Arrival Survival Canada: A Handbook for New Immigrants [Paperback]

 

 

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You have waited nearly a year for your visa to be approved and here you are standing in front of an
immigration official at the Canadian mission not knowing what to expect.

Suddenly the immigration officer stretches out a hand and says: "Congratulations'your application for
permanent residence in Canada has been approved."

You are excited about the prospects of a new and perhaps better life in Canada, but it quickly dawns
on you that you know very little about the country they call the Great White North.

Fear, panic, and anxiety grip you.

Once out of the officer's sight, you rush to the Internet and start reading up on Canada. But there's so
much information, you quickly get lost.

Or you frantically delve into the booklet handed to you by the officer. It's concise and you finish reading
it in 10 minutes. You feel a little bit relieved, but not satisfied. In fact, you feel the booklet is too brief
and you suspect it doesn't answer all your questions about life in Canada.

Two days later, you begin a short orientation course about life in Canada, paid for by the Canadian
government. But since the process is conducted by a chap who's never lived in Canada (an Ethiopian-
American who tells you Canada and the U.S are pretty much the same country), you don't feel very
convinced.

That was the kind of feeling I experienced some years ago when my visa to Canada was approved.
But with the publication of Naeem and Sabrina Noorani's book Arrival Survival Canada: A Handbook
for New Immigrants, prospective newcomers to Canada now have access to a book about what to
expect in their adopted country.

Written from an immigrant's perspective, the book is an exhaustive but nuanced guide on many
aspects of life in Canada. The Nooranis give a detailed province-by-province, territory-by-territory
guide on where to get a driver's licence or a health card, how to register children in school, how to buy
or sell a house, and how to build a credit history, among many other nuggets of information for
newcomers.

Naeem and his wife Sabrina arrived on these shores 10 years ago from India through Dubai, where
both had been working. The idea to write this book began from information that they had compiled for
their friends about life in Canada.

"They would ask a question and we would do the research and that sort of created the template," says
Mr. Noorani.

Although the Canadian government offers immigrants a booklet that gives a general if not simplified
view of life in Canada, the information sometimes misses the point.

"Now, let's talk about how to get a credit card," Mr. Noorani says. "The government book says if you
want a credit card, go to a bank, and choose between a Visa and a Master Card. Now you and I know
that it doesn't happen like that. The government doesn't say things about how to create a credit
history."

Three-hundred and twenty-eight pages long, the book contains short interviews with successful
immigrants of various professions from many ethnic groups.

In my opinion, the emphasis on these successful professionals paints a rather rosy picture of Canada
and obscures the hurdles immigrants encounter here. For instance, almost exclusively, there's little
attempt to explain in detail the fact that if one is in a regulated profession, it might take years to have
foreign credentials recognized.

On the other hand, one might argue that these personal stories could serve as a source of inspiration
for newcomers, which almost seems to be the aim. In fact in the book's introduction, Mr. Noorani asks
the question, "What makes immigrants successful?"

The tips he offers are: stay positive; embrace Canada; have an alternative plan; and steer away from
ethnic cocoons, or "silos," as he prefers to call them. Ethnic silos, Mr. Noorani argues, bog immigrants
down in an atmosphere of nostalgia, and self-regret. Inevitably, the talk revolves around events "back
home" and immigrants become homesick when they hang around their ethnic comfort zones.

"And that kind of holds you back from the whole success process," he says. "Almost all successful
immigrants have friends from all over, not just one ethnic group."

Exhaustive as it is, Mr. Noorani admits there are still things that could be added to the book, and he
hopes that as time goes by, there will be an updated version. For example, Mr. Noorani recently lost a
brother-in-law. In the process of mourning, he says, he and his wife came across a great deal of
information on where to access grief-counseling in many organizations including churches. Had he realized it earlier, Mr. Noorani says, that information should have been in the book.

As of now, there are no attempts to translate the book into French, but Mr. Noorani says if there is a
need, it will be done.
editor@embassymag.ca

This book is awesome. It is utilized daily by our community immigration center in dealings with new arrivals from around the world. We now wonder how we ever did without it.

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