Personal Narrative: Welcome To Canada

Our family’s immigration to Canada started with my auntie. She is the first person came to Canada in my family, and then my uncle, my auntie’s family, and finally my family. She works as a nurse in Saskatoon. She has been here for fourteen years. My uncle arrived after her. Soon after, my uncle started to apply immigration for my family. Our application of immigration was a long process. We started to apply when I was grade 3, and the application was approved when I was in grade 3 of senior high school. (grade 9 in Canadian high school) In fact, my parents did not willing to immigrate to Canada. They were satisfied with the life in China. Canada was a totally strange country to them, different language and culture. My uncle told my parents

It was a polluted, blazing hot morning and I felt like I had just been working out for the whole night. As I got ready to go to school, putting on my pollution mask, and taking my bike out, I was concerned not about the teachers and getting lost, but about fitting in. This wasn’t perfect Canada anymore, this was chaos filled, contaminated, messed up China! Everyone was so different from the people in Canada, they spoke quite rudely, they wore shaggy cloth, and their shelter was very traditional compared to the ‘modern style houses’ in Canada. You could say that my school was a giant playground with a playground mansion and an additional indoor playground. As I entered the humid environment of the Mansion, strange figures zoomed around

In my early tween years, I had won a National Canada Day Poster Challenge set by the Government of Canada to show what Canada means to me. I spent hours after school on trying to make this poster represent my identity, my history, and how I see the future of Canada. My little heart exploded when my art teacher broke the news, and I remember sitting on a stool in front of the poster smiling giddily as my father talked to the Minister of Canadian Heritage about what would come next. I visited the nation's capitol for the first time with my family the coming summer, and the experience was unforgettable. We toured the Parliament, the Peace Tower, and we saw my poster hanging in the Children's Museum of Ottawa on that trip. It was the first time

America’s gift to my generation is amazing because veterans have used all their potential for us. They fought for us to be alive right now. Their gift to us is much more than I expected. I am so thankful and I appreciate all they have done for us.

Approximately five years ago I decided to come to Canada to further my education, this decision will probably be one of the best decisions I have ever made, my knowledge, self-confidence, thinking, behavior and overall look on life improved exponentially. I have even been able to discover more interesting things about myself and want

I was born on November 22nd of 1999 in Beruwala, Sri Lanka into a wonderful family. When I was seven years old, my home was destroyed by the tsunami and my family got the chance to move to Canada. When I heard the word Canada for the first time, only three words came to my mind; snow, cold and igloo. Later I learned that there was much more to this country. Before coming to Canada, I was really happy as I waved goodbye to my grandparents, my relatives, and my homeland. Unfortunately, I did not realize that it would be the last time that I would see all of them. Since arriving in Canada, I have attended a French elementary school in Montreal named Barthelemy- Vimont from grade two to four. As my parents wanted me to know both bilingual languages, we moved

In May I signed a security access form that had September 2nd written as my last day.

Living in America gives us many freedoms and many blessings. I started my life in the Ukraine. This situation or circumstances I do not know. I came to America when I was 18 months old. A nice family, who lived in America, changed my life by adopting me. Being an

Living in America has its ups and downs. The different culture and people is what makes America to me. Every day I learn something new while I go to school in America. Personally, as the days go back I carless about humanity and more about myself and how to improve myself. Money has become a major need for me recently and I don’t believe in love anymore. Sometime I just sit and think what kind of person I be like if I keep living in America. I’m happy I can here for school, I don’t think I would know this must about life. And as the days pass by I learn so much more about myself that it makes me question if I ever knew anything to begin with. Unfortunately, I still wonder what life would have been like if I did my college education in Nigeria.

I feel that America’s greatest gift to my generation would be freedom. Freedom has technically given me life, an education, and has taught me important life lessons. I would not want to live in a country that is not free.

Living in Prince Edward Island, as a citizen, I have a lot of concerns for the future of my land. In the province of Canada, voices for confederation are coming out. This idea sounded exciting at first, after all who wouldn't want a strong country that unites all people, but for us things are different. Imagine if we handed our money and resources, or even right and prosperity to the government, how much would we get back. Our voice would still be unheard since we are of small population, very insignificant in the united government. We are already stable in development, with all these timber, farming, ship building business and more as we are developing a strong tie with Britain and United States. I’m worried that if we joined, our peaceful

A few weeks ago I was sitting in my old dusty chair watching the news. I was just thinking about the day’s work ahead of me, and wondering if my body will make it through the day. I heard a car door slam. I imagined that it was my wife pulling in, but that would be impossible. I wondered who it could be. I do not get many visitors this time of year, not in the off-season. Could it be the fella that was on the news? They said a girl was murdered in Iowa and the suspect got away, and may be on his way to Canada. Then a loud knock on the door filled the empty room. I got out of my chair slowly, like a pregnant woman would, and made my way to the door. I could hear a creak with every step I took, and only God knows if it came from the floor, or these knobby knees.

We woke up early in the morning and head to the immigration center. The facility was bustling with immigrants waiting for their name to be called out for the interview. Then, the door to the immigration opened, a heavily build officer came out with the list and called out my name first for the interview. I remember feeling cold sweats on my hand and when I went in, officer introduced himself to me. There was a translator available for me and he started asking various questions about my origin and the reason for coming to Canada. My only answer throughout was to have a better future and create an identity for myself. After a grueling twenty-minute, immigration officer motioned towards the camera for a picture for the identification card and then, he uttered the three beautiful words, “Welcome to Canada.” That moment has stuck with me throughout and I remember tearing up because it made me realize of my situation and my chance of getting an identity. After that, I waited for my other family members to finish their interview. Towards the night, my family and I traveled to Toronto where we do not know anyone and requested one of the fellow Tibetan refugees that if we can spend the night in their relative’s place. Five of us huddled into a bachelor apartment for the night and then the next morning, we went to find an apartment around the area. Due to my mother’s unemployment, we requested for social assistance and survived our first

A little reminder: If you copy any of my work, I will find you and report you. And if I offend anyone, I'm sorry; I would never try to do that.

Everyone in Canada has a different story of how they came here. In this report, I will be explaining how my family immigrated to Canada, as well as the difficulties and challenges of adapting to Canadian life. I will also talk about the difference between the two enriched cultural identities from Sri Lanka to Canada and Switzerland to Canada. As the last point, I will explain my family feelings at the moment of becoming Canadians. My family’s experience as immigrants helped shape who I am.