This first-person article is the experience of Misbah Noor who lives in Calgary. For more information on CBC’s first-person stories, please see the FAQ.
I believe there is a light at the end of every dark tunnel, but it took years to find it after we moved to Canada.
My husband and I moved to Calgary with our two children—ages five and two—in 2015. We started looking for work right away and were full of hope because my husband had been a branch manager in a recognized bank of Pakistan. But we were in for a shock. The only job he found to begin with was installing carpet.
After a week of work, he looked exhausted and said, “When I was walking up the stairs in our apartment building, I wished I had a house without stairs. My legs hurt so much.”
The next morning, he changed back into his work clothes, which were torn and in bad shape at the knees. His black shirt faded from being washed every day. His hands were full of cracks from the dust and dryness of the work.
“I can’t even stand today,” he said.
He left and I sat down with my cup of tea. All I could think was, why are we here?
Misbah Noor and her daughter inside her first apartment in Calgary in 2015. (Submitted by Misbah Noor)
We were not happy. We lived in a small apartment with little furniture and missed our family and friends back home. Every day we worried about what the next day would bring.
Moving to another country gives you a different picture of life and transforms you into a new person. My brother applied to come to Canada on my behalf in 2008 when I was still single. I was excited to move in, happy to take the required language tests and gather the many documents.
But it took a long time, seven years before we finally got our permanent resident visas in the mail. Meanwhile, I got married and had two children.
I still wanted to come to Canada, hoping for better job opportunities, higher wages and a better future for the children. But now that we had young children, the struggle to reset was much greater than we had anticipated.
After I finished the tea, I began desperately looking for work. I have a master’s degree in education, but filling out job applications online was new to me and every job I found required Canadian work experience.
It was a life of constant stress.
I’m usually shy, but I started talking to strangers: people in my building, parents at my kids’ school, people in the library. I asked them how to get a job here. They would leave me a link to some recruitment companies and websites that I couldn’t understand.
I really wanted to work so my husband could go back to school – Misbah Noor
I lost almost 22 pounds due to stress and eating less to save money. I really wanted to work so my husband could go back to school and get a good job. But none of us were lucky.
He was interviewed for a position as a financial advisor at a bank and then paid $1,200 to a private company to try to become a transit operator. But each time the hiring managers turned him down, saying “your English is not good” or “you don’t have Canadian education or work experience.”
We felt disappointed and worthless. Canadian officials accepted us because of our education. Our documents were witnessed so many times in the process, we thought that our qualifications would be valued here. We were wrong.
Finally, after two and a half years, I took a break. My son came home from school one day and told me that a cafeteria supervisor was leaving.
It took years for Misbah Noor and her husband to find a good job and feel financially secure again after moving to Canada. (Submitted by Misbah Noor)
I rushed to meet the director. I told him about my career and home teaching experience. After patiently listening to my struggle, he told me how to apply. She guided me through the entire process, from creating an account for the job application to structuring my resume to meet the job requirements.
I got this part-time job. My husband then got a job as a forklift operator in an oil and gas supply warehouse that had better hours and was easier on his body than carpet installation. We still couldn’t afford for her to upgrade her degree at school, so I did a two-year course to become an education assistant. Then finally, six years after we first moved, he landed a position as an oil and gas price analyst with no improvement.
Those early days were so uncertain. I remember the day he called after I got the price analyst job. I cried with joy, hugged my children and was very grateful to God. I thought this would be the end of our hardships and stress. As we went shopping together for his dress shirts, pants and shoes, I fought back tears.
In January I started working as an educational assistant and we bought a house where my children can jump, run and play freely.
But the stress of the past seven years had lasting effects. After going through so much, I still feel tired and anxious about everyday problems. I feel like my memory was affected by chronic stress and now my husband has high blood pressure, cholesterol and diabetes. We think this is also related. This is the price we paid to get to where we are now.
In the end, we found financial stability and made our home in Canada. So this is a story of moving from disappointment to hope, deception to knowledge, failure to success, and nervousness to confidence. But if I could go back in time, I would think twice before immigrating. It’s harder than we thought.
Telling your story
CBC Calgary is hosting a series of in-person writing workshops across the city to help community members tell their own stories. This is a first-person column from a workshop organized by the Genesis Center. To learn more about our writing workshops or to suggest a community organization that could help, email CBC Producer Elise Stolte or visit cbc.ca/tellingyourstory.