Decide about your settlement and desired destiny, long time before arrival. You will be disappointed and frustrated if you fail to do so.
This planning phase should start from the immigrant’s parent country. Before applying for immigration, one should seek as much information as possible. Weigh the pros and cons of movement. Look for the settlement opportunities and explore the reasons of leaving your parent country and moving to a new country. Once the immigration application is processed and is granted, the next step is the decision, when to leave the parent country and migrate. This migration process should start with the questions of:
– What is the amount of money available for survival and how long will it last?
– What will be done for survival?
– Where to dock on arrival?
– Do we know someone? Create a database.
– What are the educational needs for the children?
– What are the important issues to be taken care of?
Before landing, in North America, all the above queries need to be addressed. Ensure that you have an international driving license from your country. This needs to be endorsed from your embassy once you arrive here.
Decide about your settlement and desired destiny, long time before arrival. You will be disappointed and frustrated if you fail to do so.
This planning phase should start from the immigrant’s parent country. Before applying for immigration, one should seek as much information as possible. Weigh the pros and cons of movement. Look for the settlement opportunities and explore the reasons of leaving your parent country and moving to a new country. Once the immigration application is processed and is granted, the next step is the decision, when to leave the parent country and migrate. This migration process should start with the questions of:
– What is the amount of money available for survival and how long will it last?
– What will be done for survival?
– Where to dock on arrival?
– Do we know someone? Create a database.
– What are the educational needs for the children?
– What are the important issues to be taken care of?
Before landing, in North America, all the above queries need to be addressed. Ensure that you have an international driving license from your country. This needs to be endorsed from your embassy once you arrive here.
Arrival in North America:
Once you have planned to move, the following needs to be organized for yourself:
Home-rent or purchase
Driving license
Credit Card
Cultural Shock
Human Resource Development Centers
Job Search
North American/Canadian experience
De-Learning
Diversification
Breaking the Boundaries
Home rent or purchase: Before departing from your parent country, ensure that you have a place to land. A house/hotel/motel, where you could lodge yourself on arrival.
Driving License: The foremost important thing to obtain is a driving license. Once you have a driving license, driving will be possible. However, you have to be prepared also to buy a car. In the mean time, you can use your international driving license for a certain time period.
Credit Card/System: People coming into North America have a monster at their hands to break. The Halo of Credit System hovers around them from day one. Those who have visited previously know the system or those who have searched for information have knowledge, however, practical knowledge only comes when you are in the system. For purchasing home/car, which are the basic necessities one need a credit check and credit score. However, if one does not have a credit score, he should plan to develop one. Credit score can usually be developed by getting a “Secure Card”. Scotia Bank offers this service. If one has some cash, first buying a car is advisable to build a credit score. If one has relatives who can second you for buying, it is also a possibility.
Cultural Shock: The immigrants who arrive in North America are used to their own culture. Most of them have a strong family support system that they are used to it. They have a family concept. Although this concept is also fading in the East, however, the family lives together and there is a family support system available.
Human Resource Development Centers: In Canada, there are centers which help you in resume writing and job search. However, there are different opinions about resume writing. Some trim their resume to gain an entry level position. Some modify their resume as per the need of employers. At one point in time a potential employee has as many as “10” different resumes that are ready to be sent to the different employers. These centers do help you in orientation about the job market and some people are lucky to get interviews and even jobs.
Job Search: When we come to North America, we focus on Job search, surfing the web, contacting the people we know and develop a network to survive. The initial time period is quite tough. We try to seek advice from different people, and everyone responds based on their experience. Finding a job becomes a pivotal point in our life. This takes us into a circle or a web from which it is difficult to come out. Most of the people who migrate, come with only funds available for 3 to 6 months or a maximum of a year, and try to find a source of an income for their survival-a survival job paying them for their kitchen expenses. As per Maslow’s theory of hierarchy this will be the satisfaction of the physiological needs. Some are fortunate that during this time period, they focus on what they want to achieve and consider this as a transition job and pursue their education, get local certification and move to the next level of their life achieving their safety needs. Some may stop here being confined to their environment and within what they have achieved they would find their next level of satisfaction of love and belongings. For those who want to satisfy their self esteem, they may need to find alternate sources of income or work hard and smart to move to the next level. In a competitive environment, this is tough to achieve. However, with a 3D approach-Determination, Dedication, and Devotion the self esteem can be satisfied. In order to move to this level, one needs resources in terms of money, time and be prepared to pay an opportunity cost. An alternate approach would be to make use of other peoples’ time and money. In North America, the word job is described as a three letter word that stands for “Just Over Broke”. When an immigrant arrives in North America with a traditional mind set and enters into the web of jobs, it is difficult to get out. He has a family to feed, a house to pay rent or mortgage, overhead expenses, a car to maintain, and bills to pay. This vicious cycle does not allow him to leave his job and to think beyond the boundaries. They continue doing the job, with a fear of being laid off from the job always hovering around. Some, while doing their jobs, do side business to generate extra funds for themselves.
North American/Canadian Experience: Although you may be qualified, well qualified, or even over qualified, you need a local experience. This is especially true if you land in Canada. Without local experience, it is not only difficult but nearly impossible to find employment. At least the first four to six months are usually required for the gaining local experience. You will be fortunate to find employment within this time period.
De-Learning: ‘You must be in charge of the change you want to bring for yourself’-You are responsible for your success and failures. When you are in North America or any new country or place, be prepared to De-Learn. For you there is plenty to learn. However, if you will not do so, it will be difficult for you to survive.
Diversification: Be prepared to diversify yourself. You may be good in something, but that may not help you in settlement. Therefore learn other traits.
Breaking the Boundaries-Think out of box: Those who break the boundaries and find the right niche in the market, then develop a team around, in which can generate money for themselves and for the individual. They not only survive but also achieve their self esteem level at a much faster pace. They develop a business not only for themselves but also for assisting those around themselves. In this situation, a person is not only self employed, but also his own boss and the master of his destiny. This is a multi level marketing scenario. In other situations, a person may enter into a business opportunity and work for himself or herself. This is a self employed situation. In another scenario, the self employed person enters into a business situation and works with a group to share the success of the group. Here, he works initially and starts the ball rolling for others to work around him or her.
