It's not you, it's me...

Emigrating to Canada is a bit like cheating on your spouse; lots of people think about doing it but fewer actually take the plunge. And for those who do, the experience isn't always what they imagined.

For this reason, it's important that anyone considering coming to this country understands exactly what they're in for. There seems to be a common misconception in the UK that Canada is some sort of futuristic discount superstore on a national scale, where everything is either unbelievably cheap or so advanced that the UK couldn't possibly be ready for it. I think this comes from a period when a lot of people emigrated here from a rented flat and a low-paid job and found a life, full of big cars, cable TV, detached houses and dollars that stretched further than the trans-Canada. I visited family in Canada in 1979, when I was 11, and it was like going to a different planet; they ate stuff like Spaghetti Bolognese and Cheescake and Coleslaw for God's sake. At that time, fancy food for us was having 2 spoons of sugar in your tea or peas in your mince. And that was the the first time I'd ever been to Macdonald's; a TOY with your HAMBURGER!! I could have died happy at that very moment...

But that was before globalisation. We're all one big market now. MacDonalds and Subway and Ipods and Halo 3 and "(insert country here)-Idol" (and even Cheesecake) are everywhere. In terms of popular consumer-culture, you have to look pretty hard to find differences between the two countries and in many cases, Canada is actually behind the UK and Europe. (One example is banking; another is the proliferation of bluetooth headsets back in the old country. Walk around Edinburgh city centre during the week and the place looks like it's been invaded by well-dressed Borg).

While there are still financial benefits of coming to this country, they get less and less with every year that passes. Petrol is still cheap compared to the UK (although people have panic attacks whenever the price of a litre pops above $1 (approx 50p)). Dining out is also pretty reasonable and plentiful. I was going to say that housing was no longer a real bargain but a friend recently told me about someone buying a semi-detached (duplex) house in Edinburgh for approx 500,000 pounds (sorry can't find the 'pound' sign). Compare that to around $400,000 for a decent sized detached house here and it doesn't look so bad. But Calgary is booming. Three years ago, that $400K would have been around $250K so I'm not sure how affordable houses will be in the future.

So, the point here is, don't come to Canada just to save money, because you will find it harder, financially, than you expected. Instead, think about the lifestyle question. Is there something about Canada that you really want and can't get at home? If the answer to this question is YES then go for it. If the answer is DUNNO, then do your research. You'd be amazed how many people emigrate to a place that they have NEVER visited and then wonder why they can't settle.
And there's no excuse for ignorance. In this age of the Internet, there are plenty of information sources. Canada Immigration has a great website (link on this blog) and most Canadian newspapers have sites. We used to watch the CBC news on the web from Scotland, just to get a feel for the big issues. And I'm sure this isn't the only blog about immigration...

Canada is a great place, but so is Scotland, and England and Wales and Ireland, so be sure you know what you're getting and what you're leaving behind.

This post is a bit on the overly realistic, cold-light-of-day side so, in the next post, I'll talk about some of the cool things we've experienced since we arrived and then I'll talk about how to actually get here!