this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2023
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As a Canadian, I'm curious to know which issues burdened you so heavily that you felt leaving Canada was the only option? It is a vast country with plenty of differences regionally, so the option to internally migrate was always there. What area of the world did you move to that you seem to have found what you were looking for?
I'm asking because I am genuinely curious, as someone who grew up in Canada, lived overseas (in a country on most people's bucket lists, but has its own set of issues) and has returned to Canada. I can personally attest to the fact that the addage "the grass is always greener over the fence" rings true initially, but every place has its similar issues.
Well, there's more than one reason. If we're being honest, they're not all 100% consistent -- so prepare for a somewhat meandering story. At the time I was just facing this cloud of problems, and it looked like I could resolve some of the serious ones by moving to a growth market.
Part of it was just bad luck. My industry vanished in a puff of legislation on graduation (federal legislation, so not much opportunity elsewhere). So I pivoted, did grad school in something a bit different, and then it happened a second time. So by pure chance, my profession was largely oversupplied with experts, which kept salaries very low and opportunities limited.
I pivoted again and taught myself various branches of engineering, which I funded by teaching other people (after I learned something interesting). This was what eventually saved me, but at the time, no one would consider me for a proper job without a specialist degree in engineering.
I think at the peak of things I had 5 or 6 jobs, one full-time, and was making under CAD 28k a year before tax. I kept at it for 2 years like this, but couldn't even land an interview for a decent job, and no real prospects for advancement in my main job. So I was really frustrated that I was working and studying so hard, but no opportunities opened up. Starting a company was also just too big of a financial risk. Meanwhile, I saw the medical system starting to fall apart, and rent creeping upward relative to salaries. At that time (~10 years ago) I rented a 4.5 across the street from a metro station for 625 CAD a month. Now it would be over 3 times that.
I guess it was a very boring problem in the end: I just saw no realistic path to increasing my income, and a whole bunch of factors coming that would increase my costs. I had aggressively saved/invested so I had enough money to move somewhere new, if I did it right away without letting attrition wear away at my savings. I was honestly sort of terrified of leading a mediocre life, and it felt like the time to act.
So I started looking for a growth market that everyone moved away from and so had a shortage of engineering talent. Some of my colleagues had returned to China and were doing OK, so I looked into that. However, the immigration process was a bit unclear, I would become functionally illiterate, and it looked like the glory days of growth were nearly over. Vietnam proved a better choice on these points. At the time, there were very few foreigners here, and anyone talented would look to leave (no longer the case) -- this felt like a place I could work hard, and make a name for myself.
A lot of my friends were in a similar situation, and many moved to the USA. However, I don't find the USA a good cultural fit for me. Cultural integration was easier for me in Asia, it was a place where I could build things and have a company, and my savings would last long enough for me to get that off the ground. This proved much more difficult than expected, many terrible things happened, but maybe 18 months ago I pulled ahead of where I would have been if I stayed in Canada, and am now comfortably ahead.
Thank you for your honest response, and it is good to hear you have found your feet. I too have struggled to find employment that pays me what I am worth (I have a M.A. is social sciences, but also am a trained teacher). We moved overseas to support my wife's family during a difficult time and decided to try and settle there. It turns out its hard to buy a $850k 2-bedroom bungalow when you are making 70k a year. Returning to Canada, we assumed our previous experience teaching would mean we would find jobs easily. In reality, it had priced us out of the market, and in our province a school division can keep you on terms for two years and then has to give you a permanent position or let you go. I have spent the last 5+ years bouncing from term to term, often very difficult positions where other term teachers have cut and run. I've saved the ass of the few school divisions in my area so many times, but all I have got in repayment is to be bounced around and when a permanent comes up they give it to a recent grad, who frankly does not have the experience or diverse range of talents I do. This year, I decided to pivot into the heritage industry. I am currently working a job I like quite a lot that requires virtually no communte and can help build my local community. Problem is, I make less than 40k a year. We can make it work because our mortgage is incredibly cheap (we lucked out and got a fixer upper for way below market value), but employers in this area also vastly undervalue labor. I've realized I will either have to create a secondary income stream, or use my growing contacts in private industry to leverage myself into a position that pays even close to what my work output is worth. All that being said, I still find that Canada provides good support for its citizens and generally has decent opportunity. Ultimately, we stay for the people. Returning to my wife's home country we struggled to make any real connections and while people are friendly, it was so hard to make friends. In Canada, we have a large and varied friend group. We have potlucks almost weekly with several families, and I have opportunities to be deeply involved in community arts programs that provide opportunity for self expression and better my community. We have never been able to find that anywhere else, and I think that is why we stay.
In the end, staying for people is a valid decision!
I'm more or less a hermit. I'm quite close to my small family, but that's about it. My interests and hobbies are rather arcane, and I have rarely met my colleagues. Arguably I was a stranger to my home country long before I left to become a stranger in a new one. So it was maybe easier for me than it would have been otherwise.
I'm glad to hear you lucked out in the housing market! It sounds so brutal over there. In some ways it's more brutal here, in others less -- a nice home on the outskirts of a medium-sized city might cost 250k USD. In a big city more central, maybe 750k USD. However, a median salary might be around 4500-7000 USD per year. So the amounts are lower, but the gap between costs and salary is vast and cruel.