NEW BEGINNINGS – STARTING A NEW LIFE IN CANADA – PART 2
The migrant population in Canada comprises of people of many age groups. The majority of migrants include people from Asian countries, India, China, Japan and Korea. Irrespective of the nationality, most migrants are pretty young which includes students coming to Canada to pursue undergraduate or graduate school and young working professionals coming on a work permit or after gaining permanent residency.
Working professionals are usually accompanied by their spouses and in some cases young children. The primary issues faced by such people are known as the 3 L’s namely:
Living – On moving to a new geographic location, the first thing which needs to be looked into is a place to live/stay. While some people decide to book a room online in a hotel while house-hunting, a budget-friendly air B&B is also an option for newcomers.
The advantage of an air B&B over a hotel is that you get a front-seat view of what everyday life looks like in your new city. Most of these are a basement apartment or a mother-in-law apartment adjoining the main house of the owners. It is also possible to find an air B&B in a residential area which has close proximity to public transit as well as essential grocery shopping. Almost every air B&B comes with a basic equipped kitchen which means you can cook your meals and save money on food.
Apartments are the first choice for most newcomers while some choose condos, townhomes and in a few cases, individual family homes. Rentals in an apartment complex are usually handled by a property management company. You will be asked to fill an application which contains details of all prospective residents of the apartment as well as details like income, etc.
Condos are apartments rented out by individual apartment owners but they also involve an application process. The owners usually ask a realtor to handle the application process and show the apartment to the prospective tenants. A similar process is involved in renting a townhome or an individual family home. A townhome is where two houses share a common wall. An individual family home is an independent house with its backyard.
Literacy – Finding the right school for your kids is one of the biggest concerns of families migrating with school-aged children. The school system in any city in Canada is pretty easy to navigate once understood clearly. There are two main types of schools, public and private schools. Most people opt to send their children to public schools closest to their home. This means that while searching for a home, it is a good idea to question about the neighbourhood public school. Every city has its school district. The district website has a school locator. Just enter the address of your home/prospective home and find out the details about the nearest school.
Livelihood – Finding a job or a means of livelihood is also one of the top priorities of new migrants. Those coming on a work permit usually have a job as the work permits are mostly sponsored by the employer. This is a closed work permit which means they cannot work for any other employer. A spouse of a work permit holder has an open work permit which means they could work for any employer in Canada and switch jobs with ease. People looking for jobs should have an updated resume which contains their latest contact information in Canada. They should register this resume with every recruitment agency in the city they live in. It is easy to find information about recruitment agencies online. Some agencies specialize in certain specific jobs like clerical and accounting jobs while others specialize in all kinds of jobs. Understanding your strengths, previous work experience and job preferences, they place you accordingly. A lot of temporary/contract jobs are available and they are a great source of income while looking for a better job.
Now that we have understood the basic issues faced by families moving to Canada, we will learn about the issues faced by students moving to Canada and their options in the next part.
mrspooja@outlook.com
Pooja Rajeendranath
