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Canada is what you make of it. You can arrive rich and end up poor and you can arrive poor and end up rich. In between that, you can have a great life that balances your needs. I’ve seen immigrants succeed simply because they see the opportunity in front of them . They worked hard in their own counties to stay just above the poverty line ,but when they apply that same effort here it pays off ten times greater. I feel that compared to a lot of immigrants, natural born Canadians come across as spoiled and a little lazy…we are. We haven’t had to struggle the same way someone from a poorer country might have. I’ve talked to people who’ve worked ten to twelve hours a day just to stay afloat. If you did that here you could make plenty of money to live and have some left over. As far as owning a house goes,yes it’s expensive . I feel that homeownership in any country is relatively expensive. Here is a tip; use that soaring home prices to your advantage. Houses are expensive but you can make a lot of money buying and selling. I recommend putting together a buyers group and share the house for a few years, then sell at a profit, buy a bigger house or two smaller houses.try to buy the worst house in the best neighbourhood and fix it up slowly . That house could double in value in five or six years in the Toronto market. This is nothing new of course ,the people from India and China seem to do this a lot here ,it drives up prices and profits. On the downside to this ,you are now part of the problem. As the housing prices are driven up the non wealthy can no longer afford to own a house . They are at the mercy of high rents with no rewards of ownership. They are caught in a cycle of hard work and (relative)poverty. This could also be you if you can’t keep up the house payments and are forced to rent.\nHow well you speak English is important but your native language is also useful here because Canada is half immigrants . As a Canadian that speaks only english (Irish descent)I have to say to all newcomers that I’m very impressed that you have learned a new language and that you may even speak more than two! Don’t be embarrassed about your abilities . I find that in my experience , Canadians do not look down on people just because they don’t know English. In fact ,I’ve known people that have lived here for decades and still know very little English. They are comfortable in their communities and they function just fine. Learn as much English as suits your needs and be proud of any gains you make.\nOutside of Toronto are other cities that you might consider when looking at southern Ontario.From my experience,most are generally the same, just not as big . There are large immigrant communities in London Ontario, Hamilton and just outside of Toronto where housing is just a little bit less expensive but the commute to work is probably longer. This is just my opinion but in the small towns there are less people of colour , (which is what people of no colour call everyone else . I wonder if I’m called a person of no colour in some other culture ? LoL ). That might make it harder for you to feel integrated ,if that’s what you want. I’m not saying that people from other cultures can’t make it in a small town , I’m just saying that it’s definitely not Toronto . Here, people of any nationality can feel like they have a place where they can belong . It seems that no matter where you are from ,there is a community already here that’s set up restaurants and stores and clothing shops and newcomer support systems. And if your from Portugal or China or India or Africa or the Middle East, there are large groups of your kin here that have established roots for generations and you probably know this already.\nToronto means meeting place and that becomes evident quickly. I was born here and it’s one of the things I love the most about my city. I’m not going to say that there isn’t systemic racism here ,the people of no colour still kind of keep the top position , but as we become a minority in a decade or so ,I hope that will shift to a broader spectrum. It’s certainly happening already. One good thing is that the police department tries to hire people of colour so that racialism may play a smaller role. We’re getting used to seeing our politicians more and more reflect their constituents.\nI have to talk about the weather. Because I’m from here I’m used to the extremes of minus thirty and plus thirty . Eventually you get used to it (somewhat). Dressing in the right clothes is important. Summer is easy , but winter is different. It’s trying to kill you. Spend the most that you can afford on winter cloths . If you can afford a quality parka you should get one. The hood can be drawn around the face and stay out of the wind.\nIf not ,think of layers with a outer layer that blocks the wind. We have things called long Johns that are basically full length thick cotton or nylon pants that go on under your pants and a pair of extra thick socks. Buy your boots to fit your thick socks. Try to get the best boots you can afford ,it’s something that you might spend a little extra for but never regret.\nAll in all we are a fairly organized and peaceful society. Most people are friendly and will give you a chance . We have a good social safety net here and you don’t have to be homeless or starving if you don’t want to. There are people and organizations set up to help ,that truly try to get people back on their feet. It’s a good investment that pays off in ways that matter for the quality of life in a big city. I’m not putting my American neighbours down when I say they do things differently. They have their ways ,we have ours. This is just something that we do because we’re trying to learn how to help those that society has discarded or can’t find their place. Sure we have one or two areas where the homeless have pitched tents and we have some resources for them if they want. Unfortunately The mayor recently forced a small camp to move from a very visible place to more scattered locations. There were social workers involved as well as protesters trying to protect them. I didn’t like that happening and I want to see even more resources dedicated to them ,but on the other hand ,we are trying to avoid something like what happens on the streets when it’s just ignored. When I see YouTube videos of the streets of Philadelphia I’m extremely saddened. I thank the lucky stars that I was born in Toronto Canada.\nFor all it’s pollution and expense and crowds ,I think it’s a great place to do almost anything your heart desires . For every ugly building there is a beautiful park ,for every honked horn there is a birds call , for every cold and dark day there is beautiful sunny one around the corner.

I am Living in Ottawa I am white, I lived here my whole life and now I am a minority I deal with different races all the time and I do feel that I am being pushed out of my country different ethnicities treat me with disrespect I was growing up with Canadian culture of respecting everyone around you but I fine with all these different cultures coming in I’m losing my Canadian identity and it is a lot for me to hold strong onto the values as of what the Canadian is and I’m a fourth generation Canadian I see what’s happening to our veterans I visit my grandfather every other week and I see all the different nationalities that are PSW‘s and nurses And I really mean no offence but we have a different level of respect we have a different way of talking and these different nationalities coming in they all click together and some of them they treat the men who built this country with such disrespect please listen to meand I’m really not Trying racially profile this is been happening for the last 15 years and I’m not being silent about it Canada is freedom of speech Canada is being strong enough to speak up I mean this from the bottom of my heart if you’re coming into my country that my grand parents built for me and my children can you please give my children the opportunity that you were now taking from them and I see how they treat our veterans I see how difficult it is for seniors that didn’t have a placement in our homeless I see that all of our government funding is now going to people that are now immigrating into Canada and they’re being able to start up small businesses have four bedroom townhomes in their children to schools and drive them and fancy SUVs can you look around us and see somebody sold Canada

As a Mexican American I have faced all types of racism from people of different races, including my own. I lived in Mexico for a while when I was young and would get bullied by kids who knew I was born in the U.S. Teachers also treated me different; some treated me worse than they treated the other kids, and others favored me because I was American. When I moved to Philadelphia I attended a school that was predominantly black and asian. I was the only hispanic in my class. At the time Spanish was my main language and my English was “rusty,” which led to constant bullying from classmates. They would call me “dookie face,” tell me to “go back to my country,” and even had some girls put gum on my hair. I would cry every day. I later on moved to Chicago to an area that was mostly hispanic, and that didn’t stop the bullying, either. After I finally refined my English, I no longer wanted to speak Spanish unless it was to my parents. Yes, I guess the constant bullying pushed me to feel like I had to separate myself from my hispanic heritage. When my hispanic classmates spoke to me in Spanish I only responded in English, which would make them mad and they would think that I thought I was “better than them.” Anyway, that was long ago and now as an adult I can reflect on these things so that I don’t make the same mistakes. I get along with everyone and the only thing that changes how I feel about someone is their character, not their appearance.

Before I moved to Brampton, I had no idea HOW MANY Indians actually lived here. I'm of south Asian descent but I grew up here as a Canadian. I still keep my culture but I'm Canadian FIRST. It's true too, some of them don't believe in deodorant, holy shit I literally had to tell a guy who sat beside me on the bus that he smelled. I know it was rude but if someone doesn't tell these people, they will think not wearing deodorant is normal. I miss the Canada I grew up in. My friends were mostly white but there was a nice mix of us: white, black, asian so we all got along. Today, everyone is in their own groups, strangers are the enemy, there is so much more segregation than there has ever been. Not long ago at a Tim Hortons I heard an Indian guy who was clearly new to the country telling his friend he didn't have to learn English because everyone in Brampton speaks Punjabi, it was insulting hearing that.....Listen up Indians and any immigrants coming here: BEFORE you come here, learn English, LEARN the customs and learn the CANADIAN WAY. You owe it to Canada, give something back before you start taking.

How come this guy want to apply for papers in Canada and he did not do it in the USA? For so many years that he lived in USA. What happens is that as so many illegals in USA was very easy to work and not pay taxes as the rest of the people, they thought they will have it that way for the rest of their lives and now they are paying the price for their abuse to that great country!

I am a 16 years old muslim from egypt, and I am saying that what ISIS are doing is against Islam, my relative was in the Egyptian army while he was shot by ISIS terrorists, what I am trying to say to all the world is that ISIS targets everyone, wether a muslim or non-muslim, they keep bombing masjids as well as churches, they keep killing thousands of muslims and christians in many states. ISIS islam is totally different from the Islamic values that I was raised based on as a kid. If the government of Canda wants to fight it, then they should take these steps.\n1- They should have a security cameras secretly placed in islamic schools and masjids\n2- They should have a security bars over the masjid doors to check if any one who enters the masjids has unouthorized materials\n3- They should have a continous and a strong link between the intelligence and the islamic centeres as this may help greatly in fighting back terrorist attacks\n4- They should give muslims equal rights, consideration, and responsibility to those of non muslim canadians as banning something may add the fuel to the fire.\n5- Those who have hate towards the nation should not be allowed in\n6- Measures should be taken to reduce hate crimes\n\nJust to inform you that those muslims who are living in Canada, most of them are either refugees or converts, those refugees have harsh conditions in their countries due to civil wars, thats why they fled the country. In Egypt, were the population is 90% muslim, there are 9% christians, mostly were Coptic Orthodox Christianity, and they are living side by side with muslims peacefully without any violence or discrimination. Muslims have ruled Jerusalem for many centuries and Jews, Muslims, and Christians lived side by side peacefully without any violence or discrimination. Those terrorist have nothing to do with Islam, they are claiming that they are muslims but they are actually not.\n\nBut, what I am surprised about is that those muslims living in Canada that is shown on this videos are very religious and they are a tiny percentage of all muslim population in Canada, In fact, a study survey in France says that before the Ban of Burqa, of 4 million muslim women living in France only 368 muslim women actually wore it, many muslim westerns dont even wear the Hijab except when they are praying. Even of Burqa was banned, this will never reduce the statistics of terrorism.

What, did he think he would be given a free ride? Does he actually think immigrating to a new country wasn't going to cost him anything? How many years did he live in the US? And now, in Canada for the last 10+ months, yet he can't speak a fucking word of English? \n\nNow he complains that the process is taking too long, yet, had he immigrated legally (as he should have), it would have taken FAR longer and would have to spend that time inside his home country...\n\nI really don't get his attitude, he feels as though he's entitled to immigrate to the US, even though he made absolutely no effort in doing so legally, made absolutely no effort into learning the most widely spoken language on Earth, so he became a criminal by illegally crossing the border and living in the US for years... Then, when he's about to get busted and deported back to his home country, he pulls the exact same thing, illegally crosses the border into Canada, taking the money he's stolen from the US with him, while STILL unable to speak either official languages in Canada where speaking Spanish is about as useful as a condom in a lesbian orgy, nor making any effort into actually learning said languages, and tries to claim refugee status? Refugee status for what? He's not fleeing any war or conflict, the only thing he's fleeing is deportation to his home country from the US because he crossed the border into the US and lived there ILLEGALLY, he's a fucking criminal... And yet, he STILL feels he's entitled to cross the border into Canada and thinks they'll welcome him with open arms...\n\nWhere do these people get the idea that they have the RIGHT to just enter whatever country they wish without having to go through the immigration process? These processes are there for a reason, we don't allow just anyone to immigrate here...\n\nImmigrating to the US is a PRIVILEGE, NOT A RIGHT... Immigrating to Canada is a PRIVILEGE, NOT A RIGHT... \n\nThe fact that this guy and his family have entered 2 countries ILLEGALLY and stayed within its borders ILLEGALLY for all this time, and in both cases, REFUSED to learn the language, and when he was about to be deported back, he fled and kept hiding from immigration officers... That makes him and his family CRIMINALS, and rightfully so... They should be found immediately, arrested and subsequently deported back to the US to face whatever charges, and then deported back to his home country... Period...

Such generalizations. After listening for just one minute I conclude that you found out that lumping everybody into the same basket was stupid but it took you 25 years to find that out. Wow! More people are killed or injured traveling in car than in a mountain bike. There are 50 states in the USA so most statements you make may refer to just one or two states. Canada has 10 provinces and the health care is slightly different in each province. Wait until you have lived in any country for a few years before you can talk authoritatively about it. Canada is a good country to live in so is Australia but even better are some or the northern or western countries in Europe where health care is affordable and good and food is affordable and good. The USA has more millionaires and billionaires and a lot of them are in government. Think about that. Lots of guns and judging by the news quite a few racist cops who never get punished. Think about that too. Bad water in many places; also worth thinking about. There are more lobbyists than there are legislators and they all make money; think about that and ask yourself why.