The dream of making it big in Canada is turning into a battle for survival for many immigrants due to the high cost of living and rental shortages, as rising emigration numbers hints to newcomers being forced to turn their back on a country that they chose to make their adopted home.

The dream of making it big in Canada is turning into a battle for survival for many immigrants due to the high cost of living and rental shortages, as rising emigration numbers hints to newcomers being forced to turn their back on a country that they chose to make their adopted home.

Trudeau has made immigration his main weapon to blunt Canada’s big challenge of an aging and slowing population, and it has also helped fuel economic growth. That drove Canada’s population up at its fastest clip in more than six decades this year, Statistics Canada said.

But now a reversal of that trend is gradually taking hold. In the first six months of 2023 some 42,000 individuals departed Canada, adding to 93,818 people who left in 2022 and 85,927 exits in 2021, official data show.

The rate of immigrants leaving Canada hit a two-decade high in 2019, according to a recent report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), an immigration advocacy group. While the numbers went down during pandemic lockdowns, Statistics Canada data shows it is once again rising.

  • rab@lemmy.caEnglish
    5·
    11 months ago

    Haha retire in Canada, good one

    I would love to stay here too but it’s just not realistic anymore

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
      3·
      11 months ago

      Semi-retire. It is pretty common in my field. Some engineer who comes in one day a week or so on average as a consultant. There isn’t exactly a shortage of chemical/factory operations there and the tech/standards you guys use is near identical.

      In any case I am like +30 years from that so who knows what the situation will be.

      • rab@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        Yeah if you save a bunch in the states then move here you could do it. What’s impossible is working in Canada and trying to save, our salaries for engineering are probably less than half

        Just to put things in perspective I am at the top pay scale at the university I work at and even working side jobs on the weekend I still can’t buy my own apartment

        The only good way to get ahead here is to play the real estate game but I missed the boat

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          11 months ago

          Less than half but you aren’t spending 10k a year on insurance that doesn’t even work and 20k a year per kid to send them to higher ed. Not going to do me much good that I have a slightly bigger home when I get a quarter of a million dollar medical bill or want to help my daughters get a four year degree.

          • rab@lemmy.caEnglish
            31·
            11 months ago

            I don’t think you’ve done your research. Yeah our healthcare is free, but it literally doesn’t exist, people are dying of undiagnosed cancers because we have no doctors

            I recently went across the border to see a doctor about an ear infection because I was going deaf and couldn’t see a doc for weeks. So I paid out of pocket in addition to paying heavy tax for our “healthcare”

            As for higher ed, we pay out the ass for that too…

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
              3·
              11 months ago

              I lived in the border for years. Whatever you have now is still got to be better than what we got. My hand was smashed by a falling beam, pretty nasty break. The only thing they would give me for pain was Tylenol. I had to go get me cannabis just so I could stop screaming and crying. I still have two wisdom teeth and yeah they hurt.

              • rab@lemmy.caEnglish
                3·
                11 months ago

                We don’t have dental care, that’s out of pocket here, just spent 4 grand on my wisdom teeth

                However, I heard if they are life threatening (infected) a hospital must remove, in which case it’s free

          • 4z01235@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            A university degree in Canada costs 16-20k CAD per year for tuition/books/etc, more if you’re an international student. Plus residence fees and food and other costs of living if the student isn’t staying at home and just commuting to university.

            There’s a reason Canada suffers from brain drain of so many of our skilled workers leaving. Other places, particularly the USA, are popular destinations because they are better opportunities economically.