How do some immigrants to the United States choose to move to New York City?
It’s an immigrant city, mostly as the result of being the official gateway for immigrants for many years. The city is full of neighborhoods where people from various countries have built communities that support their languages and customs, where they can buy food, clothing, and decor that suits their traditions. Chinatown. Little Italy. Little Saigon. These are not seen as ghettos or banlieus but a thoroughly accepted and integrated part of city life, that other people visit to taste the food and drink in atmosphere. So anyone coming to New York will have a neighborhood where they can get a taste of home and socialize with people who speak the same language.New Yorkers see no conflict between a strong source-country identity and a strong assimilated American identity, and proudly embrace both. When I grew up on Long Island, one of the first things you asked a new friend was “where are you from?” What we meant, of course, was “What country did your family come here from?” because nearly everyone was from somewhere else; I think in my childhood I only met one person whose family hadn’t immigrated within the last three generations. If they said “Italian”, you knew that meant that their family was 100% American in every regard, but likely to have a grandmother who cooked kick-ass Italian food, was Catholic, and had great stories to tell about the “old country.” Your Irish friend as likely to have a big family party on St. Patrick’s Day. Asking about immigrant roots was as natural to us as asking after a friend’s hobbies, or what classes they were taking; it was part of what made them interesting as people.It was an utter shock to me to move down south when I was older and realize that 1) almost everyone there came from the same background, and 2) asking about their background was perceived as weird, and borderline rude.New York is the closest thing we have to a true “melting pot”, where folks from other countries can celebrate their roots and their American identity at the same time, and society as a whole will celebrate both with them.That said, I live outside DC now, and it’s got a lot of those same qualities. I taught a high school class with 28 students, who between them represented 22 different ethnic backgrounds. Many of them first or second generation American. I can totally understand why a new immigrant would want to live in a place like that.
Should an immigrant choose Vancouver or Toronto? Why?
Both are great cities, but each has it’s own unique features. What are you looking for?If you would like to work in finance, international trade, information technology, the automobile industry, or telecommunication, Toronto would offer more opportunities. That said, the larger US IT companies are expanding into Vancouver, and it is catching up. Do you plan to work in the forestry, tourism, health foods, or lifestyle brands industries? Then Vancouver has the edge. As far as the film and television industry is concerned, animation, post production work etc are equally done in both Toronto and Vancouver, though if you are keen on working independently, the Ontario Media Development Corporation offers fantastic support in Toronto. Want to raise a family? Both cities have excellent public schools with the world’s highest PISA scores. Both cities have excellent universities as well, and the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia each has it’s own respective strengths, and both institutions are admired the world over. If you plan to work in international trade, then Vancouver might be a better place to do business with China, Japan, Korea etc from, while Toronto would be a better place to do business with the US due to it’s connection with both New York and Chicago.Finally, there’s the weather - Toronto can get cold in the winter, and Vancouver can get wet and gray any time of the year. Both have their charms, and both are wonderful places to live if you have the opportunity to live and work there. Best wishes! You will not have any regret whichever of these lovely cities you choose!
Question about airline background check (employment history)?
I'm applying airline job as a FA. And I'm going to go to a final interview. I'm an immigrant and I'm wondering how do they do the background check to my origin country? I don't worry about the criminal or DUI check cause I never have. I have a healthy life style (no smoking, no alcohol....) I concern about my employment history. I had job with a company with financial problem. I quit after two month (and other coworkers too) I'm a responsible person and I always want a stable job. But I never have a fair treatment job in my origin country. Always overwork and underpaid. But I don't want to bring any negative work experience while interview. Anyway, how do the airlines check immigrant applicant's background or even call their former boss to their origin country ? Do they do very detail check?Or they just check from homeland security's immigration document?
Why do immigrants want to immigrate to the United States rather than other developed countries like the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, or Australia?
I am one of the immigrants who indeed had a choice. I lived in France, traveled around Europe for quite a bit, and currently living in the US. For me, the major difference is the ability to feel included. I couldn't feel that the European societies would ever make me feel like I belong there. Instead, I felt that my immigrant sub-identity would always supersede any possible European identity. In the US, I felt much more comfortable as most of the people didn't care where I was from. I felt that if I called myself American, nobody would judge me. So far, nobody cared about my sub-identity other than where I am currently living. On the contrary, I believe even 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants in Europe experience problems to merge identities.Of course it is important to note that the places I've lived in the US are NY and CA. Extremely diverse and liberal places. However, my European experiences were not with rural towns either, so I believe the comparison is fair.