Robert, we’ve been Facebook friends for a few years now. As you live in Canada, I wanted to ask you a few things. My son and his wife are very seriously thinking about leaving the U.S. and moving to Canada. I would appreciate it very much if you could tell me what it’s like to live there? Especially for someone leaving the U.S.? Would it be very difficult to assimilate? Are there very many Americans that have moved there? And if so, how are they accepted by Canadians? What is the job market like there? My son has a college degree in accounting and computer information systems. His wife has worked for a bankruptcy law firm. I would appreciate any information you could give me that I could pass on to my son. Thank you in advance.
Phantom, you’ve given an eloquent and succinct description of the phases of culture shock. You’ve obviously experienced it. What I find very interesting is that the situation under discussion involves two cultures that should have only a small “distance” between them, so I wonder what are some of the “deep cultural assumptions of Canadians” that would make American immigrants “feel like they live in the Twilight Zone”?
Keeping in mind that deep cultural assumptions are gut-level values that cannot be overcome in an individual; on the face of it one wouldn’t think there are so many differences between Canadians and Americans; yet lately I sense that’s probably quite wrong.
As one of the only Montrealers here in the comments, I feel the need to speak up and tout the city. You may read STAY AWAY FROM QUEBEC but let me tell you something, although I love this site the majority have a bias for Ontario and a larger bias against Quebec. I won’t bother to even try to defend the politics because I don’t agree with the majority of it myself.
If you don’t speak french and you’re thinking about immigrating to La Belle Province your best bet is Montreal although Gatineau (bordering Ottawa) and Quebec are options.
I’ll speak from my own experience of Montreal. Even if you don’t speak french, you can easily integrate. The majority of Montrealers if not expats or immigrants themselves are good natured and even if you’re stumbling in french the fact that you’re trying and willing to break the language barrier goes a long way. We know the language is more complicated then the queen’s mother tongue (fact that it will also help you with the other romance language is another incentive).
Be ready to learn a little bit about the Habs even if you don’t want to because the Centre Bell is always full and it shows. The Metro is a bit capricious and a smart thing to get is a smart phone with GPS just so you can use Google Maps to plan how to get your destination. The most annoying part of Montreal is getting off an on the island. Once you’re here, remember you can’t turn right on stops but you should ditch your car the moment you get onto the island anyways. You really don’t need it. During the non snow months(which are not a lot compared to my hometown of Saguenay) you can rent a bike from stations all across the city but a real bike is far superior.
Montreal is known for it’s bagels, smoked meat, poutine and the space ship we call the Olympic Stadium as for employment, there is a lot of construction going on, large IT sector and as far as I know while not as rosy as Alberta finding a job, it’s not that hard to find something if you’re competent.
Feel free to send me an email if you’d like to know more.
Tips for ensuring the happiness of Americans emigrating to Canada
1) Be quick to explain your move in a way that would flatter Canadians’ anti-American prejudice
2) Say you adore Canadian healthcare and throw in some examples of the horrors of American healthcare.
3)Say you are in favo(u)r of respecting the cultures of immigrants except the American culture
4) You hate guns, of course
5) you don’t like summer, of course
6) anything along the line of anti US imperialism works
7) wear an arab head scarf and work in conversation supporting Palestine.
8) a little anti semitism goes a long way
Ex-pat
Ex TO
I use firefox and some nights at 12:00 exactly or 12:30 exactly, firefox stops working and does not load a page. The internet connection is perfectly fine though because it says excellent. I am connected to a home router and the signal strength is always excellent. I do not know why this happens at exactly 12:00 or 12:30 on my desktop time but it’s a pain. I’ve tried “ping”ing and everything looks fine..