Departure... Displacement...Migration... Immigration

Are there lessons we can learn from Sophia’s story?

Sophia had to come to Canada. When she first moved here she lived in Ontario with other Bahamian immigrants. It was hard for her to leave her family and friends behind but at least she was with other people from her country. After meeting her lover they decided to move to Granby in a French community even if she had never spoken French.  She went from an English community with people from her country to a French community with nobody from the Bahamas. It must have been really hard for her to integrate in a society that doesn’t share her culture or language.  At least her good education must have helped her when she arrived because she only had to do a course to have her diploma approved here in order to get a job. Her story shows that we have to be persistent to get what we want. She had to do a course to get her diploma approved to get a job, she had to learn our language, she had to make new friends and she had to find a place to live. It must be really hard to know what to do when you move to a place you have never been before. Another lesson we can learn from them is that anything is possible. Immigrants arrive here with nothing but they can become successful.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHgow can we participate in our community to help immigrants and refugees integrate and to help them avoid poverty?

I believe each immigrant has to get French courses when they immigrate in Quebec. The best way to integrate to a community is to at least be able to speak their language. When an immigrant doesn’t have the language of the country it is harder to find a job for them because every job requires the ability to speak to other people. Another way to help immigrants integrate to our community is to encourage them to study and help them receive loans and bursaries for school. They also need some professionals to help them find jobs they are going to like. I believe the best two ways to have immigrants integrate is to have them interact with the population of the country they immigrate in. To be able to do this they need to be able to speak the language everybody speaks. Too many immigrants arrive in Canada and go live in ethnic communities.  They never speak our language or interact with the rest of our community. Another good way to have them interact with us is to help them get a job. When they work they have to speak and work with Canadian people. Having a job also helps people make friends and when people arrive here they don’t have many friends. Friends will also help them and encourage them to integrate better in our society and share our culture with them.

Should we participate/get involved in helping immigrants integrate or should we leave it up to the professionals?

I believe that immigrants need friends in order to integrate to a community. The only way for them to have friends is for us to be opened minded and to accept them in our society. Too many immigrants go live in ethnic groups because they feel different and don’t know what to do to get accepted by the society. The professionals need to be there to guide them during their immigrating process. For example to have them do French or English courses or help them find a program at school or even to help them get a job. Once an immigrant knows our language and has a job, it is up to us to accept them in our community and interact with them. They need to be with people from the country they immigrate to and not only people with their culture. It is people from their societies that have to show them our culture and not teachers.

If I would arrive to a new country and not know anybody I would like it if there would be professionals to help me at first to get a job, learn the language and help me find a place to live in. After that I would like some resources to be in place if I have any problems or questions but I think professional help should only be there at first to help the immigrants when they arrive. Then for the next few years someone should be there only if people need more help. In other word help should be there at first but then only when needed.

Poverty...

How to help people escape poverty?

I believe the best way to escape poverty would be by education. Unfortunately, education is inaccessible for too many. The best way to counter poverty would then be to make education more available for everyone and mostly for the low income families. Something the government should do is giving rebates to students who come from low income families and who would normally not study after high school because it’s too expensive. One more thing people should focus more on is encouragement. For too many having a good education is not a priority because nobody has ever pushed them and helped them during their studies. People need to have education as a goal in life in order not live in poverty. For example, the Asian people have extremely high expectations for their children and they need to succeed in school. In general, Asian people succeed more than North American students. There needs to be a balance between fun and education and teenagers need to be stimulated by parents, friends and teachers. People need to see learning as something fun and not something they have to do to become rich.

What are the effects of poverty?

Poverty can lead to many mental and self-esteem problems. For example if everyone around someone has better thing that that person, this is going to make that person feel not as good as everyone else. There is pressure on everyone to always have more and more but to have more people need more money but to have more money people have to work more. In the end people are not happier because they don’t have enough fun in life. For someone living in absolute poverty, their whole life is different. The first thing a human needs is its basic needs fulfilled. It is after those needs are fulfilled that someone can have a good quality of life.

What creates poverty?

Poverty is when someone lacks a certain amount of money or possessions. In other words, it is the comparison between everyone in the society and you. For example, someone who earns less than 14400 $ per year in Quebec is considered poor because it is less than the low income cut –off (LICO). This means that people earning less than 14400$ per year in Quebec are the ones who earn the least in the society. For a country where people are less fortunate, 14400$ would be a lot of money because the low income cut-off (LICO) is much lower. Someone who is considered to be in the middle class in Quebec could also be considered poor if you compare that person to a rich neighborhood in Los Angeles. Someone who is poor is someone who has less than the average person around them.

Absolute poverty is when a person can’t fulfill it’s basic needs as a human being. The human basic needs are access to clean and fresh water, nutrition, health care, education, clothing and shelter. It is estimated that about 1,7 billion humans are living every day in absolute poverty.

There are many reasons for poverty. In under developed countries, the average person is poor. One problem they have is that they have too many children. In the developed countries, people usually have less children. The consequence is that the wealth is not shared between as many people. Not long ago, parents in Quebec had a lot more children than today. Families who would have lived well if like families today, they would have had only two or three children lived poorly because of the size of their families. It is in the poorest countries that people have the most children. This is not helping them to get wealthier. Another problem is access to a good education. For too many, education is something inaccessible. In wealthier countries it is too expensive and in under developed, education is too expansive and inaccessible to most of the population. The best way to escape poverty is by getting a good education. Unfortunately, too many people can’t afford to go to school. One problem our society has is the amount of teenager who doesn’t get a superior education. During their education children and teenagers need to be encouraged and stimulated to get higher studies. There needs to be a greater social awareness of what happens when you don’t study and work hard to get a good job. Success needs to be a more important for people who don’t want to live under the low income cut-off.

Communities :)

What is a community?

A community is a group of interacting people. It often refers to a group that share the same values or thoughts. A community can be as large as a country or a nation or a small as a family.  In biology a community is a group of organisms living or sharing the same environment and interacting with one another but when referring to humans, communities are a little more complex.

Citizenship is the state of being a citizen in a particular community. For example, someone can be part of a political, national or social community. A citizen can either participate in his community or not. For example someone does not have to vote but when he does he is an active citizen although in certain communities people have obligations.

Here are some examples of communities:

·         Town

·         Country

·         Language

·         Sports teams

·         Religion

·         Family

·         Ethnic groups

What does it mean to be part of a community?

Somme communities are optional like the town you live in or the sports team you are in. In those communities you can make the choice whether you want to be part of them or not. There are some communities you are born in and in which you will be in for your whole life. Things like you family, your language, your ethnicity or your religion are usually not changed during a lifetime. What communities all have in common is the way members have obligations and advantages for being part of them. For example, being part of a country has obligations like paying taxes or voting but also has benefits like a health care or an educational system. Leaving communities can have negative impacts on someone’s life. For example an Islamic person who leaves his family and marries someone from another religion will have consequences like losing his heritage. The polygamist and Amish communities also have strict rules and when people leave, they get banned and ignored by their friends and family. People have the choice to be part or not of the community but being part or not has consequences.


Every organisation is related to one another and has consequences on others. In other words being part of a group has positive and negative aspects. It has its responsibilities and obligations but also its advantages.