Indian migrants flock to Canada as Trump-era rules make US less attractive
The Mumbai-based couple "zeroed-in on Canada" after seeing how easily their friends and family members had adapted to life in the country - though they did have to brace themselves for "the extreme temperatures, snow and wind chills" of the frozen north, Irani said.
"Canada is the most immigrant-friendly country right now, and unlike in many others where it takes years to become a permanent resident, here we became [such] before arriving ... which gives a certain security," she said. "The real challenge, of course, starts after landing ... finding a job, a house, making friends, and settling down in the cold weather. One of the greatest challenges is finding a job that suits your qualifications and experience."
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Data from Statistics Canada found that currently, about 30,000 Indian nationals become Canadian permanent residents each year, making them the third-largest non-European immigrant group in the country after Chinese- and Filipino-Canadians.
Between 2016 and November 2019, the number of Indian nationals admitted as permanent residents in Canada grew 105 per cent from 39,705 to 80,685, according to a National Foundation for American Policy analysis of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada data. Canada has a points-based immigration system, which assesses applicants based on their skills and the country's need for them.
Canadian universities are also an increasingly attractive option for Indian students, particularly those with an interest in technology such as Abhishek Nagendra, who studied at the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management before finding a job in the city.
"Canada clearly stood out as it's home to some of the world's largest tech hubs and increasingly being recognised as a world leader in tech," he said, adding that the country "makes it easy for an international student to transition to work after graduation, which creates a path to permanent residence".
"Toronto itself is one of the most diverse cities in the world, with more than half the population being foreign-born. This depth of multiculturalism was refreshing and encouraging," Nagendra added.
The first documented migrants to Canada from the Indian subcontinent moved in the 19th century and were of Punjabi Sikh origin, many of whom went on to become successful entrepreneurs. In the 1970s, they were joined by migrants from the Gujarati community and people of Indian descent from former British colonies such as Tanzania and Uganda. Today, in the city of Woodstock, around 100km from Toronto, 80 per cent of the inhabitants are Sikhs, and Canada's House of Commons now has 18 Sikh MPs.
Modern-day migrants face their fair share of issues too. Scams are common, especially those targeting new arrivals who are not aware of Canadian laws, and there have recently been tensions between Sikhs and Hindus, with the former supporting farmers' protests in India and the latter believing that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government is making the right move to open the agriculture market to private buyers. Sikhs in India and members of the diaspora have also been accused by Indian police of having links to a movement rallying for an independent Sikh homeland called Khalistan.
Neilesh Bose, an associate professor of history at Canada's University of Victoria said Indian migrants, like other migrants, faced similar problems of assimilation, including experiences of racism and visa and job-related challenges.
But "a thriving and diverse Indo-Canadian set of communities across the country and the various connections enabled by the internet, allow for much more access to Canadian life than in earlier eras, " he added.
Added Ken Nickel-Lane, managing director of Newland Chase Canada immigration and visa services consultancy: "Canada has more straightforward immigration programmes than the US, and for the past four years as the US administration was finding ways to create barriers to immigration, Canada was doing precisely the opposite."
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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