Eric Del Rosario and his wife came
to Canada
for the same reason that most immigrants do: for their children. And the kids
love it here, Del Rosario told the Straight at a coffee shop not far
from his home in Richmond.
“I don’t know how you can describe it in words,” Del Rosario said. “Your mind runs very fast compared to what is happening. Rather than hoping for something that you will find at the end of the tunnel, your mind is occupied with things that rob you of options in just trying to survive to pay the bills.”
With his head leaning heavily against his arm and a resigned expression on his face, Del Rosario described the weight that so much uncertainty has placed on his family. “If you call this depression, then, yes, [it is] depression.”
A comprehensive analysis of the mental health of immigrants in Canada found that the Del Rosarios are far from alone in their unhappiness. The study was drafted in November 2008 as a master’s thesis written by Mengxuan Annie Xu for the University of New Brunswick. Using results from the Canadian Community Health Survey, Xu found that even for the best-prepared, migration to Canada is a “potentially disruptive and stressful experience”.
According to Xu’s analysis, many newcomers to Canada struggle to adapt to the country’s economic and social institutions. Difficulties overcoming such challenges can affect immigrants’ long-term prospects of adjusting to a different culture, learning a new language, and performing in the labour market.
All of this is at the core of what can be described as a “health immigrant effect”, Xu wrote in her thesis.
A November 23 Statistics Canada report complements Xu’s work, stating that two-thirds of university-educated recent immigrants are overeducated for their current jobs. Furthermore, in 2008, 42 percent of all immigrants to Canada aged 25 to 54 had higher levels of education than their jobs require. A November 12 Statistics Canada report noted the impact that the recession has had on immigrants to Canada, stating that between October 2008 and October 2009, employment among immigrants declined 12.9 percent. (Over the same period, employment for Canadian-born workers only declined 2.2 percent.)
The picture that begins to emerge from Xu’s findings and the latest data from Statistics Canada is made more troubling by anecdotal evidence from British Columbia’s employment professionals, health-care workers, and immigrants themselves. What emerges is a picture of a vicious circle.
Skilled immigrants to Canada arrive with a sense of adventure and optimism, only to be beaten down by sometimes insurmountable barriers to meaningful employment. As rejection notices pile up, frustration can build to the point of depression. And as the months drag on and savings dwindle, mental-health problems can develop and adversely affect a person’s ability to get a job and deal with the day-to-day challenges of life in a new country.
Del Rosario and his family arrived in British Columbia in February 2008. An accomplished civil engineer in the Philippines with a background in the military, Del Rosario thought that his education and years of experience would lead to similar work in Vancouver. But after months spent dropping off résumés, Del Rosario found that the best he could do was work as a private security guard.
Refusing to be discouraged, Del Rosario also pursued a position with the Canadian Forces. “I thought maybe my engineering background and my military background could define what I do in Canada,” he explained. But Del Rosario’s family resisted this path and warned him of how dangerous it could be.
“I don’t have a problem with that,” Del Rosario stated. “I would rather die as a combat engineer rather than tomorrow I die kicking out a homeless person from Tim Horton’s at 4 in the morning.”
After months of correspondence, the Canadian Forces told Del Rosario that as a permanent resident and not yet a citizen, he was ineligible to serve. “It seemed that it was really hopeless that I would become an engineer here,” Del Rosario said.
