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Zelenskyi Oleksandr: I’m a Ukrainian refugee. Here’s why after two frustrating years I’m leaving Canada

Commentary

The Parliament Buildings are illuminated in the colors of the Ukraine flag on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, August 24, 2022. Patrick Doyle/The Canadian Press.

A Ukrainian Refugee’s Guide to Canada

When Russian President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine in 2022, Zelenskyi Oleksandr, his wife, and two children fled their apartment in Kyiv and headed to North America. They were refugees escaping war, leaving their country, and looking to build a life in Canada. 

Zelenskyvi was optimistic. As he describes it, he was going to live in “America without guns.” Instead, he found a country full of deeply-rooted problems which he could not have imagined. They eventually became problems he could no longer handle. This week, the 15-year veteran IT engineer packed his bags in Toronto and moved to Romania with his family, where he says he will enjoy better health care and be closer to relatives.

Zelenskyi joins a number of Ukrainians now choosing to leave Canada. The text below is a collection of his observations about Canada, meant to inform other Ukrainians who are considering moving here.

 

Before considering immigrating to Canada, your first step should be understanding the cultural differences between Canadians and Ukrainians.

You will find a few basic descriptions, such as: “Canadians are friendly, ready to help, and open.” “In the U.S., people say ‘I’, but in Canada, we say, ‘We!’”

All these things are true, but there is also an “but.”

First, Canadians are more “welcoming” than “friendly.” It’s a part of North American culture to say hello and ask, “How are you?” But, the thing is, no one is interested in the answer. There is no need to answer more than, “Good.”

Keep in mind that it’s a multi-national country. As a result, customs change from city to city, especially from province to province. In big cities with Chinese or Italian neighbourhoods, people act differently and more closely resemble their foreign mentalities.

The main cultural difference between us is that “Be happy!” is the central Canadian idea; from kindergarten to retirement. It’s even the guiding force in business. People don’t seem to publicly worry or complain. They don’t ask for much. It’s one reason why Canada is ranked among the first places for happiness and the best places to live in multiple ratings.

Many Canadians live as their parents and grandparents have lived for almost 70 years. They reside in the same 100-plus year-old houses. And they are “happy” about that.

But this mentality has good and bad results that may surprise us Ukrainians. Let me provide a few examples.

Business

Since Canada is originally a country of immigrants, most of the people you will meet are also immigrants (first or second generation), or they came here as children.

This is why they are ready to help and ignore your bad English. They know what it’s like to be a newcomer to Canada. However, when it comes to recent immigrants, they tend to treat you as a second-class citizen. You won’t notice this day-by-day, but if you are new to Canada and do not have “Canadian experience,” do not expect to get the same salary as local people, even if you have more knowledge or certification. To them, you are a “foreigner.”

I have been a highly qualified IT engineer for 15 years. But immigrants like me, with a decade-plus of experience, still find it difficult to get a salary even close to those from Canada with one to two years of experience. Instead, you start from scratch on minimum wage. I heard about an immigrant who was a marketing director of a big international company in his country. What job was he offered upon immigrating to Canada? A postcard designer. For Canadians, this is fine.

Even though Canada says it needs professionals, what it actually wants are cheap job employees. If you are an immigrant, you can work at a farm, restaurant, or wash dishes, but it’s unlikely you’ll work in an office. At least at the start. Yes, a small percentage of lucky immigrants will find good jobs before arriving in Canada, or locally through friends. However, they will still be treated differently from Canadians born in Canada. Many years ago, most McDonald’s or Tim Hortons employees were young students born in Canada. Today, all of them appear to be immigrants. And it’s still difficult to get a job interview there.

Education

If you have kids in the Canadian school system, you will soon find out that marks (especially before high school) are actually not important. There is no real homework. Students cannot really fail, you see. They are not forced to repeat grades. At the Toronto District School Board, students will only be held back “only after all alternatives are exhausted and only in exceptional circumstances.” These students are also not taught self-learning. There is no competition between students.

There is no expectation that teachers find and grow talented kids. Teachers change each year. The most important thing in Canada is that kids are surrounded by a “good mood.” This “good” atmosphere appears to be more important than their learning to count or write. All students should be “happy.”

The Canadian dream: a house

If the American Dream is to own a business, the Canadian Dream is to own a house. It’s all about housing these days in Canada. Today, the average home in Canada is nearly $700,000.

Consider this scenario. If a Canadian owns a restaurant and has a good income, it’s more likely he will invest his profits into a mortgage to buy a house instead of expanding his business and building a second restaurant. And if he has one home already, he will try to buy another one. Because, you see, you’ll make more in Canada from investing in a house than creating more business.

Canadians are even fine with sharing their home with someone else, if it means they can rent out their basement to pay off their mortgage. They do not ask their government why they don’t earn enough to live in their homes alone.

When it comes to housing, there are two categories of people in Canada:

  1. Those who own a house (or multiple) and have paid it off already. These people do not seem to care so much about taxes, cost of living, or prices at the grocery stores. If you make the minimum wage but own your home, you are in a good mood.
  2. Those who don’t own a home and rent, or have a mortgage. Polls show some Canadians are now spending more than half of their income on a monthly housing payment. With the cost of everything growing, there are no savings for these people. It’s a new form of servitude. There are a lot of Canadians who were born here, now at the age of 40 or 50, who do not own a house or apartment.

Families

Canadians appear to only create families when they reach 35 to 40 years of age. Only after studying, travelling, and building a career do they finally have kids. Picture a family with two working parents with decent managers’ salaries. In Canada, that family is still buying a house they can’t afford.

Convenience

One of the things you will find out about Canadians is that they are all about “convenience”; it is part of the national mood. Even though milk costs four dollars more at Shoppers Drug Mart, they will shop at Shoppers because it is “convenient.” The same thing goes for trying something new. You will find that most people go to the same restaurants and barbershops. They will not go to the new coffee shop because Tim Horton’s is “where my parents and I went, and where my kids will go.” You will see how strict they are about such things when you try to convince them to try or do something they have never done before.

Creating change

Another mood that goes together with Canadian happiness seems to be “never complain.” While we Ukrainians have had a few revolutions already, Canadians never seem to truly strike or protest. In private conversations one-on-one, they may say they are unhappy about politics, government, or the health-care system. But when you stop them on the street, they will say they are living in the best country in the world.

Their prime minister vacations on the Aga Khan’s private island home. Their government increases taxes and spends more than $60 million in taxpayer dollars on its ArriveCan app. And Canadians say, “OK.” In Ukraine, we imagine that officials who are caught being corrupt will resign, be held accountable; with those who are guilty being sent to jail. Not so in Canada.

The wealthy people in Canada do not wish to protest against all this because they are in good shape. Meanwhile, those who are struggling and should protest can’t. This is because they can’t afford to lose their jobs and they need to feed their families. Some of them are immigrants and have temporary visas. There is nothing in between these two groups. The Canadian middle class barely exists. Even after living in nearly 15 countries, I have never seen anything like this.

There is no longer a Canadian dream for newcomers anymore. Canadian tolerance will kill their country.

Zelenskyi Oleksandr

Zelenskyi Oleksandr is a Ukrainian with more than 15 years of experience as an IT professional and has experience living in multiple countries.

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