Psychological and Emotional Effect of Immigration on Immigrants

http://www.byzantinecommunications.com/adamhoward/homework/highschool/immigrants.html

The above website is useful because it provides information about the psychological ways that immigration affects immigrants. It shows what immigrants' only common emotion with the rest: hope for a better future. The reason that most citizens of other countries immigrate is because "They had found that in their homelands in Eastern Europe, they were not wanted or not safe." This is true, as well as the fact that economically, many Eastern Europe citizens suffer from lack of money which leads to the lack of food, and basic survival, therefore, kids may have to help out their parents by working to help their parents make a decent living and will lack the chance of having a decent childhood. Many citizens living in Eastern Europe see America or Canada as an escape from their suffrage and as an opportunity of having a better future. America and Canada offers people a better way to live, a new life. It offers things that they could never have before such as no lack of food or working hard labour or way overtime so they could at least have money to buy a 2 litre bottle of milk that would only last them 4 days, or the lack of money for buying clothes and toys for the family. Here in either Canada or America you can get a stable job, make a decent amount of money and be able to make a living and still put your kids through school and live life fairly. The hope for a better future was the one thing determining immigrants to save up enough money to pay so they can get their Visa and immigrate.
Once immigrants get either to Canada or America, once they get jobs, they have to make sure that they "find ways to save money". Learning how everything works financially in another country and learning how to save up money so you can survive can also bring a lot of stress. However, the fact that America and Canada can bring them a brighter future is the one thing that keeps immigrants determined and going.

Canadian Immigration--Options for Immigrating to Canada

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vhq50HKEbUk

This video clip is a message from the firm Campbell Cohen by Attorney David Cohen. He explains how "immigrating to Canada is one of the most important decisions you will make in your lifetime". He explains how settling into a new community, finding a new job and living/starting a new life can be challenging. The one thing that should be one of the highlights, one of the most significant points in this video is when he says that "the best ways to speed up the immigration process is to find yourself a job in Canada" and that "finding a job in Canada ahead of time also prepares you for the transition of life in Canada".
What he says, especially in the last statement is very true. Not only will it take some weight off your shoulders and you will not have to look long and hard and keep your eyes stuck on the computer to see if anything has opened up, but it releases some of that stress of not having a job to sustain yourself and your family and be able to survive. By finding a job ahead of time, your transition is made easier because you have already stated what you are qualified in and all that is left to do is go to work and have your boss train you in whatever your job may be. After that, all you have to do is try to improve your language skills.
This video relates to my topic by Attorney Cohen explaining practically the basic things that happen while thinking of immigrating to Canada, and he gives great advice on how to that and what to do in order to speed up the process and make it easier.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/after-life.asp

This website talks about the adjustment in Canada. It explains the challenges and obstacles you have to overcome and will soon enough face in your life. The more research you do about Canada, even before immigrating, it is helpful to help prepare yourself and helps you adapt, most importantly mentally, to the lifestyle in Canada. As a newcomer, if you feel depressed, stressed out, and find yourself wondering everyday about what your family back home is doing and how they are, or are having doubts whether or not you have made the right decision by immigrating to another country for a better future, this website helps you and explains to you that what you are thinking and/or feeling is normal and expected. This site will further explain to you that feelings of stress are common especially that you have to learn English, and as a child, besides English you also have to learn French. So struggling with learning two new languages and getting frustrated is very normal.
I find this website helpful because if any newcomer were to come to Canada and felt so lost within themselves and frustrated and wanted to check if these "symptoms" were normal, this website would provide them with the right information and the right explanations. This is a great website to explore because it gives you information about coming to Canada, after immigrating to Canada, partnering with program providing services for those that are new in Canada, etc. All there is to know is just one click away.

Campbell Cohen

I have interviewed David Cohen who works at Campbell Cohen and has been an attorney for over 25 years. He occupies himself with immigrants and was one of the first lawyers to offer a full range of Canadian immigration services and has consulted immigration applicants and foreign workers over the internet. I had asked him what had motivated him or had given him the idea to come up with such a system over the internet at which he explained that he used to travel to Hong Kong or Korea, since most of the people that wanted to immigrate lived there, 6 times a year. He figured that if he didn’t want to travel to Asia all the time the website, which was built in 1995, would be a good medium to communicate with people wanting to come to Canada. The average amount of people that visit/use the website are about 30 000. The site provides an assessment form that people complete to see if they qualify.
He and his staff provide a variety of programs. For people who want to immigrate to Canada, they assess their qualifications. Because there are more than 60 programs, for instance family sponsorship, economic programs, etc., the applicants must be assessed against all other immigration programs and see which they qualify for. Their applications are then gathered, then the medical exam and security checks are coordinated, and once everything is in order, the applications are submitted and all Mr. Cohen and his firm can do is be there to support the applicants while they wait for their visa. This process usually takes about 18-19 months to complete. Once the applicants get their visa and immigrate, they set up a separate website called the “Loon Lounge” (www.loonlounge.org) which is a community of people thinking of coming to Canada, or born in Canada communicating with each other and finding someone who will assist them and help them settle in Canada by giving them jobs, etc.
Mr. Cohen had also helped individuals migrate from regions that have been hit by earthquakes or by the Asian Tsunami, which had also affected the people in Indonesia. The process of immigration from there to Canada is slightly different. They do pro-bono work on an ongoing basis to assist the people from those areas. Usually when there is a disaster of some nature, their applications are processed ahead of other applications.
Finally, I asked about the programs that Campbell Cohen offers to newcomers/foreigners and how that benefits them. There are plenty of programs available for those that are new in Canada such as getting help with their English and French skills. One service is for people to have education credentials recognized in Canada. For instance, if you were a chemical engineer in Russia and wanted to continue doing that job in Manitoba, what would you have to do? Manitoba would have places for you to go and get help with that. Another example would be that there are job placements. If you are new in Canada, you get matched up with an employer, work for them for a period of time, if you are a good worker the employer might decide to keep you and you would have a permanent job. It can be looked at as sort of an internship.

Immigration Blog Pitch

The topic chosen for my blog, for my area of expertise, that I will be writing about for this semester is immigration. Why this topic? Because not only have I experienced it myself as a young child and know how it is and how it feels, but also because this topic is something that you do not see everyone writing about nowadays. I have chosen the topic of immigration in general because I can branch off of it and, therefore, go in different directions and talk about it in different aspects such as: immigration affecting children in a psychological way, how the distancing from their families can affect them that they could enter into child depression, the affects it has on their schooling, on making friends, or even talk about how many people want to immigrate from different countries but cannot, therefore, it does not have to only be child based it can also focus, psychologically, on the family at hand.
This topic will focus on certain aspects that will show the rest of the readers, which might not know what it is like to immigrate and leave something behind, what it is like to sacrifice yourself and leave everything you have and start a new life in a country that seems like a whole another world to you. It will hopefully help raise awareness to how immigrants have a hard time adapting to the system, language, and the new life and hopefully grab someone’s attention so that in the workplace or in school, there will be people making life easier for the newcomers.

What It Means To Be Canadian

After some hours spent on doing research, and even though this blog is based on mainly immigration and immigrants, I though it would be a good idea to emphasize what it means to be a Canadian. The rights that come with being a Canadian as well as the freedom that we have.
This is not too off topic from my original one, but it can help immigrants/ newcomers see the positive side of being a citizen of Canada in case that they do not feel too comfortable, at the moment, knowing that they will permanent residents of Canada and may not be able to go back to their home country as much as they please.
Some of the great things of being a citizen of Canada are: (my favourite) you get to use "Canadian eh?" A LOT! until it bugs the heck out of people, we can stand up for what we believe in (our beliefs, values, etc.), we respect others' opinions, we stand up for the ones that cannot speak because they are either afraid or just do not know how to express their feelings towards an issue or are just purely afraid to because they do not want to hurt anybody, everyone is friendly, and better yet everyone accepts everybody else's ethnicity. Everyone accepts each other's cultures as they are and do not try to change that. No one tries to change your traditions, culture, etc.
What is even better to think about is the fact that everyone tries to maintain our country and society of our own and make it better. We all work towards a better future.