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If it wasn't for expensive real estate and lax immigration policies, the economy would collapse.

Please stay away from Canada I moved here and I regret it every day. I'm a citizen through my parents and getting my certificate took YEARS which stopped me from being able to go to school or work which means years of my adult life wasted that could have been put to much better use for something that wasn't even my fault. I also lost good opportunities too because of it!!!! Not happy especially since I genuinely needed the money. I won't forgive Canada for that. Also everything here is really expensive and the selection is just not very good. Also work opportunities are not as good as in the US. Anyways I finally got my certificate and got my life started up again just over 2 years ago, but I still often think of returning to the US after just being here for 4.5 years. I now warn some of my US friends not to go to Canada just for the hype if they mention it. I also know of a friend who moved here and left after 1 year, they came to hate it here.

Thank you for summarizing these key changes! Many problems are actually the Canadian immigration system not learning from the mistakes of the US system and now it’s suffering the same consequences. If Canada cuts down on those selected immigrations but still takes in refugees, it’s only going to make anti-immigrant sentiment worse. Selected immigrants are allowed into Canada to help alleviate Canadian issues…or at least people who come through Express Entry are less likely to become a burden. On the other hand, refugees, given their unfortunate circumstances, really need to rely on a lot of social services and resources to help them resettle. The US has eliminated pretty much all non-humanitarian immigration that’s why immigrants are so demonized there. Americans only feel the drags of refugees and asylum seekers (even though ethically we need to protect them) and there is no selected immigration to balance that out. Yet this round of Canadian policy change is heading exactly that direction.\n\nIt used to be international students in Canada are not paying a lot more tuition than Canadian students. But Canadian universities saw how much money universities in the US are making so they asked the federal government to change the policy to enable them to charge international students several times the regular tuition (whereas in countries like France, international students actually pay less than citizens). So now Canadian universities rely too much on international students to operate and it becomes an exploitative relationship even before students step foot on the campus. The new PGWP eligibility is awful because students can make contributions in every field. It might (and that's a big if) address the pressing problems, but it won't help Canada grow.\n\nI thought the new language requirement was interesting. Some Canadians who immigrated decades ago when the bar was really low still speak English poorly and now they are saying people can’t come to Canada because their language skills are not sufficient. Another point about language is if you apply through Express Entry now, even if you scored the highest language score, given how competitive the pool is, you still won’t get selected. So it’s a given that you need to be fluent in one of the languages at least to get an invitation. Express Entry also selects only the top people, I saw the head of The Institute for Canadian Citizenship in interviews talking about those top-tier people only expect the best treatment/lifestyle when they come to Canada. That's why many of them leave after seeing these Canadian problems play out. But I believe a good Canadian life is not about living in a high rise in Vancouver and Toronto, driving an expensive car, or buying luxury items...it's about the communities, nature and middle-class comfort. So the system is giving PRs to the wrong kind of people (just like mismatched people when hiring that don't align with company values).\n\nThis brings me to the last frustrating issue. There were so many people who attended “fake” universities and bought “fake” jobs to earn points to get an Express Entry invitation. And it's clear that the government wasn't proactively catching these abuses. They are taking up spots from those who try to earn the points fair and square. If I understand correctly, Canada doesn’t send these people away if they are found out (since some of them were scammed). So they still take up immigration quotas.\n\nI have wanted to move to Canada for a long time. I have visited Canada many times, hiking trails through the coastline and fjords, climbing mountains and glaciers. I lived in Montreal for two months to improve my French and I was told by my homestay family that I was the first student they had who didn’t complain about the cold (I wish the winter never ends so I can skate or xc ski in the parks year-round). I have probably seen more Canada than many Canadians and I love every bit of it. But the opportunity for me to even get a shot to move there is pretty much nonexistent now. If only there was a way for the system to allow people who really care about Canada to get a shot at being part of this beautiful country.\n\nThank you for making these videos.

TFW here, east Asian, a couple of things:\nI am paid the provincial minimum wage, and work in the dairy industry, medium sized farm.\nI started working straight out of high school\n\nFrom what I can see and hear from across the province and largely in the western Canadian provinces, older generation farmers are at the retirement age, but the younger generation is generally very reluctant to take over. \nNot all industries, but definitely in livestock, people sometimes don't realize that, there is literally no breaks, ever! You work every day, holidays, Christmas, and if you do chose to take a few days off, your co-workers, i.e. other family members or workers, have to take up the extra workload. You barely have time for your family, you are often tired around your kids. Farmers have some of the highest suicide rates among all occupations, as well as a difficulty to find partners due to the nature of their jobs.\nThe work is hard, days long, especially during harvests, and if the ever more expensive tractors, equipment fail...\nThere used to be a lot of family owned farms, over the last few decades most have sold their generational farm and left the industry, most because of the cost to operate and because the next generation's unwillingness to take over.\nYong people my age have not been seen applying for my position in a few years now, despite ongoing hiring effort at significantly higher than minimum wage, and I have repeatedly stated that I, although love my job, am ready to step aside at any point so a Canadian PR or citizen can take my position, as required by worker rules. There were a few inquiries from neighboring areas, mostly made by parents, but their children in the end all refused to work, even part time, or seasonal.\n\nOn the other hand, there is the issue of prices: equipment costs have largely more than doubled since the pandemic, grain prices rose... and all that on top of the constant uncertainty of the weather every planting and harvesting season. Most farms don't ever make a profit after the yearly operating cost is deducted from earnings, and the little profit that on occasion appear, goes right back into paying debt or reinvesting in renewing long overdue old equipment.\n\nMy position, and all those similar to mine in agriculture, are in all fairness, very low skilled, with minimum training, and therefore is only worth minimum wage, in my opinion. I was actually offered a higher amount but in the end turned it down because on the job, I discovered the only thing I bring to the table is manual labor (I know that's not really the right way to go about wages, but I do believe that wages should be based on the irreplaceableness of one's skills, and as it stands, although no replacements were ever found, I am very much easily replaceable, skill wise). That, compared to a slightly better paid Starbucks position, with benefits (most farm workers and owners don't have benefits or pension, yes owners too), air conditioning, regular work hours. I mean, if it wasn't for my particular interest for agriculture I'd pick Starbucks any day too!\n\nI think a couple issues are at hand, \n1. Most of agriculture's profit ends up in the corporate processing and supermarkets, that needs to change, workers could benefit, as well as consumers, from distributing that profit between farmers and shoppers.\n2. Agriculture in today's context no longer fit the modern life, although I strongly think that A LOT of people can benefit from getting their hands dirty once in a while and sweating a bit, improve physical and mental health, have better discipline all that jazz. So foreign workers are the temporary solution, if well regulated so that Canadian PR and citizens are ALWAYS prioritized for hire and at a fair wage. This cannot happen unless farmers can turn a profit, stated in point 1.\n3. A new generation of farmers are needed to take over, and they need to be somehow convinced that it is worth the toil, because as it stands, it is not, financially, life style wise. Automation is one solution, although therein lies the huge, foreseeable risk of corporate takeover.\n4. On a specific note, TFW does mandate that workers are provided up to standard housing (not always followed), which puts local workers at a huge disadvantage if they are commuting to work and paying rent, although that rarely happens, and the majority of farms do offer housing to all.\n\n\nI am aware that me being treated up to regulation is not the norm among my TFW peers, which is quite sad and unacceptable. But in my opinion, even if given a leveled playing field, wages , conditions, housing, etc. Canadian citizens and PRs largely will be unable to meet the demand for these jobs, from unwillingness to work really hard physically, unwillingness to live the lifestyle, wanting a career with better prospects... these are harsh words, but I believe to be true, and they also come from a lot of older generation farmers talking about their children and grandchildren. \n\nThis is just in the agri industry, and from what I hear from farmers from all over western Canada : )

I'm an immigrant to Canada. I've been here for 35 years (came here when I was 6). The current immigration/migration/ayslum seeker rates have gone completely insane. It isn't racist to think it's gone overboard. I went to very very multicultural schools. I grew up in Toronto and have lived downtown for 20 years now. I love our multiculturalism but there are limits to immigration if there simply isn't an infrastructure to support countless hundreds of thousands of people trying to move into the city each year. It's not sustainable at all. The roads aren't getting bigger, the housing zoning isn't getting easier, new hospitals aren't being built. You cannot try and cram 4 million people in a city built for like 2 million people. People moving to Canada simply do not realize just how absurdly expensive this place has become. What's the better alternative being poor in India or being poor in Canada? Because unless you are making 100k a year you are going to basically be poor in Toronto.\n\nThe big big difference as someone who has lived downtown Toronto for 20 years is now the homeless are very multicultural. 10 years ago it wasn't like that as much. Now people from every race and every background are at risk of homelessness. It's a rate race, it's a very competitive city for housing and jobs and as soon as you aren't in making $$$$$ you will fall behind.

Hi Lynn, this is a very interesting conversation. I moved to Canada in 2003 went to college and became a nurse. First of all it was not easy paying for college I was lucky that husband was supporting with the bills as I went to school. So I would say that I have skills that are very marketable. Our combined family income was over $100,000 CAN. We mortgaged our first home which was very basic for a LOT of money. We had our kids and we had to struggle with childcare as most young families do. By North American standard, we were doing good. We each had a good car ( loaned), we made trips to Kenya every so often but in 2016 we decided we wanted to move back home and we sold our home and we did. I HAVE NO REGRETS. There were several things that made us reach our decision. First, I truly believe that for the Canadian system to work as it does, it has to entrap its residents. Even after 10 years of work we did not have money in the bank. Everything we owned really belonged to the bank. The light bulb moment for me came when I evaluated my net worth. A primary school teacher in Kenya after 10 years of work with good financial management will own a plot, a simple house and will start to invest for retirement. After 10 years of work, there wasn't much in the account, our house would need 25 years to finish paying mortgage and to be honest there wasn't much to show for those years of work. Quality of life really sucks the amount of stress will definitely send you to the grave sooner. This is the case for most first generation immigrants. You might say you are sacrificing and building a future for your children but, my observation was since our diaspora children have not grown in Kenya to see the need for money and what life really looks like without the comforts they are used to, they do not have the same drive as the parents so they often do not excel they are just ordinary. There is also the struggle of growing up as a minority group. A lot of our children because they are seeking acceptance will struggle with self esteem, will have depression or will join the LGBTQ community where they get sense of belonging regardless of their colour. The morals are also different from their parents and they are shaped by the society they grow up in. When I looked at what my life would look like if we kept living there, lets say we eventually pay off our mortgage, when we are old and requiring care, our children will not be able to support themselves and support us because they have to work to sustain themselves so we would to move to assisted living or nursing homes. The cost of senior care is not covered by the government unless you have no money. so we have to sell out home which would be old and outdated but still very expensive and we would have to pay $5000-$10000 per month depending on the type of care we need. so as you can see if we ended in a nursing home for 5 years we will have depleted all the money we made from the sale of our home. So by the time we die, we would not have money to leave for our children. So we worked really hard, supported the economy, and die leaving not much at all for our children, we sacrificed our quality of life, and ended up with children who don't think much of themselves or have very distorted morals. I still remember in my mind as we drove to the airport on our way back to Kenya, I thought of the story of Lot. He was pretty successful in Sodom but I'm very sure on his death bed he had lots of regrets why he ever went there. I know its tough being in Kenya but if you have a job or any way to make ends meet, be like Abraham. God will bless you regardless of whether you are in the dessert.