I’ve been in Canada since July on a Working Holiday Visa.

In our media, Canada is always portrayed as a dream country. Yes of course, it’s beautiful here (Rockies, nature) but it also has a lot of downsides.

The quality of food is incomparable to my home country and the food prices are even higher here.

I thought rent prices back home were high, but here (except for small towns on the prairie), you have to share an apartment with 3 people and still pay the same amount as getting a 2-bedroom apartment alone back home.

Then 5 weeks of paid vacation + 11 paid holidays (weekends are generally free, there is no business open at Sundays), when you’re sick, you’re sick, but you still get paid.

Canadians are polite that is true, but what I’ve noticed is that people often make false promises just to be nice.

Making friends here as a foreigner is challenging and perhaps I’m homesick being on the other side of the world.

I’m considering abandoning everything and flying back home. While at first it was really nice here (especially the traveling in the summer), the drawbacks are becoming apparent.

Additionally, my education isn’t recognized here and honestly I don’t want to work at Tim Hortons or Walmart just to „survive“ and with much lower QOL than in Europe.

But on the other hand, I’m afraid of missing out if I fly back home now.

Idk what i should do :(

Any suggestions?

  • ecopapacharlie@alien.top
    BEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    I read your post and it almost seems as if I wrote it! I couldn’t identify more. Before coming to Quebec, I was sold the “Canadian dream” as one of the best places to live.

    As soon as I arrived, I found a very different reality. At the beginning I made a big effort to try to accept it, but two years have passed and I feel just as lost as the day I arrived. And it has been two years of constant disappointments.

    And not only disappointments, I am from South America, before coming to Quebec I was living and studying in Switzerland. Unlike my previous experience, in Quebec I have had to suffer constant attacks, discrimination, racism and xenophobia. I find this as a society that will never accept me.

    I understand how you feel, and I’m not surprised that you want to return to Europe. Personally, I am waiting to finish my PhD to leave this place, since like you, I have no opportunities here. The system does not recognize my professional experience abroad, nor my academic degrees, and among so many microaggressions, they decided to call my experience and academic training “atypical.” It hurts.

    So I’m leaving Canada in one year, and yes, coming back to Europe.