boussole

Hi ,


I'm a geomatic engineer from a north african country and now in Canada for almost three years . I can say that after all that time my immigration was a failure . Knowing my potential ( I'm bilingual , I speak french and english + 3 other languages , university degree + courses in a college in Alberta+ full time courses in the university of Calgary + master in Management in Quebec ) , and considering all the things I did so that the society consider you as part of it (made friends , went out with women from all sizes, left my religion, embraced the new values, integrated sport clubs , I even joined an homosexual sport team , so I can say "yeah, i'm integrating myself"....) I still ask myself what went wrong , I came as a "bourgeois" and became a pathetic miserable eternal student ...I know that I came with an almost "0" experience , but it seems to me that I'm loosing my youth (I'm now 30) in this country .
I don't wanna sound as a professional complainer, but I tried to work all kind of jobs to get the "experience", believe it or not ...the handsome, neat , intellectual , well built man I am can't get any job even as a dishwasher sometimes, nothing! nada ! rien!
I came to the conclusion that ...well....may be it's my name , my arab name , with all what's going on , may be canadians are just watching the news too much and it's affecting their way of hiring , I heard that some companies in Quebec are saying to the hunting companies "no more arabs please " .
My question is : if I change my name to "David" would it be a way to have the career I wanted to make in this country?

all the "discours" , Canada is a tolerant country , Canada is that , Canada is this , I believe in some of it , but I think that the cosmopolitain, apatride man I am is just not for this country ...the communautarian Canadian policy is just a mess . I didn't know that the policy here was " live with your community or die " ....sounds like the 3rd world I come from.

CalgaryAMC

Try Europe.

dingbat

So true. Why should you change your name? Be proud of your heritage and stuff the xenophobes. Having said that, I have heard the "no arabs" thing over and over lately. Most Europeans wouldn't bat an eyelid if you wandered around with the name O.B.Laden on your resume, as long as you can do the job.

becan

I see that you consider yourself cosmopolitan, suave, educated and perhaps not willing to put up with any nonsense, certainly as far as your professional life is concerned! my friend perhaps you should give Toronto a thought! it is the best that Canada can get for someone like yourself i think ( also based on the vibes that I get about other places) !

And i guess I understand your feeling about being an eternal student, a professional complainer etc.... infact i found it a bit funny as well....
me too remained a student until very recently and going into my thirties as well.....i stopped complaining only recently too, when i finally put an end to my so called studenthood AFTER i came to Canada. My sob story, though was in relation to the UK, where i genuinely wanted to pursue a job after my degree there, when I was 23, ready to make a life! but i couldn't [ due to strong regulations against 'non-preferred area' students seeking work, the state of the industry and fear of immigration (even from fairly sophisticated, well intended and focussed individuals!) )and ended up being a professional student! and desperate complainer, until i left it recently....
so EU may not be an option after all
here in canada, i guess what you can do, is find a way of stop getting too desperate insofar as job search goes, and even if you do apply for low rung jobs apply where you think you'd love to work or atleast you think you remotely do...so if you don't like (or love) being a dishwasher don't even go close to it....
find employers and businesses you think you'd feel most comfortable with, even if the job they have on offer aren;t commensurate with your qualifications etc. and before anything else, try keep the negatives out, and focus on positives things about work, its interesting aspects and things like that..
perhaps life would be better then.

that's my two cents.

Alexandra

I must agree with CalgaryAMC (I've been doing a lot of that lately, maybe it's the Calgary community spirit! ). Try Europe, you'd be better off. I've never heard of 'no arabs' policy, but I've heard of a lot of professional people not being able to get a job. My advice: cut your losses, go to Europe.