The flow of immigrants increases every year, and it would seem that all questions related to moving to a foreign country have long been known and answered, but immigrants encounter the same problems as their predecessors upon arrival. Language barriers, loneliness, and lack of understanding of a foreign culture are the most prominent of these problems.

According to the International Commission on Migration, there are about 20 million immigrants worldwide. Of these, about 23 per cent chose to live in the Americas, 34 per cent chose to live in Europe, and 28 per cent settled in Asia.

All these people as well as many others face a number of problems and go through a certain period of adaptation. As psychological studies show, forced or voluntary immigration is always a shock, which on the stress scale is rated at 100 points. Such a score is identical to the level of stress experienced after the loss of a close relative.

Stages of Adjustment in Immigration

Due to the fact that a person during the relocation to another country radically changes not only their environment, but also culture, language, geographical location, they experience a kind of “culture shock”. This concept of the psycho-emotional state of immigrants was defined back in 1954 by the American anthropologist C. Oberg. It includes five main stages, through which each emigrant passes.

The first stage is a period of euphoria. The person, getting in a foreign country, is in a state of passive contemplation and perceives everything happening around in the pink color. During this period only emotions are at work.

The second stage is the tourist stage. Here begins the collection and acquisition of information about the life of the surrounding society, as well as the construction of their own life.

The third stage determines the orientation, that is, the person begins to be interested in the political situation in the country, the economy, the bureaucratic structure and social opportunities.

Further, there comes a period of depression. In this state, all the negative experiences from the new place are experienced. Naturally, the degree of experience depends entirely on the stress tolerance of the person and his/her ability to adapt quickly in the new place.

After overcoming the depressive state, there comes a period of optimistic growth. Desire for a better life returns, and there is motivation to arrange one’s life, look for a promising job and new friends. Everything returns to normal and life gains new colors.

Adjustment Tips and Attitudes

The adjustment period – this is usually a difficult period in the life of an immigrant and it varies for everyone. In terms of timing, we can probably talk about three to five years. The age at which you come to Canada has a big influence. Obviously, the older the age, the harder it is to adapt to a new place.

The question, “Is it difficult to adapt to Canada?” is rather difficult to answer unequivocally. On the one hand, Canada offers a wide range of support programs for newcomers, all of which are designed to help them socially adjust. At the same time all services and organizations supporting immigrants work clearly, smoothly and effectively. In addition, Canadians are very friendly and helpful. It is not difficult to formally settle down in Canada. First of all you should be strong and prepared psychologically. Some people are helped by detailed plans in which they indicate what should be done and how much time should be devoted to this or that point. But it doesn’t work that way with everyone. Someone helps to switch to their favorite hobby, someone is very important to support relatives and friends. Someone is easier to adapt if he will leave in force their habits or routines from the past place, for example, someone calmed by going to the casino, then you should think about the fact that when you move would be nice to also plan your trips to the casino. Especially since the casino environment in different countries and continents is almost identical.

On the other hand, people living in Canada have a completely different mentality. They have a slightly different reaction to different situations and problems. And we just don’t understand why we have to act the way we do. Their actions don’t seem right or logical to us. Instead of adapting to local conditions and making our life quite comfortable, we continue to act the way we are used to acting in our homeland. As a result we get a lot of different problems. Added to all of this are the difficulties with the language.

To summarize, the main thing is to understand how the system works, what the relationships between people are based on, and how one should behave in certain situations. Try to accept for yourself the foundations of society, the moral principles, to become part of the system. This is the only way to feel like a full-fledged member of society. It is clear that this is a long process, but you have to go through it. As a matter of fact, this is real adaptation.