Tips for Newcomers from a Seasoned Newcomer

Tip # 1. Do not listen to negative people! As soon as you hear a negative comment from another immigrant, run as fast as you can.

2. Try to associate with people that have succeeded in what you now want to accomplish. ~ It is true that as soon as a Newcomer gets a good job, you would hardly hear back from him/her again. For some reason, most success stories just go under the radar. You could rarely see some high achievers in magazines. Well! Actually you can see some when a non-profit organization needs an advertisement toy to recreate a fake portrait of the “great job” they are doing to help us. And you know what? It is our fault. We need to help each other. We need to Network among us. We need to give each other a hand. We need to support each other. WE= You and Me and all other New Canadians.

Waiting game to get into Canada is unfair

by Lucy-Claire Saunders & Gurmukh Singh

The waiting time for people wanting to migrate to Canada is getting longer and longer, especially for immigrants from some countries including India. According to Citizenship and Immigration Canada figures, the waiting period for would-be immigrants has gone up by 20 per cent since 2004. Further, the waiting period varies widely across countries and immigration categories. If you are a skilled worker from Latin America you can enter Canada within 14 months. But if you are from India, you have to wait 62 months. One can get one’s parents and grandparents in Canada from London in 11 months. But one has to wait 45 months if they happen to be in India. Giving this information, Toronto MP Jim Karygiannis, who received it under the Access to Information Act, said it might take someone 2,300 times longer to come here if he applied from a particular country and under a specific category. Giving more examples, he said a dependent child from China could be cleared to enter Canada within four months, while it could take about three years for a dependent child in Cairo to come to Canada. Questioning the method and pace of application processing at different Canadian missions, the opposition MP said there should be no discrimination against any particular nation or profession. “Things should move at the same length of time — whether it’s from Greece, from Europe, from south Asia, or from China,” he said. Immigration lawyers and rights advocates said the long wait times are cruel and discriminatory. “The federal government is not telling people how long it will take for their applications to be processed,” said Richard Kurland, an immigration lawyer in Vancouver. “They only provide historical information, not prospective information.”

Immigrants have right to be angry

The business of trying to attract immigrants is a tough one for a small province like Nova Scotia. It is widely recognized that Nova Scotia needs to attract plenty of talented immigrants to fill the gaps in the workforce as the population ages and retires. Major cosmopolitan centres like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver don’t have a problem attracting immigrants, mainly because those centres already have sizable immigrant populations. Aside from the major cities, the general impression of Canada seems to be one of wilderness and open space. For Nova Scotia to attract talented individuals to come live here they must first be convinced that we have something more to offer beyond a quiet lifestyle. And so Nova Scotia developed a mentorship program, which, for a fee, was supposed to help immigrants become integrated into Nova Scotia society.

Foreign-trained nurses help keep units open

Edmonton's Royal Alexandra Hospital has found a way to cut the number of canceled surgeries by using foreign-trained nurses to bolster its staff, even as they wait to get accreditation in this country. In December, up to four of the hospital's 25 surgery units were closed at any one time because there weren't enough nurses to staff them. The hospital has cut that number in half, Dr. Doug Davey, chief of surgery at the hospital, told CBC Wednesday. Davey said it normally takes months for foreign-trained nurses to get their accreditation to practise in Alberta. In the meantime, the hospital has decided it will employ those awaiting accreditation as licensed practical nurses, who require less training.