Moving from one country to another is a voyage into the unknown. It doesn´t matter how well-prepared you are to take this step: you will never know what is awaiting you.
Bharati Mukherjee´s work, Imagining Homelands, describes accurately the characteristics of expatriation, exile, immigration and repatriation. I don´t pretend to be an expert on the subject, but, as an immigrant, I also have something to tell: my own story.
I confess that my story is far from those of some of my classmates who have fled from their former countries because of danger or fear. My life wasn´t threatened.
Before arriving in Canada, I lived in Lima, the capital of Peru. I had never thought about moving to another country until my wife suggested the idea. Lima is a nice city, where it never rains or snows and where you can live like a king with little money. But, at the same time, it´s chaotic and unpredictable. There are several concerns about safety, while corruption is widespread. Bribes and tips are important parts of the city´s dynamic.
The only way to run away from this state of untidiness was moving to another place. I and my wife started looking for a country with an open immigration policy and then we applied to Canada´s embassy for permanent resident visas.
After one year and five months, they approved our request and we had six months to plan our travel to Toronto. Changing your life radically is frequently a daunting task, but we took this challenge on like an adventure, always looking forward, not back. We knew that there was a kind of Canadian propaganda to attract immigrants and we couldn´t expect a quick adaptation. Many newcomers arrive in this country with high expectations and they believe that it will be easy to recover their former lifestyle. False. It takes a long time to “fit in”.
We decided to start from zero and take it step by step, without unnecessary haste. The process of immigration is a long journey, which each newcomer experiences in a different manner. There are no rules for a safe, fast and happy transplantation. As adventurers, we do not know where this crossing will finish.
Bharati Mukherjee´s work, Imagining Homelands, describes accurately the characteristics of expatriation, exile, immigration and repatriation. I don´t pretend to be an expert on the subject, but, as an immigrant, I also have something to tell: my own story.
I confess that my story is far from those of some of my classmates who have fled from their former countries because of danger or fear. My life wasn´t threatened.
Before arriving in Canada, I lived in Lima, the capital of Peru. I had never thought about moving to another country until my wife suggested the idea. Lima is a nice city, where it never rains or snows and where you can live like a king with little money. But, at the same time, it´s chaotic and unpredictable. There are several concerns about safety, while corruption is widespread. Bribes and tips are important parts of the city´s dynamic.
The only way to run away from this state of untidiness was moving to another place. I and my wife started looking for a country with an open immigration policy and then we applied to Canada´s embassy for permanent resident visas.
After one year and five months, they approved our request and we had six months to plan our travel to Toronto. Changing your life radically is frequently a daunting task, but we took this challenge on like an adventure, always looking forward, not back. We knew that there was a kind of Canadian propaganda to attract immigrants and we couldn´t expect a quick adaptation. Many newcomers arrive in this country with high expectations and they believe that it will be easy to recover their former lifestyle. False. It takes a long time to “fit in”.
We decided to start from zero and take it step by step, without unnecessary haste. The process of immigration is a long journey, which each newcomer experiences in a different manner. There are no rules for a safe, fast and happy transplantation. As adventurers, we do not know where this crossing will finish.
Photo: Maria Pia Valdivia
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