In 2006 I quit a nice federal job in my country of origin and migrated with my family to Canada. I thought it was a smart move. I have a Ph.D and an MA (got those in the USA), my wife has a B.A. and was a teacher, so, after analyzing all the information available we decided to plunge into this new life.
I arrived full of optimism, certain that sooner or later we would find decent jobs. But the jobs never came. I thought the reason could be the fact that we were in a mid-size city. Somebody told us that “Canada needs immigrants in the small cities, since the big ones were saturated with immigrants”. We relocated to a small town. The level of discrimination I faced, the kind of job I was forced to do, and the abuses I took was something I could have never imagined to be possible in this which is “one of the best countries to live in the world” . No space for details of that horror story, so let me say we tried a mid-sized city again. Nothing happened. Dozens of resumes became hundreds. Nobody ever called for an interview. Suddenly I started to realize that there was something REALLY wrong with the Canadian immigration system. I couldn’t even find a position as a volunteer in a animal shelter, for god’s sake!
We decided to change the tactics again. We moved to a big city. The only thing that changed was that there were more jobs there (here). I mean, dead-end, part-time, shift-changing, no benefits, no vacations, no nothing, minimum wage jobs. And LOTS of competition from other desperate immigrants in the same or worse situation.
Last month I became a citizen. It’s been almost 5 years and no decent job. I work like an animal. Long shifts, repetitive tasks, uneducated and often plainly stupid supervisors. Those are my bosses now. My previous life of thesis, reports, statistical analysis, policy briefings, published articles, researches, etc, etc… became something from a distant past.
I arrived full of optimism, certain that sooner or later we would find decent jobs. But the jobs never came. I thought the reason could be the fact that we were in a mid-size city. Somebody told us that “Canada needs immigrants in the small cities, since the big ones were saturated with immigrants”. We relocated to a small town. The level of discrimination I faced, the kind of job I was forced to do, and the abuses I took was something I could have never imagined to be possible in this which is “one of the best countries to live in the world” . No space for details of that horror story, so let me say we tried a mid-sized city again. Nothing happened. Dozens of resumes became hundreds. Nobody ever called for an interview. Suddenly I started to realize that there was something REALLY wrong with the Canadian immigration system. I couldn’t even find a position as a volunteer in a animal shelter, for god’s sake!
We decided to change the tactics again. We moved to a big city. The only thing that changed was that there were more jobs there (here). I mean, dead-end, part-time, shift-changing, no benefits, no vacations, no nothing, minimum wage jobs. And LOTS of competition from other desperate immigrants in the same or worse situation.
Last month I became a citizen. It’s been almost 5 years and no decent job. I work like an animal. Long shifts, repetitive tasks, uneducated and often plainly stupid supervisors. Those are my bosses now. My previous life of thesis, reports, statistical analysis, policy briefings, published articles, researches, etc, etc… became something from a distant past.