For
many years I supported myself as an immigration consultant, facilitating
hundreds of peoples' applications to move to Canada. In almost every
instance I found that had the living conditions in their home countries
been more favourable they would not have made the very difficult and
expensive move to Canada regardless how wonderful it was made out
to be. In other words virtually every voluntary immigrant, to say
nothing about refugees from persecution or war torn countries, made
of themselves exiles from their own lands to better their lives and
the lives of their children. Using the standard manual used by most
immigration lawyers and consultant practitioners, I have tried to
evoke the deep sense of displacement and alienation most immigrants
feel once the initial euphoria of arrival in a strange new land has
worn off and the realities of adaptation and integration into a society,
where the immigrant knows virtually no one, make themselves felt on
a daily basis.