Top Eight Reasons NOT to immigrate to Canada **
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Posted on: 25-05-05 11:20:06
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May 25, 2005. 06:45 AM
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GTA COLUMNISTS
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Mohammed at home becomes Mo at school
Teens `torn,' Peel study shows
Sex, drugs among habits examined
TESS KALINOWSKI
EDUCATION REPORTER
They have sex before they're 16, eat candy instead of veggies and don't floss. It's official: Teenagers in Peel Region are just as likely to endanger their health as kids in the rest of Ontario.
This has come as a surprise to some Peel health officials, who had speculated that the influx of recent immigrants to the region might have a bearing on the health habits of its youngsters.
The statistics, an eye-opener for any parent, will likely come as a jolt to new Canadians, who suffer culture shock much longer than their youngsters, say immigration and education experts.
But the data on teen health habits — from sex and drugs to sunscreen and bike helmets — could be the hard numbers social agencies and schools need to confront some community groups and parents, who don't or won't acknowledge their teenagers' behaviour, said Naima Adan, an outreach worker with the Multicultural Inter-agency Group of Peel.
"Kids are torn between what they're assimilated into and their home, which is very backward to them," she said.
Mohammed at home becomes Mo at school. And parents who have been raised to treat sex as taboo may be afraid to open the Pandora's box, even if they suspect their children are sexually active.
"Mental health is becoming a factor. Kids are becoming stressed out as a result of living a double identity. Grades are suffering. Teenagers are running away from home," she said.
It's a challenge for agencies like Adan's, which must tread carefully on culturally sensitive ground. "They're afraid to scare away parents, but at the same time the youth become more isolated from their families," she said.
The survey of more than 7,300 young people aged 12 to 19, believed to be one of the biggest of its kind in Canada, also gives school officials the ammunition they need to challenge the misconceptions of some parents, said Peel District School Board superintendent Chuck Waterman.
"It would appear that, despite what parents may think, kids are assimilating into the society and picking up the habits of the society very quickly — both the good and the not-so-good," he said.
At school, students start learning about sexual development in Grade 5. By Grades 6 to 8, they're talking about substance abuse and healthy sexual choices, including the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.
"We probably have to look at some of the programs we're using about substance abuse, sexual abstinence or healthy lifestyles in general to see whether they're clear enough in getting the message across," he said, but added, "We have to respect that people see these issues in different ways."
Peel's acting medical officer of health, Dr. Howard Shapiro, admitted he was surprised to find that Peel's diversity wasn't having any impact on teen drug and alcohol use or sexual behaviours. And like youngsters elsewhere, Peel's teens spend hours watching TV and have distorted body images.
"The impression I'm getting is that being a teen is the same here as it would be anywhere else," even though 60 per cent of the students' parents were both born in another country and 29 per cent of the students themselves were born elsewhere, he said.
The survey done in public and Catholic schools last September is the first data health officials have that are specific to the region. "One of the things we're learning is some of these behaviours start quite early," Shapiro said, "so maybe some of these (education) programs need to be started earlier."
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reporter
Mexicans head farther north
SONIA VERMA
STAFF REPORTER
Ask Daniel Lemmus why he wants to immigrate to Canada and the Mexican teacher's answer is all about America.
"In the United States there is a lot of discrimination. People from Mexico have a tag," Lemmus explains by telephone from his home in Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city.
Angry at new civilian border patrols and tightened U.S. immigration restrictions, he belongs to a new and growing wave of middle-class Mexican professionals looking to leave their country's low salaries, pollution and corruption behind to settle somewhere else.
Increasingly, that place is Canada.
The evidence so far is mostly anecdotal, but immigration experts say the number of Mexican professionals applying to come to Canada has spiked in recent months.
Frustration with the border patrols in the United States is sparking a "Canada craze" in Mexico, one being fuelled by Canadian immigration consultants with full-page newspaper ads and radio promotions.
Consular officials say the response has been overwhelming.
"Our switchboard's been swamped. The calls have been increasing steadily," said Luis Archundia, a spokesman at the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City, where there have been record lineups of immigrant hopefuls in recent weeks.
Lemmus said things have changed since his two brothers immigrated to the United States more than 20 years ago.
Lemmus's brothers, who live in Texas, urged him to consider Canada as an alternative.
"Canada is different from the U.S. There is less racism, less crime, fewer drugs," he said.
For the past five years, the number of skilled workers admitted to Canada from Mexico has hovered at 400 to 500 a year. The reported spike in this year's numbers won't be evident until they are released next year by the federal government.
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`Canada is different from the U.S. There is less racism, less crime, fewer drugs'
Daniel Lemmus, a teacher in Guadalajara
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According to the 2001 census, there are 36,000 Mexican-born people living in Canada, 4,370 of them in Greater Toronto — tiny compared with many of the city's immigrant communities.
"It's definitely picked up significantly. It seems to be a growing movement," said David Rosenblatt, a Canadian immigration lawyer whose firm advertises in Mexico.
Claudia Jimenez is a 31-year-old elementary schoolteacher in Mexico City. Her reasons for leaving are typical: "There are not too many opportunities, salaries are low.... Corruption is everywhere," she said.
She describes Canada as a "better option" than the U.S., where she says people are arrogant and racist. "I've been there and haven't felt comfortable."
If she succeeds in her bid to immigrate, she hopes to find work as a teacher. Friends who have already made the move have been reassuring. "I think it's a great place to live in," she said.
Some say it is too soon to draw conclusions about why more Mexicans seem to be choosing Canada over the U.S. "At this stage, we do not see a direct cause-effect relationship," said Duberlis Ramos, executive director of the Hispanic Development Council in Toronto.
He said Mexicans who have made Canada their choice rarely regret it, however.
Eduardo Barillas, owner of the upscale restaurant Latitude Wine Bar and Grill on Harbord St., and a former banker, came to Canada four years ago from Mexico City.
"Canada is a marvellous country and offers me and my family a better quality of life," he said.
Another Mexican happy with the decision to come to Canada is Francisco Conde, who did not want his real name used.
Now 32, he arrived in Canada four years ago on a student visa and is finishing a master's degree in aquaculture at the University of Guelph. He hopes to have landed-immigrant status this year.
Settling here, he admits, was more of a struggle than he first anticipated. Still, he is happy with his standard of living, and the "open spaces and clean air." He predicts the door between the two countries will swing wide open. "People are just beginning to wake up to the possibility of Canada."
with files from naomi carniol
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reporter
May 24, 2005. 01:00 AM
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Had to move to U.S. to find work
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Canada: Promised land or stopover?
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May 23.
Lost in the discussion of "underemployed foreign-trained professionals in Toronto" is the fact that Canadian-trained professionals are also underemployed. When I completed my electrical engineering degree at Queen's University and looked for work in Toronto, the message from industry was clear — just like any other similarly-skilled Canadian, immigrant or not, if I wanted a career in Canada, I had to move to Ottawa or Calgary. Had I stayed near my family in Toronto, it would have been at the expense of my job prospects. Instead, like many other Canadians, I moved to San Francisco, where I can live in a world-class city and work in my chosen field. Here, skilled immigrants don't drive taxis; they drive the high-tech industry.
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Gabriel Desjardins,
San Francisco, Calif.
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