r/juresanguinis

Again. The experience is not the same for everyone. I keep pretty amazing Swiss friends with me. They are mostly from Lausanne and Ticino.

Depending on the place, and the circumstances.

In 2 years in Switzerland I made many Swiss friends, amazing people. It took me ~3 to 6 months to adapt and then I started making friends.

After that, 2 years in Quebec and I haven’t made a single friend from Quebec. All my friends are expats and they don’t have friends from Quebec either.

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.