NOTCANADA

Trouble is, many immigrants perpetuate the "Streets are paved with Gold" to the folks back home.
When the next ones move in, they are shocked to find they are not. Canada's fault? In some cases, yes.
In many cases, no. That is the reality of immigrating anywhere in the world. You don't come by wealth easily, anywhere
and the truth is we all have to work damned hard to make a living and nothing is handed to any of us on a silver platter.
However, it should be easier in some cases for some professionals to get work in their fields here, but it depends entirely on what
level the education was in their homeland. Not every country has equal education for fields like Medicine and Engineering. It is sad
when we lose potential professional immigrants because of too much red tape, but for others thinking they will strike it rich just by
moving here, there are plenty of other countries out there to immigrate to.

In my experience a lot of immigrants most definitely DO paint a fanciful picture of life here to the family back home; in some cases racking up credit card bills to buy expensive gifts to take home to play Beneficent on vacations. I am not underestimating the fact that it is too difficult for some professionals to work in their proper fields here, but that is only one segment of immigrants. I also know a lot of others who are pissed off that they have to work hard here to make a good living, and I am sure they gripe and complain a lot to people back home about how cruel it is here. I knew someone from Brazil who completely forgot about his poverty back home, completely forgot about the reasons why he scratched and clawed to get here, and spent most of his time complaining about Canada, and threatening to move back home to where life was perfect. So move, already. But by and large I think most immigrants are hard working and appreciate the chance to earn a living in Canada.

Salvius, the guy I referred to was not a professional. If he had been a doctor or a lawyer he would not have been poor in Brazil. He was just an example of someone who moved here thinking life was like what you see in glamorous movies. Truth is, life is hard, even in Canada. We make it harder for some professionals than we have to, and that is not good for the country. However, not everyone who was a doctor, dentist, Engineer, or a lawyer can slide in to an equivalent position in Canada without some retraining or testing. We owe it to ourselves to maintain certain standards. People who are trained in countries with legitimate equivalent standards should find it MUCH easier to get qualifications to work here than is the case. So, in some cases it is Canada's fault, and in other cases it is not Canada's responsibility or fault at all.

Taller said:

However, not everyone who was a doctor, dentist, Engineer, or a lawyer can slide in to an equivalent position in Canada without some retraining or testing. We owe it to ourselves to maintain certain standards.

Click to expand...

Maintaining certain standards is great, charging an arm and a leg (upwards of $10,000 for some requalification exams), not so much. Besides, there's more to professionals than doctors and lawyers.

My father, a computer professional with some 25 years of computer experience had to clean for a number of years before finding a job that's somewhat related. The common myth is that it's a few licensed professions which are a problem. Not so. My mother has also never worked in her field (connected to library science) since immigrating. Now, since our immigration was based on some solid & specific political reasons, the trade-off is well worth it and we were very thankful for the opportunity. But certainly, these circumstances are highly specific.

Let's remember, once again, that most immigrants enter Canada through the points system, so they usually have quite a bit of experience or education, or both. Most of them are not poor. The website caters to precisely those immigrants, and while it is hyperbolic, it does raise some important points.

it is kinda true - my moms friend is a doctor - she got it in Romania, she is originally from Iran and if she wanted to be a doctor here she would have to go back to school here - her and her husband at the time believed she would be able to work here no problem - anyway after many jobs such as subway she got a job in the childrens hospital basically taking blood - at least its in the field and she likes it but its not quite like being a doctor

and i have a friend right now who has his law degree from another country and I want him to stay but he said his degree would be useless and he can go home and have a great life etc - he only came here as a student anyway but anyway he sees all these people from his part of the world driving cabs, working in low paying jobs and he gets discouraged cause I think if he could stay he would but the thought of going through school again at his own expense is too much to do now

all that said people should do more research into Canada before making a huge decision

another thing is inter provincial problems - my dads cousin's daughter is a fully qualified teacher - she taught in england (originally from south africa) before coming here to BC and could not get a job teaching in the public school system - the union i guess is tricky - but she was offered a job in ontario - anyway she eventually got a job at a private school and most of her fellow teachers are in the same boat as her - immigrants who can't teach in the public system

and I spoke with a guy i dated once he moved here from italy a few years ago - he thought it would be easy to get a job since thats what he was lead to believe but its very hard with the unions - he was a bus driver in italy for nearly 20 years - and he came here and was told that he doesn't have enough experience - i mean a bus is a bus yeah some differences but they told him to come back in 5 years when he has more experience here - so that would mean take a low paying job with some private run charter probably on the hopes that he could one day get a better job - hes sort of past that stage in his life - anwyay he ended up in another field entirely but was a little disappointed in that he felt a little let down by Canada after arriving