Posted on Quora by Koyel Ranu on 2021-02-15
For new immigrants to Canada with no previous family, friends, or job there (actual immigrants, not students/visitors), how did they decide where to move to within Canada? What factors did they consider? What do they wish they knew before moving?
Written by Quora member
Koyel Ranu | কোয়েল রানু
and posted on 2021-02-25
I didn’t immigrate to Canada (I went there to study), but since my doctoral research involved immigrants to Canada, I can answer this question based on what I found in my research.
My research involved mapping social participation and formation of social capital. In my interviews, I’d ask questions that explored the kind of networks an immigrant has, identify the nodal points where those networks would start forming, and how those affected their decision-making process in their move to Canada and further down the settlement process, among other questions.
This answer, however, applies only to South Asian immigrants (people from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan).
THE Person
For South Asian immigrants, a particularly important factor that impacts their decision-making in where to move, and where to settle, and what factors to consider even in this whole process – is the person of their first contact, with regards to immigration.
This person of first contact could be a very weak tie—some friend of a colleague’s cousin, an ex-boss, someone the immigrant had met in a travel agency in their sending country. Before moving to Canada, South Asian immigrants usually find this particular someone, in order to anchor their following settlement process in Canada.
Hereafter, this person guides them in choosing not only the city but also the neighbourhood, where the new immigrant family should settle.
More often than not, it is a predominantly South Asian neighbourhood, with the only exceptions to this rule being immigrants who belong to a high household income (who had an existing job offer or have a household income in the range of $110 k - $ 400 k).
Immigrants with a high household income would often choose to settle in a “more mainstream” neighbourhood (i.e. less “ethnic”), while immigrants with no job offers and meagre savings, and immigrants with some modest savings (but no job offer) would often go for settling in ethnic neighbourhoods, because of assumed support from their ethnic group on a rainy day. This part was based on a commonly-found, instinctive logic of homophily: “People who appear to be similar like me, are more likely to help me, than people who look different to me and whom I don’t know and can’t trust.”
This Person of first contact, therefore, is elevated on a very trustworthy level of bankable dependence, because of the common ethnic background, and common experience of being an immigrant in a “white, western country”.
In the majority of the cases, a South Asian immigrant retains this selection criterion of living in an “ethnic neighbourhood” even later, even when they have got to know the city better. The person of first contact impacts not only the new immigrant’s first apartment/house in Canada but also the subsequent networks they would be a part of – ethnic and/or non-ethnic.
Generally speaking, almost all recent immigrants spoke of how they feel isolated from being stripped of their past friend circles and networks. Consequently, they felt that they had to depend on this first person of contact for information and access to groups and networks, getting around to know the city, procuring things in the new country, and obtaining general knowledge on people and things in the new country.
Where do I go?
In the decision-making process of which city to move on, South Asian immigrants usually avoid French Canada. Most of them are told that a working knowledge of French –the language they don’t know—is essential to survive and live in Quebec. Therefore, they tend to look for big cities other than Montreal; big cities, because those ones possess good public transport, which is important for immigrants since most of them do not plan on buying a car upon arrival, or might not know driving/might not have an international driving license. Big cities also tend to possess more job opportunities.
In this context, Toronto and Vancouver are popular choices than Edmonton for example, because of their milder weather (than rest of Canada, which matter for people from tropical countries) and the existence of a low-cost consumer market, even though living in these cities could be expensive (higher rent + transport cost, etc).
However, more fixer-upper alternatives exist in these cities, than in those belonging to the Prairie, where the oil and gas industry could pay well, but then, the consumer services are also more geared towards the rich. It’s not easy to be a poor immigrant in Calgary, for example, as compared to surviving as a poor/working-class immigrant in Toronto.
Immigrants also assume (or expect) that the large immigrant presence in these two cities would lead to a less alienated feeling upon arrival and a more multicultural experience –the word they keep hearing, right from the moment they think about immigrating to Canada.
Moreover, ethnic neighbourhoods usually have lower rents than more white/mainstream neighbourhoods.
Where do I move next?
With increasing length of residence and better knowledge about the city, immigrants move out of their first neighbourhood to fulfill their more relevant and emergent needs, such as:
- greater convenience and access to places,
- easier access to health services,
- close to the workplace,
- safer areas,
- closer to better commuting areas, and
- to stay close to their co-ethnic group.
In their initial decision-making process, the above-mentioned factors do not matter, as much as the word of The Person of First Contact matters to them.
For many South Asian immigrants, they don’t even know that they need to think about the above-mentioned factors. In South Asian countries, convenience to places such as a clinics, shops, entertainment centres, pharmacy, grocery stores are a given, often existing within walking distances.
Neighbourhoods in South Asian countries are not residential units with just houses and some corner store where you can only get milk, bread and canned goods. Lower rents of particular neighbourhoods in South Asian countries also do not automatically entail a significant qualitative difference in safety issues.
So, these are the things that immigrants often have to learn to think about after their arrival to Canada.
Ethnic Networks
South Asian immigrants prefer to live and engage in their co-ethnic networks.
Ethnic networks complement the lack of ability to spend and invest in social participation in more mainstream/dominant networks, which were mentioned as:
- Inability to drink and socialize in a bar due to religious and/or cultural constraints,
- Financial priorities,
- Investment in specific kind of dressing in order to socialize in “western manner”,
- Invest in buying extra food and other accessories (e.g., silverware) to socialize with guests and such other accompaniments required for modes of socializing and social participation in Canada.
More often than not, immigrants coming to Canada have to grapple with issues of getting their degrees and credentials recognized. As a result, many of them find themselves with little choice, but to accept the kind of jobs they don’t belief to be commensurate with their skills and educational backgrounds.
The consequent lower economic status is often survived upon by reliance on emotional, financial and material support from their neighbours and friends in ethnic neighbourhoods.
Stages of Getting Settled:
- In the first stage of getting settled down, new immigrants are concerned with more immediate and pressing needs such as food, shelter, orientation to the city, language interpretation, and language instruction.
- In the intermediate stage, immigrants’ needs comprise of access to various Canadian systems and institutions, such as municipal services, legal services, long-term housing, health services and employment-specific language instruction.
- In the last stage, assuming the immigrant has adapted to the new country, immigrants strive to become equal participants in Canada’s economic, cultural, social, and political life.
Expectations
A. Alienation and a sense of heightened individualism in a new country were prime factors that almost all immigrant respondents, except the ones with high household income, were found to be struggling with. The change in social conditions, along with infrastructural changes such as weather, workplace activities, and traffic, accentuated the idea of Canada being a “different” setting. Many immigrants expressed how they did not expect the “feeling of exclusion” which became a part of their newly adopted country of living.
The general expectation of surviving without as much support from friends, family, and neighbours as in the immigrant’s country of origin, receiving polite behaviour, but not the customary care and support as s/he would receive in their country of origin, were found to be overwhelming contrasts that new immigrants tried to make sense of, based on their expected norms formed “back home”.
B. The levels of being overwhelmed and abilities to cope with different customs of social interaction were seen to differ with varying degrees of education, socio-economic status, and familiarity with the western discourse in general.
As an example, this is what a 50 year old, married, South Asian male immigrant (from India, with an annual income of $35,000- $40,000) said, with respect to interacting and forming friendship/bonds with “mainstream” Canadians:
I have tried mixing in with the people over here. I have tried going at bars, trying to watch ice hockey. But I don’t understand these things… It’s not something that I’m familiar with, or that I have seen from the childhood and it’s not possible for me to start drinking at this age or be passionate about ice hockey at this age.
Source: My research interviews
C. Cultural Differences:
Immigrants would also differ in the levels of expected formality and etiquette, which affect their levels of being comfortable in doing things together with mainstream Canadians.
When an immigrant lacks the ease of interaction with mainstream Canadians, this affects further inter-ethnic communication, as the immigrant chooses to dissociate her/himself from such areas of social participation. Many immigrants didn’t expect that they would have to learn a new discourse of interaction because they expected they would know it anyway since they were already well-conversant in English.
This is what a 41 year old female immigrant from Sri Lanka (with a household income of $250,000) and who was convent school educated in Sri Lanka (schools offering a more western way of education; respondent was familiar with discourses of English literature and colloquial customs) had to say:
It was little things that strike…like getting the right pronunciation. Like people would say “few-el” (fuel) and I would say “foo-al” (Fuel), or this …and was….and little things like that…and that here in Canada you constantly talk about the weather. It was such a thing to say….and I was surprised at the weather too. And just the way you greet people…like “hi…how are you”… you really don’t need to explain how you really are. You are just expected to say I’m fine and how are you and pass on, right? ... and how long are you supposed to work and so…I was anxious about whether I would be up-to-date with things.
Source: My research interviews
Immigrants who could be well-conversant in English and the western way of life, would not expect about the “little things” like pronunciation that sets them apart, to the category of being a “visible minority”. They might think they know the process of settling in, in this age of Information being so widely and readily available, but then, there are some organic differences to really doing it, as the above-mentioned respondent went on to say:
Sri Lanka’s society is actually structured differently. There are neighbours available to do different things. So you won’t necessarily have to…like kids here actually go to an old age home or senior citizens home and actually spend time with them and talk with the people. That is not so much…….that is not done so much that way there.
If you want to talk you could do it voluntarily, but you don’t need to make an effort. Like spending time with people, you have to do it here. I suppose that’s what I do too. I have been told, that if you have a pet then you get to know your neighbours better with the dog running and all that. And I don’t have kids either. So those are the key things that help you to know your neighbours better and all that.
Source: My research interviews
Many South Asian immigrants expressed how they didn’t expect that social relationships (intrinsic to their settlement and integration process to the Canadian society) could not be presupposed to get cemented with time. They didn’t expect that relationships would require an active investment to build.
Cultural differences, by themselves, do not create walls between ethnic groups. But perceived levels of difference play a key role.
There are cultural differences within Indians, among people from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka but they are more akin to be friends with each other than with, individuals from Europe or even Eastern Asia. The medium of language between a Sri Lankan and an Indian remains English, as it would remain between a white, British lineage Canadian and a South Asian immigrant.
However, the commonality of a shared understanding in food, habits, and customs creates a bond that excludes possibilities of bonding and networks with other ethnic groups. A common culture does not necessarily bring people to develop a liking for each other or get into social relationships, but it does rule out steps to second guess gestures and meaning. It provides a common framework where expectations are clearer and behavioural references are easily understood.
D. Many immigrants had no idea that volunteering and networking formed an important ingredient of finding jobs and expressed the wish that they had known it earlier.
E. For a significant proportion of immigrants, they wish they had known about the frustration which colours their immigrant life: non-recognition of their educational credentials in Canada, in spite of those being recognized when being granted the status of being an immigrant.
F. Finding a job is an important precondition of getting settled in Canada. Finding a job also puts the idea of the “worth” of an immigrant/newcomer to test. In this process of finding a job, and gaining equivalent status in the new country, perceived discrimination and exclusion from the labour market, further the feeling of alienation one can encounter in a new country. Before their new identity—the Canadian identity—is crystallized, immigrants often encounter the difference between their own culture and the mainstream/dominant culture in antagonistic, binary perspectives.
G. Immigrants also expressed how they had to learn to dress in accordance with the Canadian weather. Most of them had to go through strong trials and errors of what “layered clothing” means and why and how it works, and why and how wearing a jumbo jacket might not work.
No comments:
Post a Comment