In this post, I’ll discuss a few points about why immigrants leave Canada. It’s not common seeing new immigrants leaving Canada, but it happens sometimes. Most of the time, these people leave Canada because they can’t afford a big change or they are not willing to learn and adapt to the new life.
Unfortunately, I have a few friends who decided to leave Canada, and most of them already had a permanent residency. Based on my own experience, I’ll list the main reasons people decide to leave.
First of all, I don’t want to demotivate anyone who wants to come to Canada. My intention solely is to make you aware and help you make a smooth transition from your home country to your dream life in Canada. When an individual decides to move to another country, it’s important to understand and accept the culture and lifestyle of this new place.
Sometimes it’s not easy to adapt and people need to understand that in the beginning is going to be tough. When you start to plan your Canadian journey, It’s hard to believe, how someone would go back to their own countries after landing in Canada. Right below there is a list of 10 Reasons why immigrants leave Canada.
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1) Don’t find a job that fit their profile
Not everybody finds the job that they are looking for, very often people come to Canada with big expectations. Most of these people work in a multinational company in their home country and think that will be possible to find the same kind of job here.
Most of the time, you’ll get good jobs, but sometimes you don’t get the desired jobs that you were actually looking for.
For example, a friend of mine who had years of experience managing big teams in a multinational company, took around 7 months to find a job in her field.
During this time, she worked in coffee shops and pubs to pay her bills. She was not happy with it, but at least she was earning money to pay her bills.
If you’re planning in coming to Canada there is a chance that you might not get the job you expect, but with patience and persistence, you will find it.
Having Canadian work experience is very important if you don’t have Canadian work experience then there’s a slight chance your employer might exploit this situation, and they might give you a lower pay scale.
2) The Cold Weather
Canada is very cold for six to seven months of the year, and especially two-three months of very the temperatures might go down to – 25 to -30 degrees in Ontario. Provinces up north like Saskatchewan has a lower temperature.
People who come from hot places like myself have a hard time during the cold months. The first year is the most difficult and when the years go by you get used it.
If you can, try not to arrive in Canada during the winter months. Some People have no idea how cold Canada can be, most of them never experience this kind of temperature.
The weather plays a very important role when comes to making people give up. One piece of advice to overcome this problem is to get more involved in winter activities such as Ice skating, Ski, Snowboarding, Hockey, and many others.
3) Homesickness
Being far away from home is not easy. As a newcomer, not always you can get on a plane and visit your parents, families, and friends. Sometimes you might not have the money to travel to your home country or time. Not to mention, that there are a good number of people who come to Canada alone before they can bring their families.
Most of these people feel disconnected, lonely, and sometimes they have to leave their family at home, their children, their parents, and even their spouse before they can get sponsored to Canada.
Coming to a foreign country where you literally do not know anyone can be extremely difficult. that’s why it can be a strong reason for a new immigrant to leave Canada.
4) Financial difficulties
Not everyone in Canada gets rich, please, don’t get me wrong it’s an amazing country to be in, but it’s not easy to accumulate wealth in this country.
It is difficult, you’ll have to spend so much money to settle and at the same time, pay a lot of taxes. If you think you can come to Canada and accumulate wealth really fast, it’s a big misconception.
You will have to work a lot, and some people just cannot handle it. It’s too difficult for them that’s why they start considering leaving the country and some people just leave it.
It’s important to remind you, do not to get depressed. This country is still a country of opportunities and the majority of people have success here.
Not every immigrant gives up and there are lots of successful people who accumulated an insane amount of money just because they move to Canada.
5) Not prepared to start over
It’s not easy nice to start all over! So, if you come to Canada and you were in your home country a VP of Sales, Director of Operations, Senior manager.
Regardless of who you were, even if you held the president on the elections in your country, it does not mean anything here.
Your experience literally does not count much here, so what I am trying to say is some people who are coming to Canada, They expect to get all of that here right away.
Please, don’t get discouraged right away with difficulties especially in the beginning. Many people cannot handle difficult situations, so they get depressed and can’t handle to start from the beginning to build their life.
6) High prices to buy homes
The real estate in Canada can be expensive in a few cities. if you go to Toronto or Vancouver, expect to pay two to three millions of dollars in a modest house.
It’s common for people to spend their entire life working hard and not able to buy a dream home especially in big cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
This problem is not exclusive only for immigrants, Canadians also can’t afford the price of homes in big cities in Canada. Most of my friends prefer renting out instead of buy because they would not be able to afford a mortgage.
7) Public Health
As you might think, Canada has a free public health service. Keep in mind that you are responsible to buy any medical prescription.
Dentists are not included in the public health system, so expected to pay high prices if you need to do any complex treatment.
Sometimes, can be cheaper you get a flight and fly back home, and do your dental treatment in your country. In my country, the dentists are very inexpensive, so whenever I go back to visit my family, I spend extra days just do my dental treatment routine.
Another interesting thing is, Here in Canada, it’s common you see the nurse first, and only see the doctor if it’s necessary. If you sick, You literally, will see the doctor for 10 minutes and he/she will do a prescription to solve your medical issues.
One thing that bothers me about public health, is the fact of not have a preventive medicine.
Your doctor expects to see you only if you are sick. In my experience from the past years, most of the doctors will request extra exams only if your health situation is not good. Unless you’re dying that’s when they start acting and investigating.
8) High expectations
Some people come to Canada with high expectations than they should have. They look for Youtube videos and thinks that life here is perfect. In reality, it is not. There is no perfect place, and Canada it’s no different. There are a lot of bad things that happen in Canada, and you should be aware of.
Don’t come to Canada thinking that everything will be perfect, because things happen and you should be prepared for any inconvenience.
Don’t expect to get a job right away or buy an expensive house in the first year. Everything takes time, and you will meet your goals eventually. Most people realize how difficult it is to succeed here, to work, to achieve something.
As result, people don’t meet and their high expectations and they just give up going back home or just staying here depressed.
9) Health Issues
Sometimes, people are doing well in Canada, but they would be diagnosticated with severe disease. Although they could have the treatment in Canada, it might make sense to have treatment with the support of family and friends in their own country.
In addition, they might have to move back for a severe disease of a relative, or in case they need to take care of their elderly parents back home. In this situation, they have an option to sponsor their parent, but it takes a lot of time to apply for all the paperwork and not everyone is eligible for sponsoring.
10) Just wants to have a Canadian passport
Some people only come here with the objective of obtaining Canadian citizenship and get a strong passport which opens huge options of countries they can go to.
So they come here, meet the physical presence requirements to obtain a Canadian passport and move to the chosen place they always wanted to live.
Not to mention, With a Canadian passport, for example, you attract better jobs in the US, and have an opportunity to work and live in the US easily.
Conclusion
I hope this post gives you an idea and help you understand why people leave Canada. Keep in mind, Canada is one of the best places to live, it’s is a beautiful country and it’s an awesome place to raise your kids, to get a job and be successful.
There are so many ways to succeed here, and if you work hard and have patient, you will accomplish your goals.
The key is to be willing to adapt, accept new cultures and be open-minded. Go out and make new Canadian friends, don’t stick to your one community. It’s important to be part of Canadian society as a whole.
My Canadian friends helped me understanding how amazing this country is, and they helped me to know more about Canadian culture and overcome my misconceptions.