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I never thought I would be posting a downbeat message, but having been here 4 years I have noticed that some families end up having the Dad going back to the UK to do contract work whilst the kids and other parent stays in BC.

Why? They cannot get a job in Canada, but can walk into jobs in the UK.

Why don't they all return? Well, some of them can't afford to, but it seems a combination of finance and the fact the kids are settled in Canada, and the parents firmly believe that they will eventually be better off remaining.

It just seems so depressing to me...

Clare

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How many families has this happened too (that you know), and what sort of work is not available in B.C.?

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And if they want to stay in Canada, one wonders whether they've looked at the option of relocating to another province, such as Ontario or Alberta.

Also, one wonders if these are all IT people - IT seems to be one of the areas where it is a lot harder to get good work in Canada compared to the US or UK. It's also probably one of the most common occupations among skilled migrants.


Jeremy

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FWIW I'm in the computer business and over the years have known several people who moved to BC. All but one came back when the money ran out. The one still out there packed in computing. If a computer person wants a left coast lifestyle he or she really has to bite the bullet and deal with the property prices in the Bay area; the work's there, not in Vancouver.

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Since the Canadian market is this bad, why have skilled worker immigrant category in the 1st place. Why make people immigrate...Why the necessity to have the canadian experience to get some jobs... :mad:

If i were an immigrant consultant and a member of this forum, i would write a report summarizing the issues of the immigrants and bring it to the media and to officials.

There is something wrong with the Canadian system to have all highly qualified immigrants who end up with NO jobs or finding so so jobs. :confused:

Some people with no jobs will end up asking help from the government which is putting more pressure on the government and draining the resources.... :mad:

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That's a huge generalization, based on a couple of posts about BC which seems to have it's own self-contained economy.

If anyone is struggling to get a job with reasonably up to date I.T. skills then head for Alberta, and Calgary specifically. The job market is crying out for skilled people.

This is also true for engineers, electrical draughtmen etc etc.

I know many immigrants in Calgary and they are all working.

Nobody is holding a gun at anybody's head to come to Canada. The onus is on the prospective immigrant to do the research beforehand.

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No-one is *forced* to immigrate.


Canada is quite a diverse country and a shortage of jobs in one part of the country may be matched by a surplus in another part. That said, IT seems not to be a popular option in Canada.

But if the Canadian government did what you suggested, and moved to occupational based criteria for skilled immigration, those those in 'excluded' occupations (eg IT) would also be complaining that they weren't allowed to migrate.

Sooner or later they will probably act to prevent people migrating as skilled migrants - especially in restricted occupations - if they have not got qualifications acceptable 'in principle' to the relevant Canadian professional or trade bodies. Australia already does this.


Jeremy

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It's not just IT or Vancouver.
The work situation in Canada is dire compared to Britain whatever field.

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I live in Ontario and it's impossible to get IT or frankly any kind of work here.
I have A+, Network+, MCSA and 2 degrees and earn $8 an hour working as a cashier in retail having previously earned 32k a year in Leeds.
Personally I can't wait until next April when we finally leave this godforsaken place. Our flight is already booked!!!

Call me all the names under the sun if you like, but Canada is a craphole.

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Really?

Another blanket statement covering a huge country with many disparate economies. I guess when you mean "Canada" you mean the immediate four blocks around where you live in Toronto? You really have bought into the "centre of the universe" deal eh?

Parts of Canada are among the fastest growing economies in the western world. There is a shortage of skilled workers in Alberta, doing real jobs producing goods for exporting out of Canada.

Do you realise what's happened and happening in the UK? The "economic miracle" is unravelling, manufacturing (what little there is left) is officially in recession and factories are starting to lay people off.

The consumer-fuelled boom is over, inflation is up to 2.3% and the economic growth is way below the government predictions. The prognosis is for interest rate rises to cap inflation and to keep the pound reasonably strong against the USD. This the BoE has to do as oil is priced in USD and a weak pound will further cripple the economy.

The housing market is stagnating, and starting to go south and with that many jobs that are reliant on a bouyant housing market will go with it.

Reading your posts on here you come across as some one who was dragged here rather than break up a relationship, hardly the most positive of situations. Fair enough, but if you're going to post negative statements at least make them specific and not just "woe is me".

I guess there's a a pub somewhere near Whitby waiting where you can eat your fish and chips by the fire while watching the rain drive against the windows.

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I really can't believe that you can't do better than that. Is Ontario really is such bad shape or is it your bitter and twisted personality?

I earned more than double what you did in the UK, but my skills were out of date for the market here. So, I took some time out and re-trained using cash that I'd saved and now have a job in I.T. paying very well.

BTW are you sure you can't get an earlier flight than April, I think the UK needs you earlier.

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Same old, same old.
Believe me, I'm rather used to hearing that Canada is nirvana and the best country in the world. Woe betide anyone who says anything remotely negative about the place.
Personally I think Canada is crap. It's boring, has no culture whatsoever and surprise surprise it has it's fair share of a**eholes, criminals, druggies and scumbags just like Britain has.
Not a night goes by without news of someone having their face blown off or pedestrians being sprayed by stray bullets.
The ideal perpetuated in Britain about Canada is nothing more than a myth. Canada has all the same problems as Britain and a lot more. At least the UK has history, culture and benign climate. Canada has none of those.

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Save the crap moron. I've dealed with bigger a**eholes than you and most of 'em live in Toronto.
Have a nice life with the other Calgary rednecks.

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Sounds like you made a bad decision and you've wasted much of your time here then.

That's a shame for you, we like it and the people very much.

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Thanks I will.

A word of advice: When you're in a hole, and trying to get out, stop digging :)

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What hole? I have a job waiting for me in Manchester and I can't wait frankly. Sorry but Canada cannot compare to Britain in any way shape or form, in terms of history or culture. I was extremely happy in Britain and shall be again. I'm happy. :D

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Fair enough no need to apologise, that's your opinion and you're entitled to it. It doesn't compare FOR YOU and YOUR LIFE.

Anyway, it's been fun chatting but I have to get some sleep as my job requires more than just posing the question "Would you like fries with that?"

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How utterly droll.... and predictable....
Again, it proves you cannot make any criticism of Canada whatsoever without some cretin making cheap personal remarks.
For your information my job offer is 35k running the IT dept for an architects office and my present job, poorly paid it may be is somewhat more high brow than fast food. Sorry to dissapoint.

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Absolutely, and if you're happy hanging about a load of slackjawed hicks for the rest of your life, good luck to you!

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That's sort of true but I think the Pacific Rim ecomony is a factor, especially in IT. A good friend of mine in Vancouver develops software and has just one BC-based employee, the rest are in Taiwan and China. They cost him about half the money for equal or better skills and have the benefit of being able to help develop products for not just Western, but SE Asian markets. This is not uncommon in Vancouver (and somewhat Victoria) BC.

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[QUOTE=Yasmina2005]Why have skilled worker immigrant category in the 1st place. Why make people immigrate.QUOTE]

Exactly who makes them immigrate ? Their own dreams, their buy-in to slick immigration consultants selling them dreams-in-a-PR-visa ? Do they undertake research and find out that they can't just sell up and drop their 'old' UK life down in Canada and have a hell of a fine time of it ? No-one makes 'em.

Some people want an easy life, some are greedy and see $ signs when they look at 'cheap' property prices, but they think little of the long term implications. I would bet that very few actually think what they want to offer Canada. Many (and many of those that fail in the PR application) will be greed-driven dreamers who you know just won't last the course. Off home, when the money starts to dry up.

Dreamers they are, Yoda listen to they should. Not shiny-suited snake oil salesmen.

Rich.

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Is Calgary really like Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi ? Urk, guess I missed the swamps and gators when we were there last ;)

Looked more like Texas to me with those cowboy boots and hats, all those good 'ol Texan boy oil barons wheeling and dealing and fine-dining on expense accounts in Hy's (??) steakhouse. Great fun having one's conversation overshadowed by bawling loudmouths berating the poor Quebecois waiter (who was very polite, helpful and conversational with us) for not having a bottle of a specific Portugese red, of which they would probably have absolutely no appreciation for anyway, oh and choking on the smoke from a foot-long ceegar. Subtle, they don't do.

Rich :zzz:

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Its what you make it!

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Think crap = makes it crap
Look crap = it will be crap
Think positive = is good
Think negative - is crap

:zzz:

Life is played out 90% in the mind and 10% on the street.
That's why the power of positive thinking is so influential.
Think + live longer be healthier wealthier happier more friends beter relationship.
Think - have crap life live shorter be ill poor unhappy lonely.
Make it what you want it to be.
Live for today and for tomorrow or regret yesterday.

Rich. :eek:

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Hang on...you're saying that you have a job waiting for you in Manchester 8 MONTHS in advance??? What? What kind of company agrees to hire someone that far in advance? And what requires 8 more months in a country you can't stand to be in? You can sell a house/car/assets etc. a heck of a lot sooner than that.

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Maybe your problenm with getting a job might have something to do with attitude!

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I can see seacreature's problem as I have lived it. I left a $60K US job as a system admin to come up here and met the same total lack of jobs and disinterest in my credentials. Yes, they don't like US degrees and experience any more than UK although they could easily check out your references via the phone. Heck, most of the companies here do business with the US daily! It is very frustrating to be made to feel that all your years of experience and education are worthless just because you crossed the border going north.

I never was willing to accept defeat and take an $8/hour crap job though, instead I decided to make my own job and be self employed. It took a bit over 3 years to get to the point where I was making decent money, but now I have been able to buy a house and things seem to be going well. Next week I even get to take my citizenship oath and become a dual US/CAN citizen. It took a long time, but I did it on my own and I have the satisfaction of choosing my own hours and being my own boss.

I would never say that Canada has no culture, but I came up from Alabama so just about anything seems better than there. :-) While I came under the skilled worker program, I moved up here because my fiance (now husband) lives here so I did have more incentive to stay than some. Yes, the violence in the streets seems to be increasing but consider that the city I moved from had a rate of 13 murders per 100,000 people per year and Toronto only has a rate of 1.8 murders per 100,000! Drive-by shootings into people's houses was almost a nightly occurrence there and I had the pleasure of having both my house and my car being broken into. I actually feel safer here.

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To quote my old Gran (bless her) - "absolute cod's wallop"

I suggest prsopective immigrants ignore all the above comments. I'm in Ontario, High Tech, no A's, Only 1 degree (to my shame) and am doing very nicely thankyou. The company I work for is constantly hiring (and not firing) and although other companies like Nortel have had lay-offs in the past, things are starting to change. Ottwawa is based on High-Tech, drive around the city and take a look at the properties, cars etc, etc. I personally have never seen the "Canadian Experience requirement" since I've been here and have hired several people myself - mainly immigrants. Word of advice to hi-tech people, Canadian grads are told to over sell themselves on their resumes, you have to compete with this but keep it true, if you are telecom, make sure you put other experience in too to make you look like you have a broader experience base. Seacreature has obviously had a bad time of it here for whatever reason - and consequently opinions are jaded.

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I'd be interested to know what A+ is.

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It is a certification that you get by taking a test that proves you know how to repair and troubleshoot PCs.
http://www.a-plus-certification-training-hott.com/

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The market is flooded with 'IT consultants' with nothing more than a few years experience. What a lot of companies are looking for is the right combination of experience and qualifications. Searching through sites such as Microsoft they are asking for MCSE & x number of years experience for jobs such as after sales technical support.

The jobs are there, it's just the matter of having the right combination of attributes that fit what the company wants. It works the same the world over. I have seen people in the UK get turned away from 1st line support jobs even though they have MCSE qualifications as it's just a piece of paper to say that you have learned the course material. I have seen MCSE qualified contractors who when it comes to a real life IT situation they struggle due to no practical experience.

I have to echo what other people are saying here with a lot of the battle is positive thinking as if you come across negative then no-one is going to hire you as all you will do is bring a bad element to a good working environment. you spend more of your time in work than you do at home generally so managers have to look out for their teams working atmosphere.

I have experience of people blaming their misfortune on the country they are in when it comes down to just making excuses for not keeping going when things are rough and throwing That person was actually blaming the UK for all of their problems and they had to be in the US as that's where their hopes and dreams were... well guess what they are now ...... Canada and has a successful job where he is being trained in a management development role in one of the major Canadian Banks and has just brought his first house. When you finally stop blaming things on a country and realise it's down to your own initiative and perseverance that gets you what you want.

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Seacreature, why are you waiting until April to return? I don't mean this as an attack, I am genuinely curious as to why you would stay an extra 8 months in a city you despise, especially if you have a job lined up in the UK. While I have not been in your position, I live with someone who has and I would be worried that your frustration re: jobs would sour your outlook on everything else in life, and may be a difficult attitude to get rid of, even once you are back in the UK. Is it not possible for you to go back early and have your partner join you in a few months?

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Oh. Thanks. A bit out of my area.

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The IT industry lost a lot of credibility due to the dot com fiasco with their bizarre business models and theories. People with a combination of IT and sound practical business experience are more valuable than pure techies.

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Just my two cents worth.

It seems to me that there are lots of reasons why people don't want to stay in Canada. Its probably not the fault of Canada or the fault of the person. Its just one of those things. Not anybody's fault. There are things about Canada that I like and there are things about England that I like.

It seems to me that its kind of dumb to turn this into some kind of a slanging match about Canada or individuals etc. etc.

So - it didn't work out - so what?? It's not the end of the world. But its not Canada's fault per se that it didn't work out - at least that is the way I see it.

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I agree with most of what seacreature has said. Canada is not a nirvana. It is a boring shitehole. It is hard to find decent work. There is no culture.

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In your opinion - those are not facts - they are just what you BELIEVE.

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This is a tough one - I can only think you are talking of Toronto - many people have problems with this poor city which is so unlike the rest of the country and most like the UK. I had trouble there once finding a restaurant that wasn't a spit-n-sawdust or $100 a steak. I wouldn't call Canada boring, there are few countries in the world as diverse. No culture!!!! your'e kidding, in every major city you will find pretty much every culture you could wish for, maybe your'e thinking of identity but even then I would disagree. As SC mentioned, no history; well that only really covers what we refer to as civilised history, it's a common joke that North America has no history just bad habits. Canada is a young country that is proud of it's heritage, I think if you have shown the attitude your comments highlight to resident Canadians you will have had a tough time. I certainly would not recommend "It is a boring shitehole" in front of the local hockey fraternity!!!

If you really feel this way, why are you here!!!!

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That sounds like much of the UK. Better scenery here, though, and it's possible to buy a house without mortgaging your grandchildren.

Since when were the Brits culture fanatics, anyway? I lived in London for 15 years and never saw anyone desperately trying to finish off their day's work in time to rush off to the latest avant-garde ballet.

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The culture to which they refer, is either the drinking culture or yob culture.

I doubt they are referring to an afternoon at Glyndebourne.