Personal Narrative: Moving To Canada

The Portuguese immigrated to Canada around the 19th century. It all started in the year 1953, when a group of Portuguese pioneers immigrated to Canada (Moura, 2003). Once the first couple of Portuguese pioneers crossed the ocean to immigrate into Canada, others followed and sort of started a wave. However, in 1957 a volcano erupted, known as the Capelinhos, which end up making Portuguese families and pioneers move to North America (Morrison & James, 2009), because the living conditions had changed. Many Portuguese people immigrated to Canada in order to make a better living, looking for a job for them to survive and to not serve the war. This paper will discuss the Portuguese minority ethnic group in Canada, and to take a further look into

A young child, Serat migrated to Canada at age 3 from Somalia, East Africa. Living the Canadian dream and Canadian culture while living with her aunt to get a better life.

the main reason we immigrated to Canada is that Canada is a better country to live, its education, small population, kindness, fresh air,

I remember my first day in Canada like it was yesterday. The day I thought my dad had been hit by a car and my mom almost having a heart attack. It all started when we first got to the hotel, in Ontario, Mississauga. My father thought it would be a great idea to explore the area and buy some groceries. My mom, two brothers and I were exhausted due to a fourteen-hour flight from Dubai to Toronto so we decided to stay and take a nap. I woke up at 7 pm to silence. I thought my dad had come back and took a nap, but when I went to wake up parents, it was only my mother. At that point, I started freaking out, it’s been 4 hours since my father left. I woke up my mother and told her my dad hadn’t come back yet. My mother tried to call my father, but his phone was off. She then went to the security of the building and talked to him. The security guard asked my mother

Canada has continuously served as a home to immigrants and refugees from decade to decade harbouring people from a variety of cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The first set of immigrants to settle in the country came from Britain, the United States and from other nationalities mostly including immigrants from Europe who were either desperate to escape from religious or political turmoil or were simply attracted to Canada’s economic promise. Soon after the Canadian confederation in 1867, immigrants from Irish and Chinese backgrounds who occupied most of the country were used as workers and the demand for labourers to

Some were United Empire Loyalists, arriving here after being driven north by the revolution. Americans lured over the border by the prospect of easily available land. They had no strong connection to the Crown. If the United States had been successful in their endeavour it is likely that Canada would not have evolved as a separate country. As Eric Nicol said, “very little is known about the War of 1812 because the Americans lost it.”

Therefore, between the early 1950s and the mid-1960s, around 20,000-30,000 Italians immigrated to Canada each year. Over 75 percent of Italian immigrants to Canada came from Italy’s rural south; especially from the regions of Calabria, Abruzzi, Molise and Sicily in which three-quarters of these immigrants were small-scale farmers or peasants. Many Italians came to Canada on government-sponsored one-year contracts to work in industries with labor shortages, however, the majority of Italian immigrants during this period arrived through the process of chain-migration in which family members already in Canada sponsored their relatives from abroad. In fact, more than ninety percent of Italians that entered Canada between 1946 and 1967 were sponsored

We learned some of the temporary and permanent ways people come to Canada such as: studying in Canada for two years as well as having one year of work experience, being sponsored by Family or work, and having a visa (Student and visitor). As well as that all sounds sadly things are not always so easy for an immigrant or refugee. Normally they work in jobs where the labour is intense and the pay minimal, get disrespected by their community and have a lack of resources available to them due to the fact that they might not be able to speak English fluently if at all. Some who were doctors in their home country would find it near impossible to get the same profession again in Canada. Even with the hardships, they continue on to make a better life for

Although I am Canadian and still carry Canadian traits, adopting new traits from being in a different environment has helped me grow and become a better individual. Someone who doesn't move will forever lack certain traits because you are not exposed to different environments. Being from a different country, I have different thoughts on an American than Americans, but after being in America my perspective has altered. Being able to adapt to situations and environments, just as the frontiers had, has lead me to take more pride in my individual self. Going trough life significant life experiences has made me appreciate values of Americans like freedom and justice. The western mythology has helped shape this nation and is responsible for many

Growing up as a military brat wasn't easy, there were many places we had to go to and we didn't have a choice. One of those places was here ,Illinois, and I was ten when we made the move here.This move was probably the hardest thing I have ever physically gone through considering all of my mom and I's stuff was lost in the ocean because the place we moved from was Hawaii.So, when we got here me and mom both didn't have our stuff but the rest of my family did.To make matters worse my dad was being shipped out to South Korea and we didn't have a house. For a whole year we were homeless,we put what was left of our stuff into storage and moved in with grandma. As terrible as that year was, it taught me a lot about what some people actually live

I hope to acquire new knowledge about immigration and hear different perspectives and stories about why people decided to move and start a new life here in Canada. In addition, I want to understand if the goals that the Immigrant Workers Center seeks to achieve would contribute and affect the lives of immigrants positively. Personally, I would like to hear other stories, reasons, and motivations for immigrations, than the one that I already know due to my parents. One could decide to move to Canada for the future of their children, due to issues of safety in their country or because they simply seek change. My parents came here for a better future, but each immigrant has his story and I am interested in learning their story – their path. This

Canada is a country that is known as a "mosaic" of people and cultures, meaning; it opens it arms to immigrant families and gives them the freedom to express their own cultural values, ideas, beliefs and customs. It is this system that welcomes thousands and thousands of immigrants a year with open arms and the idea of a better life. This idea however, is sometimes not always as easy as it is thought to be. Though Canada is an amazing country for immigrants to start a new life and get better education, health care, and job opportunities, immigrant families are met with many challenges before they are able to become accustom to their new life. It is important to understand the true difficulty of the "Immigrant Experience" and the impact it has on families including adults as well as children. If it is easier to understand the difficulties immigrant families go through in search of a better life in Canada there can be more resources made to help them. It is important to take into consideration each individual difficulty that is faced and properly research each factor in order to have a better understanding on how to make the complete economic and societal integration of immigrants happen faster. There is a number of categories that relate to the integration of immigrants into society and a number of steps they must take to be a part of Canadian society. In order to understand these steps they have to be thoroughly researched.

I also have always wanted to live in Canada because I want to try and

Canada is a multicultural and multiethnic country where people from diverse parts of the world have chosen to live. Chinses Canadian is the third largest immigrants group to come to Canada, after immigrants from Great Britain and Europe. It is estimated there are nearly 1.5 million Chinese Canadians in Canada.1 In the early years, Chinese came to Canada because of the gold rush and working opportunities for railroads construction. Later, the Chinese were not as welcomed upon their arrival in Canada, as the Canadian Government enacted with Immigrations Acts to restrict the number of Chinese immigrants.

As I walked to the parking lot where my mom had arrived to pick me up from school, my sister ran out of the car, ran towards me and yelled excitedly, “We’re going to Canada!” Having grown up in Kuwait for my whole life of 15 years, I could hardly believe my sister’s words. Going to Canada! I had only been out of the country twice, each time just to vacation and visit family in the Philippines where both my parents are from. I had always imagined what life would be like outside of Kuwait, and now it was finally going to be real. My 15-year old self was devastated - We were leaving the only home I had known for 15 years. It did not take long for my sisters’ excitement to die when we realized that we would be leaving our friends and everything we’ve ever known and not returning for a long time. Life in Kuwait for 15 years was comfortable and we were more than financially stable. Moving to Canada without a job offer in place meant that we would have to start from the beginning all over again. Goodbyes were hard but my parents encouraged us to see the joys of moving to a place where we could start over and become accepted citizens of a country. Arriving in Canada, I experienced the biggest culture shock of my life. Vancouver, BC was cold, wet, and loud. I had thought adjusting would be relatively easy; I spoke English with a slight accent but I was very shy that it confused some of the other kids to think I couldn’t speak English. I did not understand the culture, which took a