Think Mauritius

In asking me to write about my own personal emigration to Canada experience, Noor, one of Think Mauritius’ readers made me realise that all my previous posts about Immigration Canada look more like chapters of Moving to Canada for Dummies guide: what one should expect, do and not do once they are in Canada. And although all my posts are based on my own experience, up to now, I have never actually talked about it. So here it is. Enjoy, or at least try (smile).

After I finished my secondary education in 1995, I enrolled in the BTS Informatique de Gestion programme at the Mauritius Chamber of Commerce and Industry Centre for Business Studies (MCCI), not because I wanted to become a programmer, but because my parents did not have the means to send me abroad for further studies. There, I met Eddy Young (http://priscimon.com/blog), one of the two guys behind the creation of this blog. The other one being Stéphane Lee (www.stephanelee.com).

Anyway, after I graduated in 1998, I got a job at CIFOD (French Embassy), but decided to move six months later, not because the pay was not good, but rather because I felt I was not learning enough new things at an early and crucial stage of my career. So, I resigned from CIFOD, and took a job as a programmer at Overseas Software Development (OSD), a French offshore software development company. There, I learned about Visual Basic, SQL, and Crystal Reports–all of which would turn out to be very helpful later in Canada. Work experience is priceless! Remember this. However, two years later…surprise, I again felt the need to move and learn new things, and decided to apply for permanent residency in Canada.

Applying for permanent residency was an exciting experience, and I was really looking forward for my permanent resident visa. Yet, when the visa finally arrived, I was brought back to reality and started to ask myself a lot questions, essentially thinking if it was a wise decision after all–you, too, will be asking yourselves these same questions. Nevertheless, I stuck to my plan because I already spent too much money and invested too much of my time to not at least give it a try.

So, on June 5th, 2001, I landed in Toronto with one goal in mind: find a full-time job as soon as possible so that my fiancée could join me. I did find it two months later as a bilingual technical support person at a manufacturing company. Now, even though going from a programmer to a support technician did not seem as a career advancement at first, I did learn many new things, and was glad I did. I learned the tips and tricks of Windows, and various other pieces of software. I learned to keep my calm even when frustrated, angry, or in the line of fire, and most of all, “troubleshooting techniques” which can be very helpful in various situations in life.

However, although a job can keep you busy, it cannot indefinitely keep homesickness at bay. Eventually, I started to feel home sick, so home sick that I flew to Mauritius for one week just six months after my arrival in Canada. In fact, until my, now wife joined me in February 2003, each year I flew to Mauritius to avoid depression. From my own experience, I think those of you who are moving to Canada as couple or a family will feel less home sick because you’ll have each other. There will be more mouths to feed, but you’ll have more moral support to handle the difficult situation. Its good to have relatives in Canada, but it’s just not the same.

As you would expect, these flights to Mauritius together with the various goods I had to buy at the beginning were not kind to my bank account balance, which was still in its infant stage. Bed, mattress, microwave oven, vacuum cleaner and other goods cost a lot of money, but had to be bought, unless I wanted to sleep on the floor or live in dirty apartment.

Luckily, like I said before, with some hard work and perseverance, things tend to get better with time. Little by little, through wise spending, we started to increase our bank account balance. Of course, from time to time, we went out for dinner or to the movie theatre. Things got even better when my now wife got a part-time job. In the meantime, I have also started working towards a BA French Studies part time. And my employer is paying for my tuition fees, is not this cool?

So there you have it…my personal “Moving to Canada” experience. If you’ve read all my previous posts on Think Mauritius, you’ll notice that what I wrote there and what I wrote here are not very different. What I wanted to say is that at the beginning, life will be tough, unless you come here with tons of money. But I think it’s safe to say that those who have tons of money usually don’t leave Mauritius. However, if those before me and I were able to make it, then you should be able to make it too. Mauritians (and most immigrants for that matter) have a very good quality: we are all hard workers. So, whenever you’re facing hardship, remember that you’re not alone, and think of it as a right of passage.