Canada

First of all, I want to say that we are lucky to be in Canada now instead of living in Ukraine in such circumstances. However, our immigration was not planned; that’s why we faced a lot of difficulties connected with our moving. Nevertheless, I will start with pros of Canada.

I think everybody knows that Canada is a dream country for millions of people. It has a strong economy and people’s level of life is higher compared with a lot of even richer countries. Canadian government supports its citizens and I am sure that only the lazy ones will be hungry here.

The next advantage is that this country is safe. It is true not only comparing with Ukraine which is dangerous because of the war. The researches shows that it is safer then the USA for example. For instance, our Mexican neighbors decided to move to Canada because they were afraid of their daughter’s future in their native country.

The other benefit is that Canada has a big territory and opportunities for the development. The last but not the least, Canadian nature is amazing. We live in a small but picturesque town where there are a lot of tourists in the summer. The lakes attract people, the air is so fresh that it looks like we live in a wild forest but not in a town with a not so small population.

Talking about disadvantages of living in Canada I want to pay attention that my reasons are connected with our situation. We were not ready to move at all, we didn’t dream about this country like other people who spent so much time, money and made a great effort to come here. So, I can start with documents and processes that are connected with appointments and receiving services. It takes ages to solve a problem or even to get an answer for your simple question. For example, we prefer talking with live people instead of calling somewhere. It is easier because of our poor English. A month ago, we decided to get information from our bank on how could we send money from Ukraine to Canada. The closest appointment was in two weeks. The funniest was that the bank specialist we had an appointment with didn’t help us at all.

The next problem is connected with the previous one. We don’t have enough family doctors in the town, we don’t have a walking clinic as well. The only way to see a doctor is in an emergency. Probably, that’s not a problem for the biggest part of citizens, but it was a disaster for my family this winter. My daughter was sick 15 times or even more, I stopped counting one day. One visit to the emergency took approximately 5-6 hours and as a result we didn’t get any advice or prescriptions from the doctors. At the same time, you can visit a hospital in a big city, but the distances are so great that you have to skip a working day to get somewhere and back. In addition, the public transport is not so popular or developed in such areas as ours and it is a disadvantage for me.

The last minus I want to mention is that too many professions are regulated by the government. It causes a lot of problems for the newcomers and Canadians too.

In spite of everything I mentioned, I am sure that each year the list of disadvantages would be shorter for me and more advantages would appear in our lives. We must be thankful for this opportunity to be in Canada, work and stay alive.