Coping with life after immigration :)

It’s been almost five months that I moved to Montreal as an international student. I’d like to share interesting aspects of migration, society of Montreal and also suggestions about dealing with emotions after immigration.

Migration is a big deal in every person’s lifespan! Undoubtedly, If you were born in a middle eastern country, migration is one of your options to get acceptable quality of life (which is a platform to yield success in other aspects). Surely, people SHOULD try hard anywhere around the world to get what they want!! But I think it’s easier to grow in the developed countries e.g. Canada. Here I want to talk about following questions:
1) Why migration?! Why should I pass 2 continents and 1 ocean to study in Canada?
2) Why Montreal?! Why MuSAE Lab?
3) How I dealt with distance, homesickness, emotions and living alone? Had I had similar experience in living alone?
4) Do I need to socialize with new people here?! Or I should stick with Iranian Community?! What can I do for socializing?

Beautiful scene of my room 🙂

Why migration?! Why should I pass 2 continents and 1 ocean to study in Canada?

People answer differently to “Why” questions! I migrated, because I was seeing dead-end in both educational and other living aspects,. I think, you migrate to get something more, that you couldn’t achieve in your previous environment. In my case, I couldn’t see any personal/educational/business growth in Iran.

However, I chose Canada over Europe and south Asian countries because it offers distinguishable features. Quebec, especially, has excellent innovation centers, pioneering universities, and qualified researchers whose collaboration will increase my expertise in my field of interest. The ties between academic institutes and industry make Canada unique for me. Our institute, INRS, is a research-intensive institution equipped with modern facilities related to my research field with wonderful industry ties.

In addition to academic reasons, Canada is well known for its vibrant and multicultural theme in sociological and ideological ways -you heard that EVERYWHERE!-, resulting in diverse ethnic backgrounds with different set of ideas.

Does it worth so far?! YEAH, of course, I have productive, knowledgeable and helpful people around me now. I should mention that I am getting close to my goal each day starting from the day I entered Montreal with the help of lovely colleagues and a great supervisor 🙂

Delightful lab meeting in summer!

Why Montreal?!Why MuSAE Lab?

Because this city and province is DIFFERENT! Is it good or bad?! it has both sides together. People here listen to you! nobody mocks the way you talk English or French. They are chill and nobody is in hurry!

Old port of Montreal

in my interdisciplinary field, Neuroscience+Biomedical+Telecommunication, Montreal has various frontier labs and faculties. One of the most great character’s in my field is Prof. Falk from INRS-EMT. He is directing MuSAE lab. focused on multi-modal signal enhancement and processing. We tackle both theoretical and practical aspects of this field. Working with such a group is a dream of every person who wants to learn more!

How I dealt with distance, homesickness, emotions and living alone? Had I had similar experience in living alone?

I haven’t felt any homesickness yet 🙂 but of coarse, I wanted my family beside me 🙂 But Do they want to destroy what they have built in Iran and start again in Canada?! -NO. And the only reason that I am satisfied with migration is that I have built anything in my initial environment! so cutting the connections is easy for me in contrast with my father/mother.

Thanks to technology, I can regularly talk with my family so conversation is easy, BUT talking is all we need?! -No, As a normal human, you need support, hug, and physical connections too.
So, this is the part that is hard 🙂 It actually depends on your character. I hurt so much at first but finally, I accepted that I AM ALONE, then I respected myself and every time I felt sad, just reminded myself the REASON WHY I AM HERE.

because I love reading while lying down on grass 🙂

Do I need to socialize with new people here?! Or I should stick with Iranian Community?! What can I do for socializing?

As a human being, of course you need to get in touch with people. For thousands of years we evolved in group living environment, so this is your nature 🙂 But sticking to your own country’s people raise some issues.
As an immigrant, you may cut cultural connections between yourself and your country. again as an immigrant, you ARE NOT connected to Canadian culture either. So you are in transition 🙂 I can suggest that you absolutely need too get in touch with native people! In this case, you at least develop with cultural changes in Canadian society.

But how to connect with people?! I think the best way is finding hiking, biking, reading, etc. groups.
Does Tinder or any other dating apps help?! yeah it helps, only if you are good looking :)))) Note that there is only 0.5% chance to find a successful person on Tinder. So please invest on better ways 🙂 Go on student association’s events, socialize and find friends 🙂