Close Reading

One thing that always surprises me is that a lot of immigrants actually don't like mass immigration. I worked with a polish lady who complained more than anyone about the amount of polish people. I've met a lot of Turkish people and a few of them weren't best pleased with the amount of turkish people, and in this video an Indian man says there's too much of it too. Its not an uncommon sentiment among immigrants that they specifically came here for a change in culture, only for it to follow them here. Specifically surrounding politics, a lot of them leave because of the politics where they were, only to find its just as much of a problem here because so many bring those problems over with them rather than leaving them behind. Just to clarify though while I think immigration is obviously a big problem in its current state, I'm not at all against the idea of immigration in general. I care more about where people are going than where they're from. Its just very odd when you hear a strong accented polish lady walk passed complaining and swearing about all the polish people. I guess it does make sense though, if i imagine desperately wanting to leave home for Australia, it would obviously be disappointing to arrive after packing up my life savings to find out all of the people and all of the things were exactly the same as back home. Pretty sad when you think about it.

I'm pretty much exactly where that lady in the car is at. Enough to make rent, pay my monthly cell phone bill, and internet, but the rest? Not enough for food, no emergency funds if something breaks or needs replacing, etc. Can't even save and put money away. I sat down and balanced my budget, looking at what I could keep or toss. Figured out what to do for cheapening food costs as much as I could (without doing food bank), and the most I can afford for rent is $700 a month. That's basically a room in someone's house. That's it. As an Adult, I'm disgusted it's come to this. But what angers me MOST of all, is the Landlord's I gotta argue with. Surrey, BC used to be the cheap end of Vancouver. The welfare type housing, and low-income area. Then we had this huge book of Middle Eastern people come flying in at top speed, steam roll the community and make it theirs. They bought up all the cheap housing, ripped it down even though it was not that bad of a house, then built these custom 5-6 room mini mansions. The standards for the area skyrocketed, and the cost of their mortgage is likely also sky high because of what they built... So what do they do? Rent the rooms, force people 2 to a room with no privacy, and if you WANT a private room? Nearly $1000. Oh... And let's not forget the discrimination issues. If you're not going to temple or Gudwara, forget it. If you aren't pure vegetarian, forget it. And because all the other renters are "brown" and under 30yrs old, Adults are considered unwelcome. If you have a disability and don't work, you're automatically labelled a drug user (which isn't always truth). Even if you offer proof of income, and resources or phone numbers to call, they won't bother. Too much work. This sh*t needs to stop. I look in other cities near by, and it's happening in ALL OF THEM. I cant even relocate to get away from this crap. I'm done. I have no car to live out of, so that's not an option. I'm not a drug user, never will be but and all the shelters are now "low barrier". Screw that. So now what? Go back to work with a broken lower back?? Desk job search when I should be recovering and resting? Like, the suggestions are welcome, but be realistic. I'm in constant pain on heavy duty drugs to get by right now. No spouce. No parents or friends to leech off of. I feel utterly abandoned by our government.