By Farzana Chowdhury, Bindu, member of Adhunika.

It seems like nowadays everyone wants to emigrate somewhere else from Bangladesh. Like me a lot of Bangladeshis are immigrating to Canada. When I go back home to Bangladesh, my friends and family tell me that I am far better off living in Canada than I would be living in Bangladesh. When I ask my friends or family members why they want to emigrate to Canada or North America, the answer is usually, to provide a better life for their children, to give them a secure environment and also for themselves. When I ask myself this question, why I moved to the States and subsequently to Canada, my answer is different. I got married and moved to the States where my husband was a student. Truly, North America never attracted me in the way it attracts many people back home, I loved living in Bangladesh, and I had a wonderful career.

When I moved to the States I didn’t have the maturity or experience to realize what it really means to leave one’s own country and what it takes to settle down in a new country.  Now after living abroad for ten years I can say one thing, it takes lot of courage. People who are immigrating to Canada are usually in their late thirties, having a solid career back at home, and being used to the privileged life style. For those people to start a new life from scratch really takes great courage.

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In this piece of writing I will try to share some of my own experience from the last ten years and give some tips for people who are planning to move not only to Canada, but also to another country.Â

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The first and one of the most challenging barriers or obstacles for immigrants I would say is language. Most of the educational institutions in Bangladesh still teach in Bengali, very few institutions teach in English. So, even if an immigrant has a Master degree and is qualifying under the skill category class does not mean that he or she will speak and understand English well enough to communicate. I always considered myself to be good in English. I started schooling in Wales, UK, and never thought communicating in English would be a barrier for me. But surprisingly, when I went to the mall or the grocery store I couldn’t understand what they were saying and I felt embarrassed. My suggestion would be to watch English movies and Sitcoms. Watching sitcoms has helped me immensely to understand North American humour and also has enriched my vocabulary. Â

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The second challenging factor is the cultural shock. According to, www.wikipedia.org culture shock is a term used to describe the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, confusion, etc.) felt when people have to operate within an entirely different cultural or social environment, such as a foreign country. People who are emigrating from Asia to North America will face cultural shock, as both the cultures are totally opposite. Reading about the country and its culture before starting is a good idea. Nowadays anyone can go online and search for information about the country they are immigrating to.

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The third barrier that I have seen in the immigrant class is not being open-minded about different cultures. Canada is truly a country of immigrants. The diversity amongst its population is very visible. Bangladeshis tend to mingle with Bangladeshis only, tend to stay very close to their own people, by doing this they close doors and miss out on the opportunity to learn from different cultures.Â

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The fourth is trying to adapt to any kind of job. I remember when we moved from Minnesota to Toronto, Canada me and my husband were quite confident that we both would get a job in our own fields, especially my husband completing both his undergraduate and graduate studies from the States and having US work experience as a system analyst for the last two years. But remarkably, it took him three months to get a job as a system analyst. Wherever we went recruiters said that we do not have Canadian experience. I would suggest, keep your options open. Start any job that will help you to improve your English vocabulary and also will add as a Canadian experience on your resume.

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Citizenship and Immigration Canada which is known as CIC, has various programs such as free English classes, job search seminars, resume writing etc for new comers. All immigrants should avail these services that CIC offers. One can only benefit from these programs, it will help to know and understand the culture, country and the language better.

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Farzana Chowdhury, Bindu residing in Toronto, Canada.