By Dr. Sawraj Singh

          I have lived in America for forty years, I frequently visited Canada and also went to the UK. I had the opportunity to talk to many immigrants, writers, thinkers, social activists, health care workers including psychiatrists. While there are exceptions to every rule yet there are some generalizations that seem to apply to most of the immigrants. It seems that many of them go through these three phases in their course. The first phase can be called Economic Struggle. Generally this phase lasts from the age 20 to 40. The second phase can be called Cultural Deprivation lasting from the age 40 to 50. The third phase can be called Poor Health, this starts after the age 50.                                                                                                                     

                Most of the immigrants are in their twenties when they migrate. Most of them have to go through a very tough economic struggle to settle. Their priorities are finding a stable job, buying a car and buying a house. On the top of these some have to send money back home to fulfill their liabilities. In this phase they have very little time for anything else like getting deeply involved in social, cultural and familial issues. Generally this phase lasts till they are about 40.                                                                                   

          

      The second phase starts around 40. By this time most of the immigrants have achieved reasonable economic stability. They have now some time to ponder about the family and also about social and cultural issues. Many of them realize that their families have undergone tremendous cultural changes. The cultural values of the children, who are now in their teens, are not only very different than their own values, sometimes those can be diametrically  opposite to their own values. Some  feel betrayed. Some get feelings of worthlessness that they were unable to pass their cultural values to their children. Some even feel guilty for being unable to pass on their culture and values to their children. Many feel a sense of cultural loss.                                                                                                                                                                

                After the age 50 many immigrants start suffering from both physical and mental ailments, the most common physical ailments are High Blood Pressure, Diabetes and Heart Disease. Some even develop Liver or Kidney Failure. The most common mental disease is Depression. As the people get older and older their health deteriorates further. Eventually, some of these people start carrying big boxes of medicines. I have seen some people taking 10 to 20 different kinds of medicines in a day.                                        

   

            Many times, the story of immigration does not have a happy ending. However, we see a completely one sided Alice in Wonderland story about immigration told in Punjab. The IELTS centers, the immigration agents and the Canadian Government all painting such a rosy picture about immigration that if there is a heaven on the earth then it has to be in Canada. Punjab has about 2% of India's population. However, it has more IELTS centers than the rest of India. This is probably the case with the immigration agents. The IELTS industry in Punjab is now bigger than any other industry. This industry has only one goal, to convince people that Punjab is no longer livable and there is only one thing left for the Punjabis to do is to migrate to Canada.                                                                                                                          

                 However, when you talk to the immigrants, particularly the elderly then you get a very different impression about Canada. Who should one believe? I feel that the one who does not have to sell you something is more believable. Canada, like every other place on the earth is neither a heaven nor a hell. Canada has many good points. However, there are some things that are not very good. People should make a very well balanced decision about migration. This decision should not be based upon one sided information. Otherwise, there may not be a happy ending of your story about migration.     

   Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at sawrajsingh@hotmail.com.