Just a thought

I was just sitting at my desk today on a sunday afternoon in my office.Not much to do, so stumbled upon this amazing website with so many articles by fellow new immigrants about their experiences etc. Some are very negative due to the negative experiences by those hurt by the move. Some are positive by those who got what they wanted. I came to a conclusion that this is a mixed bag depending on each individual's experience.

It is like everywhere else . I remember I passed out of engineering in 1995 with 60 other people. Some got instant success i.e good jobs , salary etc. Some like me had to struggle for couple of years to get somewhere. I was working in the biggest hydel power company in india (Jaypee group) as a field engineer in one of their power projects and used to manage at least 200 people at my site. As I mentioned, I had got this job after a struggle and cherished it. I loved my job. I had company accomodation etc. I used to work 12 -14 hours a day but never complained because I used to love my job and my position.

One day my wife got a brochure from some immigration company and convinced me to move to canada. I applied in 1998 and after much wait and frustration I got the visa in 2002. I left my cherished job , family, home and came to canada and landed on apr 30th 2002 just after 9/11.

Initially it was very frustrating and just to sum it up I had constant head ache for 2 months after I landed here.I always regreted my decision and blamed my wife for it who was still in india as my son was a baby and we decided that I would sponsor them after I get a job etc. As everybody else, I struggled same way as in india after my graduation but now I was 8-9 years older and a father and a husband with lot more responsibility on my shoulders. whenever I used to think about my son I used to cry in isolation.

So carrying forward the story , the initial 6 months were a bunch of crap (struggle). Then I got a contract position for canada student loan program (in a different field) i.e collection. my salary was $ 14.10/hr and I was over joyed as it was way more than I was getting in other jobs ranging from 8 -10 /hr. I got permanant in the job and sponsored my wife. Her luck was better than mine. The day she landed our company decided to hire 8 full time people and my wife got her 1st interview without getting her SIN#. Meanwhile I decided to move on and joined an insurance company as a sales/underwriting consultant and after working there for more than 4 yrs I am a claims advisor with canada's 4th largest insurance company and my wife has also completed 4 years in the same company. Our son is in grade 2 now, we bought a house last year and are moving to a bigger one next year and life is I guess better than India.

So my advise to everybody who decides to go for it, just hang on, think positive , don't compere because in india also if you don't belong to premier institutes or have some "sifarish" getting a good job was quite a headache (before India shining)
Power cuts, dust, pollution, govt apathy, riots, terrorism, politics etc adds to your woes there. So whoever has made the decision does not need to regret.

All the best to everybody and God bless.