asia (with Engineering degree + MBA) and worked in all of the aforementioned menial jobs. My friend's wife had a PhD in Chemistry from a well-known university in a big country in Asia. She found a minimum-wage night shift job on an assembly line in a cosmetics factory in Toronto, working alongside Canadian workers who did not even have a high school diploma ! Once you are in that survival job, after a back-breaking shift, you will be so tired that you won't have the motivation to search for a job in your field. Besides, you will have to also work on your chores at home and tend to your family matters. Thereafter, you will be caught in that cycle on a daily basis. Soon, few years would have passed, and now the pattern is set. You, Mr.Smart Guy/Gal from Asia with Engineering degree and MBA (all first class, of course) will become a proud minimum-wage, night shift blue-collar labourer and continue to live in a basement with your family. That's the life that awaits you in Canada. Back home, your parents will be boasting that you and your family are living the Canadian dream and your friends and relatives back home and in other countries, must be green with envy, at your "good fortune"

Quite the stereotype you've typed in there, but funny because its so true in so many cases and we all see that all the time. However it still does depend on everyone's personal and family situations, but it does take years to rebuild.

@Flute, you can warn people all you want, they're still going to come in throes to Canada (as many of them aren't coming from Europe, US or Australasia). The allure of starting a 'new life' in Canada can be too strong at times. But you have told them what awaits them once they pass those CBSA gates

 

[polara69]

I would rather be a waiter on minimum wage and $100 in tips a day, than an unemployed PhD with an ego to burst.

 

[Flute]

Watch this CBC documentary titled, "Our Canada, Are we racist?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ET8KyiY_Nc

At 15:25 on this documentary, watch an aboriginal woman say that she feels her community is being treated like second class citizens, bodies wrapped in a bag, and thrown into a river like garbage. That line hurts me big time, I could feel her pain.

If you look at my posts, somewhere I have said, that discrimination and racism in Canada is covert, not overt. Watch at 16:43 when the anchor says, "Is Canada like this river? Beautiful on the surface...all our talk of diversity, but lying beneath, secrets, dark and venomous". Hundreds of aboriginal women have been killed and thrown into that river. I hate to be so right in my observations all the time (wrt covert versus overt).

Btw, its a very short story, but beautifully produced. Someone should nominate CBC for an award for producing this (an award for news stories on TV). The saving grace is, atleast Canada is not like some dictatorial country where the media is censored, and the government allows such stories to be produced. I agree with the anchor of this story that we can solve this problem only by having open, honest conversations.

 

[rahul20978]

it doesn't matter how many degrees u have and how much work experience you have mate.

it all depends on how u interact with people and what you are?

as my dad says "you can't buy class" so your points won't apply to everyone. it all depends on the person and how that person has being brought up in the world.

RACIST