Immigration – Why?

I have been asked this question many, many times since my wife Bruna and I chose to call Canada home, in 2008, having been born in Brazil and always lived there before making the move (correction – she lived in the US for one year so technically hasn’t always lived in our home country 🙂 )

When I think about why I chose to try immigration… it’s hard to answer. In fact I don’t think one can give a straight answer to that – it’s a big change, and one that never ends to be honest, shaping the rest of your life – so it’s most likely a combination of factors that leads to a decision as impacting as this one, and a final spark or trigger that makes you go ahead with it.

There never is a correct answer to immigrate or not to immigrate, you know? It has to make sense for you. And ten years ago, it made sense for me, and for my family.

Growing up in Brazil the wrong things in the country, in my view, (and every country has their own set of rotten issues – I never for a second thought Brazil was the worst place in the world or the only country with issues) always frustrated, and angered me. Things like  the widespread corruption in many areas of society, the lack of opportunity in the job market for qualified individuals, backwards education investment that the government makes, violence, impunity when it comes to not respecting laws, among other things, really took the best of me. Always. But then again, that’s me 🙂

Making a move to a different country where some of these things were perceived as different from my point of view, felt like an opportunity – and a good one. I always analyze things to the last point and when I started comparing the good and bad aspects about Brazil and Canada, the differences spoke for themselves to me. It was clear to me what was important for me in life, and then the move made sense. Now don’t think it’s all perfect and fine. All change comes with cost, and many times it’s very, very difficult to be away from family for example. From friends from school. From places you’d go. But after all, it’s a balance, and you have to stay true to your core, weigh in pros and cons, and decide (which can be the difficult part).

Now we have three boys, 7, 4 and 8 months, and today I’m glad about what we have in life – I don’t know about tomorrow, but that doesn’t matter. We have learned, my wife and I, that if we need to change, we can change – we just need to follow the same process that led us to Canada in the past – analyze our true motivations, core beliefs, pros and cons – and have the courage to change if needed. If you are a believer in God, well that helps too, because we have someone to rely on as well.

If you feel like making a move in life – not necessarily immigration – I hope this message helps. Don’t be afraid of change!