Studying in Canada: A "Class Reunion" for Three People

In the life of immigrants in Toronto, Canada, there are many elements of Chinese style. "If You Are the One" hosted by Meng Fei is extremely popular and has become popular all over the country. People in Nanjing either don't watch it, but those who do will feel particularly familiar with it. Nanjing native Zhou Yi (pseudonym) was no exception. He admired Meng Fei's hosting style, but for a while, he had to reach out and turn off the TV. ?This feeling is so weird. ?If it wasn't already bright, he would have thought that he was still living in Nanjing and could go to bed after the show. In fact, as an immigrant from Toronto, Canada, he is separated from Nanjing by the entire Pacific Ocean.

Zhou Yi obtained permanent residency in Canada in August last year and came to Toronto with his wife and daughter at the end of that month. Like many people who have immigrated overseas in recent years, Zhou Yi's family immigrated for the sake of their children. ?Here, the educational environment is much healthier than at home. ?

As for whether a new wave of immigrants has really formed as the number of immigrants has increased in recent years, Zhou Yi was noncommittal, but he answered with a special class reunion.

Half an hour

An end to four years of waiting

One day at the end of August last year, when Zhou Yi, his wife, and daughter stepped off the airplane ramp, As he walked towards the Toronto airport hall, a stone hanging in his heart fell to the ground. Although almost half a month ago, he had received the confirmation letter of "successful immigration" from the Canadian Immigration Department, that is, the family of three had obtained permanent residence in Canada, but he was not at ease. He felt that only? After successfully logging in, the matter is finally settled.

As soon as they entered the airport lobby, there was a "Chinese face" speaking in Chinese who led their family into a special passage for exiting customs. They were blocked in this passage and waited for almost half an hour for all the procedures to be completed.

? Half an hour, we can afford to wait. ?Zhou Yi said that they had waited for 4 full years from applying for immigration in 2007 to passing the review last year. ?Compared with 4 years, half an hour is just a blink of an eye. ?

After that, they first took a car and then changed to the subway to go to their new home in Toronto, a two-bedroom, two-living room with a usable area of ??more than 90 square meters. The house is rented, and the rental procedures have been completed in advance in China. Zhou Yi said that in order to allow his daughter, who is a freshman in high school in China, to enter a local middle school as soon as possible, he did not want to wait until he arrived in Toronto to bother and waste time looking for a house. The experience of many new immigrants tells him that finding a suitable house is not an easy task.

For the sake of the children

I have to go out no matter what

Zhou Yi is 45 years old and a native of Nanjing. After graduating from university in the 1980s, he was first assigned Work in a public institution. It didn't take long, because he felt that the work was too "restful", so he went to sea and set up a company, doing domestic trade and foreign trade successively. Finally, he made the company's main business fall on cultural brokerage and advertising. Over the past 10 years, my career has been successful inadvertently.

As far as immigration is concerned, the first person who influenced him was Ye Jing (pseudonym). Ye Jing is Zhou Yi's college classmate. In 2005, Zhou Yi took his wife and daughter to Singapore for a trip, and Ye Jing received them as the host. At that time, Ye Jing was working in Singapore with her children. Ye Jing got on well with Zhou Yi's wife Wu Xinruo (pseudonym), and she suggested that they let their daughter Zhou Ting (pseudonym) study in Singapore. Zhou Ting was in the fourth grade of primary school in Nanjing at the time.

?I’m really moved. ?Zhou Yi said that after seeing the education method in Singapore, which is a humanized education that is completely different from the test-oriented education in China that revolves around scores,??What I want to say is that people really treat children as human beings. Treat it. ?

Because the matter was so important, they did not make an immediate decision. Instead, they asked Wu Xinruo to extend her vacation. At the same time, they asked Zhou Ting to take a leave of absence from a primary school in Nanjing. In this way, Wu Xinruo would accompany her daughter to study in Singapore. Try it for a while.

?Three months later, they came back. ?Zhou Yi said that one reason was that the child was too young, and the other was that Wu Xinruo couldn't leave her job. But for the sake of his daughter's future, Zhou Yi has always been concerned about helping her study abroad at the right time.

The second person who had an impact on Zhou Yi was not a specific individual, but Channel 18 of Nanjing TV Station. In 2006, Zhou Yi got a piece of information on Channel 18: Studying abroad is not as good as immigrating. The host found the person involved in the program to give his own account and calculated a financial calculation: sending a child to study abroad will cost a lot of money, including agency fees, tuition and living expenses; if the immigration process is successful, not only will pre-college education be free, etc. If you go to university, the university fees are only a quarter of the cost of studying abroad. So Zhou Yi turned his attention to immigration.

Toronto

4 years of hard work, once realized

In 2006, immigration was not as popular as it is today, and there were not many immigration agencies in Nanjing. At that time, companies involved in overseas business were still mainly engaged in studying abroad. That year, in order to become familiar with and understand the relevant policies and possibilities of immigration as soon as possible, Zhou Yi learned about the situation online on the one hand, and went to the immigration company for consultation on the other.

The main immigration countries at that time were similar to those now. Zhou Yi said, mainly Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Singapore, and some countries in Europe. After some comparison and screening, Zhou Yi and Wu Xinruo chose Canada, and then chose Toronto between Vancouver and Toronto.

?At that time, Canada’s investment immigration procedures were relatively simple and the fees were relatively cheap. ?Zhou Yi said that he chose Toronto because this city is the second largest city in North America after New York and its education is the best in Canada.

Zhou Yi officially applied for immigration through an agency in 2007. At that time, Canada's immigration policy was: you must have legal assets of 600,000 Canadian dollars; you must pay an investment of 400,000 Canadian dollars, which will be repaid without interest within 5 years after you successfully immigrate. Zhou Yi said that another way to pay investment funds is to directly pay bank interest of 400,000 yuan.

Most Chinese people choose this method. You only need to pay 120,000 Canadian dollars that year together with the agency fee. ?Zhou Yi said that in 2007, immigration was not popular yet, so people who applied for immigration could bargain with intermediary companies. After a battle of wits and courage, Zhou Yi finally paid more than 100,000 Canadian dollars, which is more than 500,000 yuan, and the process was completed.

After the price was negotiated, Zhou Yi began to prepare materials in accordance with the requirements of the Canadian immigration department, and the agency sent these materials to the Canadian immigration department as part of the application, waiting for their review and approval.

?The most important part of the materials is that you must prove the source of your assets, your first income, your tax payment certificate, your house purchase contract, and proof of the source of the purchase money, etc. ?In Zhou Yi’s view, the reason why the Canadian immigration department attaches so much importance to the legality of income is because they want to introduce law-abiding, honest people and their families.

Since 2008, Zhou Yi, like many Chinese who are eager to immigrate, has become a waiter. ?There is nothing you can do about it. You have to wait. Immigration is not a simple economic act. You have to withstand a moral test. ?

There is a word card called "Good things are coming soon". After 4 years, good things happened for Zhou Yi. One day in August 2011, Zhou Yi's cell phone received a notification: There was a new email. And this is an email from the Canadian Immigration Department. The email says: Your application has been approved. You must land in Canada before a certain day of the month?

Or for the sake of the children?

Choose the right one School, suitable house

In 2007, when Zhou Yi applied for immigration, his daughter Zhou Ting was still a girl in the first grade of junior high school. When her immigration application was approved last year, she had already become a high school student.

Before the application was approved, Zhou Yi had already started looking for a suitable school and a house for his daughter. ?This should be my initiative. ?Zhou Yi said that in Canada, children must have a housing contract when enrolling in school, and the house and school are "bundled" together.

In order to choose the best school, that is, the most suitable school for his children, Zhou Yi consulted a lot of information online and finally settled on a school located in a new area of ??Toronto. ?That place is equivalent to Pudong in Shanghai. It is about 10 subway stops away from the old urban area and the transportation is very convenient. ?Zhou Yi said that in order to promote the children of new immigrants to integrate into society as soon as possible, Canadian schools have ELS courses for children whose native language is not English. That is, rapid English improvement courses are set up in primary and secondary schools in some school districts with a large proportion of immigrant families. Please Experienced teachers provide targeted teaching, and immigrant children's English proficiency will soon reach a higher level. Zhou Ting's school has such a course.

After the school was confirmed, Zhou Yi found a house near the school as quickly as possible and signed a rental contract with the landlord through a local friend in Toronto. ?It only takes seven or eight minutes to walk from the new home to the school. ?Zhou Yi said.

Same city, same school, same class

A special class reunion

Some media, after investigation, said that a large-scale trend has been emerging in China in recent years. Waves of immigration. Zhou Yi said that he had no access to macro data and did not know much about it. But an episode he told the Express reporter seemed to be evidence of this immigration wave.

One day two or three months after Zhou Yi arrived in Toronto, he received a phone call. The caller was Shen Jian (pseudonym), Zhou Yi’s college classmate. Shen Jian told Zhou Yi that he lived in another community not far from him, and he proposed that the two families have a meal and get together.

Zhou Yi agreed immediately. In fact, he was not unaware of Shen Jian's immigration to Canada. They met once when they were in Nanjing a few years ago. At that time, both of them submitted immigration applications and were waiting. However, Shen Jian had sent his daughter to Canada to study before the immigration was completed.

Shen Jian’s situation is similar to Zhou Yi’s. They both resigned and went to work in the early 1990s. He has been running a trading company and is very influential in the industry. After some friends successfully immigrated a few years ago, he started to think about it. His application was approved in 2010, one year earlier than Zhou Yi.

A week later, the two families met in Zhou Yi’s community.

The meal was arranged at a Chinese restaurant. This is a party where Nanjing dialect is the official language. In fact, they were not the only people who participated. Ye Jing, who had been working in Singapore a few years ago, also immigrated to Canada. Between Singapore and Canada, she finally chose Canada.

In the same city, same school, and same class, more than 20 years later, three old alumni held a unique "class reunion" in Toronto on the shores of the Great Lakes. Zhou Yi told reporters that the communities where the three of them live are only a 20-minute drive away from each other.

Immigration does not mean emigration

Nanjing is always my home

The word "immigration", according to the past understanding, means moving overseas and acquiring foreign nationality. Today, the interpretation of immigration is much broader. In fact, it means obtaining permanent residence in a certain country. Obtaining permanent residence does not mean that you have acquired foreign nationality and become a foreigner.

?I will not be naturalized. ?In the office of a cultural company in Nanjing, Zhou Yi said that it was impossible for him to truly make his home in Canada. He said that his main purpose of immigrating was to provide his children with a better education. In fact, he was very pleased to see the learning situation in the few months after immigrating. The learning style of Zhou Ting's high school is completely different from the exam-oriented education in China. There are many clubs, interest groups, and public welfare projects and activities in the school to choose from.

It’s hard to imagine that this is a high school. In China, students have long been under a tight spell. ?Zhou Yi said that he hopes that his children can gradually adapt to life in Toronto and, if possible, integrate into mainstream local life as they continue to receive university education.

?My career and social circle are all in China. ?So after staying in Toronto for less than half a year, Nanjing native Zhou Yi returned to Nanjing, which he is familiar with, in February this year.

The Canadian immigration department has strict regulations for new immigrants who obtain permanent residence. New immigrants must live in Canada for 2 years within 5 years before they can continue to obtain permanent residence. If they live in Canada for 3 years within 4 years, You can be naturalized. Zhou Yi said that he did not care about this provision and would not deliberately make things difficult for himself.

Zhou Yi said that in fact, there is no shortage of elements of Chinese culture in Toronto. If you feel homesick, turn on the TV and you can watch all domestic TV programs, including "If You Are the One" hosted by Nanjing People. ?However, the same Meng Fei, the same handsome man and beautiful woman, it feels too weird to see them in Toronto. ?Zhou Yi said he felt divided.

? Still comfortable and at ease in Nanjing. ?Zhou Yi said.