An Immigrant’s Story
August 2, 2018
For some immigrants, these business terms-- recession and depression-- are simply big words that they couldn’t relate to; they come across these terms only while reading newspapers reports on some developed countries experiencing economic downturns.
Frankly, I, myself, don’t even know the difference between these two financial words but I would normally link these expressions to the hardships back home: abject poverty, lack of jobs, homelessness, spiraling prices of basic commodities and the slow growth of the economy
Since I really don’t have enough knowledge about recession and depression, I’ve decided that maybe the best way is to get info from the Internet and I’ve learned that even economists don’t agree to a common definition of these terms.
And I’ve found a joke somewhere that says: “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job.”
This piece is about my first-hand experiences as I survived Canada’s recession in the early ‘90s.
When my family and I arrived in Canada in 1994, some people told us that the country was experiencing the tail end of the recession; the condition around us was gloomy-- not much economic activities, most people were not buying and few people were at malls and most people were idle due to job’s scarcity. Though some people had jobs, they still looked unhappy and anxious probably because the fear of losing their job was just like the sword of Damocles always hanging over their heads.
Despite this economic downturn, I got a job at a computer firm, a month after our arrival. Most of the Filipinos working there were wondering why I was able to get employed so easily. I got it simply because a good friend helped me by asking his manager to consider my employment application.
So, what’s the lesson? Aside from one’s skills and resume, having the networking of friends is vital in getting some jobs in this country.
In a cold winter in January 1995, my friends and I had a memorable experience--lining up for almost 10 hours, standing our grounds and slowly inching our way towards the makeshift tents to get hold of that much-coveted General Motors job application forms in Pickering.
We all endured the hardship, knowing that the GM jobs forms could mean getting a good-paying job in that auto company.
With more than 20,000 people lining up, we had to bear the long hours of standing and walking and by the time, we had gotten these forms, we were already too exhausted to fill them up.
While in the queue, I was thinking about the news photo that I had seen before, depicting the Depression years in the US during the 1930s.
I knew that a $20 per hour assembly work at GM was a big chance I couldn’t pass up; though, I was already working in a computer firm, I knew that getting hold of that auto job could simply mean a raise in my take-home pay.
A few weeks later, I got a call from the company’s recruitment staff telling me that I had to take a pre-qualifying test—and that test consisted of some math problems, finding the square, percentage, volume, area, communication skills, etcetera. Since I was applying for work assembly, I could not understand why I had to hurdle that kind of test; maybe GM was looking for some smart people to work in their company.
After some weeks, I received another letter from GM instructing me to go to their Oshawa plant to take another test—a manual dexterity test—to determine how fast one can use his hand in doing manual/assembling work.
After almost 10 months of anxiously waiting, I hadn’t received any response from GM—in short, I didn’t get the job.
Earlier, in July 1994, I took with me my youngest daughter, Katrina and we went from one newspaper firm to another— and I got the same response: no vacancy.
In one newspaper, I applied for three positions: proofreader, reporter, and copyreader. And the editor of one of these papers was a bit amazed, seeing me applying for these three posts. Well. I simply told him that since I was not sure what job was available, it might be a good idea just to apply to all these positions.
I learned from the editor who had interviewed me that Canada was still at the tail end of the recession, saying that, “ You came at the wrong time and actually we’ve been trimming down people; maybe we’ll just keep your resume.”
In short, during those recession/depression years, I had to transfer from one contractual job to another and I want to paraphrase That’s Life , a song that best describes my life during those depression years, “ I’ve been an assembler, a reporter, and a sales associate. I've been up and down and over and out.”
My sheer determination would give me the strength to move on--making a brand new life in this adopted country and be ready to hurdle any life’s huddles for the sake of my family and children.
A few days after coming to this country, my family and I knew that life would not be that easy; we were ready to break our backs, so to speak, to eke out a living, hoping that someday, somehow Canada would bounce back economically, thereby making it once again a country of milk and honey.
This much I've learned and I’d like to share my experiences with the immigrants that they must have a strong resolve to survive, always be ready to take in any kind of job that comes their way to keep their body and soul together.
Forget your pride and think about your family, your children, and your future; enjoy the blessings this country can offer you; Canada is a good country, a good place to raise your family. “
While you are enjoying the favorable economic climate these days, don’t ever forget to save for some” rainy days” to come —life is so uncertain, no one knows what the future holds.
Who knows this dreaded recession is just around the corner?