Close Reading

I’ve watched the video and I’ve read many comments. My message it’s to immigrants, Canadians & everyone. Just be some patient to read for you to think reasonable after this. I’m sure you’ll start to be reasonable regarding Canada. I had a good life good job & a nice home in Ukraine. Due to the barbarian russian invasion my family & I fled the horrific situation in Kharkiv city. I was driving a mini bus of 4 families! Most are children. We’ve arrived to Europe. Crossing many countries (Poland, Czechia & Austria) we’ve arrived to the country leading the EU. In Poland & Czechia, we’re treat very good by the people. In Austria we got hardly a payed hotel where children could get a rest!!! We still didn’t understand why they don’t want to give us rooms despite we’re paying for our staying!!! In Germany, I believe that the government did its best. But the number of comers is huge! Of course many they got disappointed as happened with me! But I still understand and believe that really the government & people did theirs best. So fast I got a job! The social connection helped to introduce me to the company! But i was not hired, I still to express myself & my qualifications. The manager was understanding, so he accepted to communicate in English and to offer me the job in case if I am successful doing the job during the first week at the site. I had to change the machines menu into English. So the manager was very satisfied with my job and I got that job. The rent! You’ll get it only if you receive the blessing of each member of the county and a very strong social connections! The doctors! To make just a blood work for my son it took 45 days of waiting! To get the doctor appointment, you need that a German guy call and get you the appointment! Because when my wife called, the secretary said: we don’t speak English! But when my wife went for her visit she figured out they’re speaking English better than her!!! My son has an issue of hyperactivity, so they refused to accept him at school more than 3 hours a day! And he was excluded from the birthday parties of his colleagues aswell other events! Other Ukrainian children, they were just attending classes! Just a show! No body cares how help their integration! About, the taxes! The half of my income was going to the government! The money back?! Only 200 euros/ month for my kid. And nothing else. Nothing! To get a neurologist appointment for my son it was necessary to wait 3 months! Prices?! Everything expensive! Technology?! Not better than Canada at all. Bureaucracy, Canada is much less. Banking system, Canada much better. Where in Germany?! The best province in Germany “Munich”. Where people stoped long ago dreaming to purchase a home. Guys, Canada doesn’t through broken people as we were in camps! Where nothing is human there! Canada doesn’t enter you in cercle of hell bureaucracy just to get your kid into school! And if he needs a support he get it right away without any background that he’s not our!!! I got a good job in Canada; so fast. Without any social connections because simply I do not have any. I rent an apartment for my family, without to proof to the landlord that I’m the best guy in the world with a witnessed county about that!!! I want you to be sure, that I am not the lonely case. Just ask Ukrainians stied in Europe for a while before they move recently. Just ask them. I am not saying it’s a paradise or cons don’t exist. Just paradise doesn’t exist! And cons are everywhere. Just I want you to be fair about Canada. Please, be reasonable! The cons in Canada are not catastrophic, and it’s not difficult to fix them. It may take some time, but not difficult. Believe me it’s not about only Canada. The whole world is going a step back! I wish that my experience, helps to understand appropriately.

I live in British Columbia. In a city people consider “dangerous.” I remember I had a package delivered to my door. I was at work so I couldn’t go get it. I was imagining those videos I saw on YouTube of people getting their packages stolen within 10 minutes of it sitting there. But nah, It stayed there for 6 hours and never got stolen. Heck my workplace, had a package delivered on Friday evening and it stayed there outside until Monday. I was very surprised both times. I’m not saying that I’m living in a utopia, I’ve gotten robbed before, like everyone else I have my complaints. I think what really helps Canada is the smaller population. Less people means less people to rob shit. That tap water do be nice though.

This was a really cool episode. I'm a born and raised Canadian, but my friends and my fiancé are all from the USA, so I've got a firsthand look at the differences in our cultures and countries.\n\nOne thing I'll say right off the bat, I think a big part of what makes Canada work the way it does, is that we have such a small population compared to the USA.\n\nCanada only has around 35 million people, but there are some states in the USA that have over 40 Million people on their own. \n\nWhen you have that many people crammed together in one location, all fighting for jobs and housing and food and everything, it makes sense why you might have a culture that's a lot louder and self serving, because you have to compete with millions of people if you really want to make something of yourself.\n\nMy hometown of Edmonton Alberta, for example, we had a population of just 500,000. And I think the laid back attitude that a lot of people have in Canada is a product of that. \n\nThat's a big reason our crime levels would appear lower as well, because there's just a lot less of us.

Great content, but a string of clichés.\nI think some facts should be brought to the table here;\nCanada is beautiful, and welcoming. Leaving Canada is usually a choice which has little to do with canada, and canadians.\n1. Reasons for boredom and depression are individual and subjective.\n2. Worklife balance? Data shows Canada is ranks between Top 5 and Top 10 in global ranking. \nMost people do multiple jobs not to cope, but to afford their desired lifestyle.\nA single job can pay your bills and afford you a decent vacation.\n\n3. Tax? Canada isn't among Top 20 most taxed countries in the work. We just don't like paying taxes ?.\nI. AVE Income Tax; Canada: 33.00%, US 37.00% UK 45.00% GER 45.00% JPN 55.00%\nII. AVE Sales Tax: Canada (5%-15% GST/HST) US 2.9-7.25.00%, UK 20.00% GER 19.00% JPN 18.00%\nIII. AVE Corporate Tax 26:00%, US 21:00%, UK 19.00% GER 19.00% JPN 25.00%\n\n4. You don't necessarily need to start from the bottom or get additional certifications to suncced, you just need to upsell yourself, or reinvent to integrate.\nI and a bunch of people I know didn't step down to start from the bottom, we actually took a step higher, without investing in education or experiential learning. Left home country in a midsenior role, landed a senior role when I got here . Can't say the same for medical fields and the likes.\nThat said, that is not 100%.\n\n5. Racism is infinitesimal here. I've almost always been sole black member in my team, and I sometimes forget I'm black. \nNever felt profiled or abused even while walking through the mall or streets.\nMy accent doesn't bother anyone. The idea of racism is mostly implied, and these are born out of a pre-conceived notion, or insecurities.\nThat is exactly the reason why immigration don't loose their accent quickly here like they do down in the US.\n\nBonus:\n\nThe welfare in Canada is great. That is why Canada is continously ranked top 5 in Quality of life, and best countries to live in.

You're not correct about the Quebec government banning the hijab - actually they ban all forms of religious expression in clothes worn at work by public servants - so don't criticize us unless you get the facts straight. All countries are facing public health crisis especially in the aftermath of a global pandemic, you mention how long it could take to get an MRI - weeks/months, but it's no worse than in the UK, or other western countries. I do agree with you about limited competition in banking and tech - but we're still a young and growing country, however, look at the global recession that took place in 2007 - Canada was least affected by mortgage default, the US was hit the worst and hundreds of thousands had their homes foreclosed by the Banks, yet in Canada because of our strict banking policies we were saved and the Banks worked with defaulters to try to keep their homes. Taxes, well most countries require you to file your own taxes at the end of the year - what's so strange about that? Yes sales tax is added onto the sales price depending on what province and what you are purchasing, same as US, just because it's not the same in Europe doesn't mean it's worse! Listen, when you're a newcomer to any country you need to fit in when looking for a job, put in the effort, take the time, do the work, any country is going to expect you to be able to speak the language and know the lingo, so I don't agree with your analysis that Canadians are risk adverse! You are 100% correct about the housing crisis, listen it's been going on everywhere for decades, and international investors in the past 10 years or so woke up and noticed that Canada was a great bet for investment, so the problem got really bad. The government just passed a 2 year moratorium on non Canadians buying real estate - as have many other countries, so fingers crossed no more new foreign landlords just regular Canadians buying their first homes, let's hope so!! I've lived many years in Europe - and I loved it! But the quality of life in Canada is better. If you don't live in the crowded city you can have a nice property with lots of space, good roads, not bad school system, very friendly and helpful people. Quebec has some of the best food on the North American continent, we have clean air and lots of water in Canada - I'm very happy here, so don't be so negative please!

My experience about Canada after living here for a few years now: \n1): Healthcare: There are two sides of it. If you need a specialist, forget about it, just live with your disease or problems and hope it will cure itself and won’t get worse. If you are in a life threatening condition and need a surgery, you’ll get it and the medical bill won’t scare you. I needed a dermatologist, never got one, eventually had to fly to the US for a simple treatment. \n2): Taxes: You’ll pay extra to take care of the large aging population of Canada and to maintain the infrastructure in the extreme cold weather. But, you can make a good use of your RRSP and TFSA accounts, and you can also buy American stocks without paying taxes. \n3): Travel and transportation: Forget about public transportation methods like buses and trains. You’re on your own. But a vehicle ownership isn’t very hard here. \n4): Social networking: Good luck with that. Good luck finding friends here or being a part of a friends group. Canadians are polite but not outgoing and extrovert. Most people make a few friends in Schools and College. You’re not going to see people of different races and origin hanging out with each other. \n5): Real estate: Population is growing, population is aging, it’s all happening but what’s not many houses are getting built. Buying your own house isn’t easy. If you’ve bought one, good luck with the energy prices. \n5): Landscape: It’s gorgeous out here, if you want to be happy in Canada, go out for sightseeing.\n6): Jobs: Totally depends in which jobs you can fit in and what previous experience you have. If you have previously done exactly what the job profile is asking for, for sure you can find a job.\n\nIn the end I would say, I have lived in many places, each come with their downsides, you have to see what works for you. There’s isn’t a perfect world really there isn’t. You have to take the bad with the good.

I like how y’all have created this video by not applying a negative undertone rather more of an informative approach to caution prospective movers of what potentially awaits them. All I would like to highlight is the fact that some people will experience all these points as negative aspects or maybe even one or two that might lead to the breaking point.\nIt all depends on where you come from and how life was in your “home” country.\nYou might come from a higher tax environment with non existent healthcare and education. From that perspective, 40% taxes might look better and the healthcare might be great or crap depending on what your health issues are. I personally haven’t had any struggles with most of these aspects - finding a great job was relatively easier, (key word - relatively) the healthcare system worked for me when I needed it to, I was mentally prepared for the high taxes, I culturally adapted to the point where people thought I was Canadian and didn’t realize I came in from a very different environment. I’m sure this cultural adaptation helped me with my job and made it easier to live here.\nAll in all, you can say I’ve had the “perfect” immigrant experience that most people would dream of. But what do i think really? Personally, I have come to realize that Canada at the moment does not fit into my personal goals and values and that is okay. Loneliness away from people you love can be tough. It just isn’t the same feeling making new friends and hanging out with coworkers who are much older than you are and in a different place in life. I’m very close to my family and friends who I’ve grown up with and are on the other side of the world. My parents are getting older and I want to spend as much time with them as possible. For that reason, I might consider being somewhere closer to them. I’d perhaps consider coming back here some day when I’ve got my own family and kids which I currently don’t have. To me, that’s a personal value high on the list. I guess my only takeaway from this video and advise to people looking at each of these points - take each one and compare it with your home country. If you think you’re better off in Canada, then move - it’s a great place! If not, think about it real hard and weigh out the pros and cons.

Pretty good Adam I'd just mention a few of those things are...I don't want to say inaccurate but way more diverse. For instance French. Yes Quebec is the only French province BUT New Brunswick is the only Bilingual province and basically half and half. This is good for things like federal of provincial services because by law they must provide service in both languages but not so basically everywhere else. The problem with this is you can have an almost completely English town almost nobody speaks French and drive 15 minutes and be in a town where nobody speaks English. Research on this might be hard because a town with a French name may not have any French people in and vise versa. Also this problem is multiplied in the fact that if you Do want a French area we don't speak standard French or Quebecois but instead Le Chiac which is a difficult and confusing mix of old French and english (almost exactly like the Cajun dialect). Second part of this is that Montreal is easy to live in if you don't speak French and is so multicultural you are just apt to hear Swahili as French in public. Last part is be very careful where you move on the prairies as they have may isolated towns some that speak French also. Next is tipping I've never had to tip anyone for a haircut outside of the military and all other forms of tipping here on the east coast are purely optional and wait staff don't get upset if you don't leave a tip unless you were a jerk or left them extra work like making a big mess (I worked as cook for a while after I got out of the army and I rarely ever head staff complain) HOWEVER....tip a waitress well and she might accidentally give you 2 pieces of pie lol and tip a taxi driver well and he will not only get you the cheapest fare he will find ANYTHING you may need no questions asked. Lastly on the nice thing....we are nice for sure especially compared to our southern neighbours BUT there is a lot of passive aggressive nice that happens and this also varies greatly. For instance as a city boy of course you answered the way you did but a guy who have lived all over this country in big and small, French and English places who now has retired to a rural town I can say I find the cities quite snobby and the French and the English can be quite snobby to each other and where I live now if you asked a random stranger for 5$ chances are you would get it also driving down the road people you don't know will just wave at you as if you were the closest friends. Canada is certainly a weird place so many extremes and my advice to anyone wanting to move here is do your research and then visit and travel a bit if possible because even us Canadians can be surprised by thing or two across this gigantic country

I live in Norway. Every where you've got racists. Its good that in Canada they focus on this and work against it.

Canada is one of the worst places to immigrate to. I’m Canadian. I know what it’s like to live here. Plus I’m indigenous. So I’ve face racism and prejudice. Many think my people gets free handouts. From my experience that’s far from the truth. I’ve left my community for a better education. I was completely alone without parents and my siblings, living with an aunt that used me for another pay check. I couldn’t go to college because I couldn’t afford it, even tho I got accepted into three colleges. Now I’m working a part-time job that forces me to stand on my feet all day. Not many job opportunities are out here unless you’ve gone to college or obtain training. plus the rate for rent is horrendous.