The dream of making it big in Canada is turning into a battle for survival for many immigrants due to the high cost of living and rental shortages, as rising emigration numbers hints to newcomers being forced to turn their back on a country that they chose to make their adopted home.
Trudeau has made immigration his main weapon to blunt Canada’s big challenge of an aging and slowing population, and it has also helped fuel economic growth. That drove Canada’s population up at its fastest clip in more than six decades this year, Statistics Canada said.
But now a reversal of that trend is gradually taking hold. In the first six months of 2023 some 42,000 individuals departed Canada, adding to 93,818 people who left in 2022 and 85,927 exits in 2021, official data show.
The rate of immigrants leaving Canada hit a two-decade high in 2019, according to a recent report from the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), an immigration advocacy group. While the numbers went down during pandemic lockdowns, Statistics Canada data shows it is once again rising.
Ya I’m 29 years old born in Canada and have a really good job but living here is starting to not look sustainable. A small bag of groceries here is like 100 dollars it’s fucking mental. Rent starts at 2500. Gf and I are toying with the idea of relocating to Iceland, where the cost of living is actually lower and wages are higher lmao
Canada has essentially just become a housing pyramid scheme, actual work has become worthless
Iceland is in their own dumpster fire with housing. You’re better off in continental Europe if you can get a visa. You also have the New Zealand working holiday option, which is a good time. I toyed with Iceland and have close friends there, it’s rough to get housing, cost of living is expensive because everything is shipped in.
A pint of blueberries in Iceland which was shipped in is cheaper than if I go to the blueberry farm up the road from me and pick them myself
Not sure what you are paying but I checked a retail survey of fresh fruit and berries in Iceland and they are about 21g/$ CAD fresh where the current price of fresh organic blueberries is 36g/$ at my local Edmonton Walmart.
Iceland has a local blueberry harvest so not sure how that affects pricing but looks cheaper in Canada. Also upick are often priced above market now, its a family experience more than a way to get affordable food like when I was a kid. Just my two cents.
Iceland, Interesting. I really want to visit but I never considered living there.
You like colder weather? Seems like there are other places that might be a little warmer?
The weather in Iceland is absolutely terrible. That is a definite downside. A lot of people who move to Iceland leave after their first winter. But because of that, talented folks in Iceland who do my line of work usually gtfo to mainland Europe, which is creating job openings that accept English speakers.
Iceland also has functional healthcare and no crime. You don’t even have to lock your car. I am sick of not even trusting my neighbours here in Canada.
Iceland has a housing crisis too but I think we’d be making so much money it would be a non issue.
Weed is also super illegal and expensive in Iceland :(
Fight to make your country better! Otherwise, you’ll just contribute to the creation/enlargement of the same problem in some other place. Natives do not want that and start being very wary of digital nomads because of this.
I’m not a digital nomad, it would be a permenant relocation. Iceland needs immigrants too
Don’t leave Canada. It is freaken awesome there. I would love to go into semi-retirement there one day.
Haha retire in Canada, good one
I would love to stay here too but it’s just not realistic anymore
Semi-retire. It is pretty common in my field. Some engineer who comes in one day a week or so on average as a consultant. There isn’t exactly a shortage of chemical/factory operations there and the tech/standards you guys use is near identical.
In any case I am like +30 years from that so who knows what the situation will be.
