Salaams Stardust
Im a Canadian that moved from Toronto to London, and I love England( i love Canada too-but biased). I think if your use to your family being near by and having an auntie popping around every aftenoon you will miss it immensely. Canada can be quite secluded when it comes to your friends and family and is very formal. Alot of the Desi's are very "Goray". You can quite easily find the sharabi paki there too. People try so hard to fit the part. In England it is still looked down upon if you see a guy/girl with a non pak/ind or even muslim in Canada its the norm. Though Canadian love to say they are multicultural but the only thing multicultural about Canada are pple skin colour. I moved back to Canada for a few years but as I had children i noticed my kids were loosing their roots and ther deen. Its very easy to lose who and what you are living in Canada. We decided to move back as my kids can be British and stll go to Juma prayers without feeling they are missing out on there lunch. My whole family lives in Markham, and well we are quite islamic compared to the average paki in T.O. but as the third generation of kids are growing up we can see how much they are losing their own culture to keep up with this so called multicultural society. Jobs are not there, salary is not good when compared to the UK and housing is cheaper than the UK but i think cost of living (rent- bills taxes) is higher. I hope you love Canada but remember sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. Sorry if I have offended any lovely Canadians, I still absolutely love Canada. The air is cleaner the water is sweeter but there are some flaws...
sumosabs...I am really sorry that you felt like this while in Canada, as I have always felt that in the cities I lived in, the most changed (from typical Pakistani perspective) Pakistani community is the one living in UK...or that is what I have experienced living in Middlesex.
Whenever I call my to most of the Pakistani ppl I interact with, in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver they pick up the phone and say "Asalam-o-Alaikum" in perfect Pakistani accent as they are being exposed to Arabic and Urdu on pretty regular basis. As a whole Canada is much more conservative society as compared to Europe where PD(X)A ........:) is extremely common so kids at very young age get used to almost everything done in bedroom.
I still feel that typical pakistani cultural teachings are much more deep rooted in generations which immigrated to Canada, largely because they have maintained very strong relations within their silos (which does have few pitfalls too) but from your perspective I would say, desis are much more conservative living in Calgary as compared to London, I know if one is comparing typical Southall then its a different story but by and large, I have seen much more participation in all religious festivities by the younger generation.
And all in all, it also depends on the type of company that one gets exposed to, in our circle, recent hijabis are six in number and their teachings to the kids are totally islamic and their kids go to Islamic school and its rating in Public School System is also pretty good, as students from this school is getting admission in good universities....
As for Sharabi Pakistani...I like this term, the moment you sit in aeroplane from Karachi on any internation flight, the first thing any desi motey uncle would ask for "Sharab", it has nothing to do with UK, US, Aus, or Pak. The social fabric of our nation is on decline and it is much much much more apparently on decline nowhere but in itself in Pakistan, where all supposedly good school and colleges are inundated with drugs, alcohol as compared to average schools. So so called achey barey gharney are most westernized (only to get bad habits of westerners)* and then they become role model of average citizen, thus confusing them...and result is total disaster.
As for economic condition (which has direct and positive correlation with living standards), I would get shock of my life, if anyone would place UK's economy better than Canada's........no way UK can even come closer to standard of living in Canadian cities, if you think I talk too much, you can always refer to World Health Organization's recent study of top 100 cities to live in, and you can find out which cities make the top 50.
And another measure is to determine how many native ppl from UK have migrated to Canada (obviously for some reason) and how many Canadians have migrated to UK for work.
I like what libranrulz has written, home is where heart is..........and exactly that is sooo true.
Stardust09...you'll know when you hear an immediate ringing in your head/heart and mind....lol when you arrive in any city where you really wanna have a home!
Best of luck and do a lot of research before finally deciding which city/area is best for you to start a new life, as it is very very important knowing we have finite time in our life and we should the make the most out of it! Cheers
