“Should I move to Canada?”

205,748 views ・ 2024-09-19

English with Emma


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hello. My name is Emma, and today we are going
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to talk about whether you should move to Canada.
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Many people want to come to Canada. As some of
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you know, I'm from Canada, I live in Toronto,
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and so I thought it would be a great idea
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to make a video about what it is like moving
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to Canada and living in Canada. Many students
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ask me, "Is Canada a good country to move
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to? Is it a good country to immigrate to?" My answer is always, "Well, it depends on
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what your goals are." So, I'm going to talk
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a little bit about that later. Before I talk
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about this video, I also wanted to tell you a
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bit about my background. So, I teach English,
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I have many students from many countries around
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the world, I teach immigrants English, I am
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the granddaughter of an immigrant, so my grandfather
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immigrated to Canada, and I have a lot of
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friends who are immigrants. In fact, more than half of Toronto... More than half of
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the people from Toronto were actually born in other countries. So, we are a place and
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a city of immigrants. So, in this video, I'm going to talk a little bit about life
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in Canada. We'll talk about the first question
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a lot of people wonder, "Are Canadians rich?
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Are there jobs in Canada? What about housing?
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Is it easy to buy a house or find an apartment?
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What are the good things about living in Canada,
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and what are the bad things?" I hope by the
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end of this video, you will have more information
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to help you make your decision about moving
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to Canada.
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All right. So, one thing many people in the
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world believe is that all Canadians are rich,
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and if you come to Canada, it is easy to become
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rich; you just need to work hard. Unfortunately,
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this is not exactly true. So, let's talk a bit about this. The Canadian dollar, so the
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Canadian currency, is very strong. So, when Canadians go to other countries, we often
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can buy quite a lot of things because we have
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a strong currency. But here's the problem.
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When you live in Canada, everything is very expensive. So, I'll give you some examples
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of this. Let's start here. So, in Canada, in
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2022, the average salary was about $41,000
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US. So, that's what the average Canadian made.
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There's some Canadians that make more money
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than this, and there's a lot of Canadians who
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make less money than this. Now, the problem
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is you might think, "Well, that's a lot of money." But if you think how much money a
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house is in Canada, it's over $800,000 US.
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You might think, "Well, what about if I rent?"
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Rent is also extremely expensive in this
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country. Food is very expensive. Pretty much
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everything is very expensive. So, you make a lot of money, but then you lose most of
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your money every month because of the cost of daily living. So, yes, Canadians make a
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lot of money in general, but we also spend a
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lot of money on rent, food, transportation.
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It's an expensive country to live in. We also
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have very high taxes. So, a lot of the money
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you get goes back to the government. So, again,
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life in Canada is very expensive, so it might
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seem like Canadians are rich. When many immigrants
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come here, they start to work, and they think,
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"Great. I'm making so much money." But then they have to spend all the money they make
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on the cost of daily living and on rent. So, it's a very expensive country.
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A lot of people don't realize also that Canada
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has a problem with homelessness. There's many
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people who are poor in Canada and actually
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live on the streets. You might not know this
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because when you think of Canada, you probably
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picture a beautiful country with a lot of
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nature. That exists, but in the cities, many
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cities have problems with homelessness. It
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might even be worse than where you're from, or there might be less homeless people, but
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I can tell you, Canada has a lot of homeless people.
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So, let's learn a little bit more about this
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country and whether you should move here or
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not. Okay, so a lot of people want to know, "Is it easy to find a job in Canada?" Well,
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here is what the problem is. In Canada, we
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actually need many immigrants. We have a lot
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of jobs and not enough people to work the
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jobs. We really need doctors, we need nurses,
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we need engineers, we need people in IT, we need construction workers, we need people.
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It's a big problem here. There are a lot of
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jobs, but here is the bigger problem. Canada
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has a problem with red tape. "Red tape" might
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be a new word for you. What red tape means
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is bureaucracy. There's many people who come to
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Canada who were doctors, they were engineers,
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they have great skills. We could really use
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them, but the problem is because of regulations,
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paperwork, visa requirements, college rules,
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maybe translation of education, a lot of people
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come to Canada with great skills, but they
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cannot work in these professions, even though
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they want to, and the reason is because of red
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tape. For example, imagine you are a doctor in
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your country. You come to Canada and you want to
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be a doctor in Canada. You know we need doctors
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here. The problem is to become a doctor, you will
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have to go through many different tests. It could
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take years. It takes a lot of money. Your previous
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experience might not count, and so even though you
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have this great experience, you might not succeed
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in becoming a doctor in Canada. This, to me,
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is heartbreaking. It's very frustrating because we
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need people. There's people who have the skills,
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but for some reason, we're not getting these
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people in the professions we need them in.
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So, if you want to learn a little bit more about
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immigration, my colleague Alex actually has a
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good video where he talks to somebody who helps
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immigrants come to Canada. So, you can check out
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that video and learn more if you're interested.
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The bottom line is for many people, they come to
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Canada, they can't find the job they want, and
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they actually leave Canada, or they work in an
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industry completely different because they can't
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do what they were trained to do. Okay, so let me
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tell you a little bit about some of the good
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things about Canada because there are a lot of
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good things about living in Canada. First of all,
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Canada is a pretty safe country. There are crimes,
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yes, but there are less crimes than maybe in other
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countries or other places. I like the fact that as
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a woman, I can walk around in the evening time
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alone and still feel pretty safe. You have to be
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careful, but it's overall safer than a lot of places
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in the world. Canada is also very multicultural,
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especially some of the cities like Vancouver,
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Toronto, and Montreal. We have many immigrants
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who come to Canada, so we are used to immigrants.
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There are different restaurants with different
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types of foods from around the world. You can hear
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different languages being spoken in these cities.
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Overall, Canadians love immigrants, and so we are
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used to immigrants, we love immigrants coming here,
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we love learning about different cultures and
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different beliefs, so we're very welcoming
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towards people from other countries. Another
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positive about living in Canada is freedom.
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You have the freedom to say what you want to say
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or to express your beliefs. We accept people from
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different political beliefs, different religious
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beliefs, different sexual orientations, different
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races. So, overall, if there's... The beautiful
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thing about Canada is there's a lot of freedom,
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especially compared to other places, so some
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people like to come here for that reason.
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Another good thing about Canada is nature.
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There's a lot of nature here. Even in the cities,
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like Toronto, where I'm from, there's a lot of
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green space, lots of parks, you can see wildlife,
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so it's a great country for people who love nature. In fact, many Canadians during the
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summertime go to the forest to cabins or cottages,
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they go camping, they go on fishing trips, so these
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are popular pastimes. So, if you like nature,
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this is a great country to visit or move to.
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We have great libraries in Canada, especially in
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the cities. I mention this because when immigrants
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come here, you can get a lot of information, a
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lot of resources, sometimes even free English
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lessons through the libraries, so they're always
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a great thing to check out if you come here.
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Another thing that is good about living in Canada
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is we have a lot of support for people who have
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disabilities. It's not perfect, but it might
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be better than the supports in other countries.
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So, I'll give you an example. I had one student
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who was in a wheelchair, and I remember when he
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came to Canada, his world opened up because he
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was able to take the bus to different places.
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They have special buses for people in wheelchairs,
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so he could go to different parks, things were
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accessible. So, he really enjoyed coming to Canada
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because where he was from, there wasn't a lot,
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but coming to Canada for people with disabilities,
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there can be a lot more supports or more
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accessibility. Another thing I just wanted to
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mention was healthcare. So, Canada has a healthcare
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system where, in general, because we pay high
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taxes, in general, we don't have to pay for a lot of
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our healthcare. If I want to go to a doctor, I
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don't have to pay. If I need a surgery, in general,
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I don't need to pay. If I have to go to the
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hospital, I don't need to pay. So, this is very...
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this is amazing in a lot of ways, especially if
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you don't have insurance or you don't have a lot
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of money. Having free healthcare is great. The
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problem, this is why I put a question mark,
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is there's a downside to this, and that is that
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sometimes there are long wait times to see a
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doctor or to get a surgery. So, on the one hand,
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it's really good, things are free in general, but
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on the other hand, you might have to wait or you
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might have difficulty finding a family doctor.
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So, there's good and bad when it comes to the
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healthcare system. So, I'm just going to tell you
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a little bit more about immigrating to Canada
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and what that might be like, and hopefully this
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will help you make a decision. Okay, so let's talk
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about some of the negative aspects of living in
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Canada or immigrating here. For many immigrants,
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the weather can be a big surprise. Canada can be
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very cold in the wintertime. The main thing I
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notice, though, is the weather really changes.
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So, it can be suddenly very cold, and then a week later, very hot. Then it's raining,
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and then it's snowing, and then it's perfect
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weather, and everybody's happy. So, you may
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come from a country where things are usually
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the same. In Canada, the weather really changes.
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I think, on the one hand, though, because of
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global warming, many places are getting very,
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very hot. Many places are becoming too hot. I
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think Canada might actually be a good country
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to be in in the future if some of these things continue to happen.
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Transportation. One of the issues with living in Canada is it's a big country,
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so there's a lot of difficulties when it comes
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to transportation. If you want to travel between
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cities, it can be very big distances, so you might
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have to drive a lot. Even if you live in the city,
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like, for example, I live in Toronto, to get to
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work, it can be very difficult because we only
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have a certain number of highways, everybody
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takes the same highways, so there's a lot of
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traffic jams and a lot of very long commutes.
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So, many people find it difficult to get around,
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especially on workdays, just because there's a lot of traffic.
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Rent can be a big problem in Canada, especially
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in the cities like Vancouver and Toronto.
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Rent is expensive here. I think... And these
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numbers frequently change and increase,
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but when I last checked, the average cost of a
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one-bedroom apartment, so an apartment with just
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one bedroom in Toronto, was $2,100 per month.
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Now, even trying to find an apartment can be very
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difficult. A lot of people try to find an apartment, there's not enough apartments,
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so there's a shortage of housing and apartments.
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So, this can be very stressful, and it can be
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really hard on immigrants because they come here and they can't find a place to live.
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So, before you come to Canada, really, really think about where you will live,
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and do you have enough money for rent for the first year you're living here.
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Finally, another thing I wanted to mention
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about maybe some of the negatives about Canada
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is we have a problem with career colleges. So, in Canada, we have universities,
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like the University of Toronto, or the University
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of British Columbia, or McGill University. These
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are great universities, and, you know, they
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have great professors, they have a lot of great
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programs. We also have what we call "career colleges". So, these are not universities,
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they are these almost fake colleges that are
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created. They try to get a lot of international
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students, they do not have good professors, they
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don't have good programs. The diploma in Canada
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is not seen as useful or, you know, it's seen as a scam. There's a lot of fraud
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with these colleges. So, the government is trying to close down these colleges,
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but they keep coming up. So, if you are coming
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to Canada for education, please be careful.
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Look at the reviews for the university, make sure it's a real university.
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So, be careful because some of these career colleges charge a lot of money,
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and they're not good programs. So, these are
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some of the issues with moving to Canada.
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I've talked about some of the positives of living in Canada.
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So, should you move here? Is Canada a good
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place to live? I would say, again, it depends.
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Many people believe they will come here, they'll
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be very rich, they'll have a great house,
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life will be easy, and everything will be perfect. I don't think that's true.
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I think that it's difficult to be an immigrant
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in Canada. I know a lot of people come to Canada
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and then leave Canada because they find the life here too difficult.
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On the other hand, I think that there's a lot of good reasons to come to Canada.
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I think that if you are looking for a safe
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country with freedom, I think that if you are
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looking for a country where it might be a good
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place to have children and raise your children
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in a good environment, I think there's a lot of positives about living in Canada.
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So, I think you need to ask yourself, "Why am I immigrating?" and then decide
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if the reasons for immigration match with the Canadian life.
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So, thank you so much for watching this video.
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We talked about a lot of different things.
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For those of you who have immigrated to Canada,
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please write in the comments below about your
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experiences. I think it's a very good topic,
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and I think people could really benefit from
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understanding if you had a good experience
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moving to Canada, or if you had a bad experience
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moving to Canada, and what your advice would be.
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So, thank you again for watching, and until next time, take care.
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