Undocumented Migrants in Post-Pandemic Canada

In the past couple of years, I encountered a number of temporary residents with overstayed visas. These people entered into Canada prior to the border lockdown in March 2020 and became undocumented individuals either by choice or because of the backlog of visa extension applications. Though a majority of the international students, foreign worker and working holiday visa holders promptly returned to their home countries during the lockdown, many of these "migrants" remained in Canada illegally and created socio-economic problems in Canada. Let me share three real life stories which I experienced first hand. The subjects and I shared basements in 2022-4.

Ms. A came to Canada in 2017 with her family as refugees from (French speaking) Tunisia. Her family remained in Quebec and she moved to Vancouver, BC after staying in a small town in Quebec for one year. She did not work in Vancouver but collected Income Assistance benefits after her refugee allowance expired in 2018. Her excuse for not working was that she spoke very little English and nobody would hire her. However, she would not attend ESL classes. She tried to make money on social media but to no avail. Everyday she stayed home, played Arabic music and talked on the phone with her parents in Arabic. She claimed to be a practising Muslim; however, she never fasted during Ramadan. Whenever she went out, she would be scantily dressed, heavily perfumed with layers of make-up on her face.

Ms. B came to Canada from Mainland China as a foreign worker in the hospitality industry in 2018.  When the pandemic happened, she was laid off. Her work contract was terminated. During the lockdown, she collected CERB benefits. When her employer reopened their restaurant, she went "undocumented" and would not return to work. She moved from the address on file to an undisclosed address. She then worked as a cleaner paid by individuals on an on-call and cash basis. She had a habit storing recyclables and garbage in common areas. At one time, she had five vacuums, fifteen jumbo hard cases and numerous garbage bags and bins of kitchen items and small appliances piled up ceiling high. Ms. B physically assaulted me twice. Both times I filed a report with the local Police Station by showing them the bruises on my hands and arms.

Ms. C came to Canada as an international student from Mexico in 2019. She was issued a 1-year student visa to study English. Her visa expired August 15, 2020. I am not sure if she has extended her visa. Her main source of income was through selling stolen items. How did I find out? There was frequently a constant stream of visitors outside the house. Someone threw stones at my window. These visitors disappeared as swiftly as they appeared. She is seldom home. Whenever she is home, she would be on the phone speaking in Spanish. The broom closet is packed with her "stuff". She is very territorial.

As a Canadian, I tried to accommodate these "visitors" and tolerated their rude and bullying behavior. Hopefully, they are just the bad apples in their respective cultures. I do, however, question why Canada is not getting rid of these overstayed temporary residents. I am worried that our way of life would degrade rapidly before we could reap the benefits of being a multicultural society.

#undocumentedresidents #canadaimmigration #multiculturalism #badapples #deportation

Homeless in Vancouver

When people talk about the homeless people in big cities, they think of these people as welfare recipients, drug addicts and other substance abusers. Let me share my recent experiences upon returning to Vancouver, Canada two weeks ago. 

For the first three days, I stayed at an AirBNB place in Burnaby and met a couple of Iranian visitors who were waiting for their work visas to be issued. One of them ended up staying in a shelter for men in New Westminster because he couldn't afford paying $45 CAD/night for a bed at the AirBNB place for more than two weeks. Accepting too many newcomers too quickly into Canada for the sole purpose of replenishing the labour force in this case backfires terribly.

I moved to a hostel in Jericho Beach just outside UBC on the fourth day. At check-in, I was informed that I could only stay up to 21 days on that property because I am a Canadian citizen. International tourists can stay a bit longer. In that area, there are students who sleep in cars at night and go to classes in UBC during the day. There are out-of-town Canadian citizens hopping from hostel to hostel every three weeks, paying on an average $50 CAD/night for a dorm bed in a hostel.

It had been extremely stressful to find accommodation in Vancouver. A room in a house would cost $700 - 1400 CAD/month. The lower end of the rent spectrum would be a tiny closet/room with no windows and the bathroom is shared by 4 or 5 people. Sometimes there is no shared kitchen. The upper end would be a bigger room with ensuite bathroom and shared kitchen. Sometimes there is a price reduction if there is no access to public transportation. A 1-bedroom apartment costs no less than $2500/month provided that you have good credit rating, pay stubs and good references.

A common occurrence is that many property owners would use their rooms to get underpaid services from their tenants. For example, ads of doing cleaning and maintenance work in addition to a rent payment of $350 - 600/month in exchange to stay in a room in an old house were posted daily on Craigslist. I have replied to those ads and confirmed that working no less than 60 hours per month was expected. Another common trick slumlords pull was to rent out bedrooms to be shared by two or more female international students. Each tenant would be paying $550/month for a space on a mattress. That way a small room can yield more than renting out to one tenant for each room. These slumlords target the international students in particular because the students are not familiar with the Residential Tenancy Act of BC. Where is the humanity of these landlords?

When take-home income for a full-time worker at minimum wage is around $2000/month, it is easy to fall through the housing cracks in Vancouver and join the rank of the homeless in this relentless housing shortage crisis. Homelessness is more common among the newcomers, students, seniors and working poor than most people could imagine. Housing is a human right. Canada is far from being the dream country that it promotes itself to be in developing countries.

#Canada #Vancouver #housingcrisis #workingpoor #homelessness 

hashtag

Bangladesh Jan 8 - 30, 2024

I arrived in Bangladesh on January 8th, 2024, the day after the General Election. The incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was re-elected to enter her fourth term in office. It was reported that some dissenters were protesting aggressively in Dhaka, weeks leading to the election. 

Before I boarded the plane from Kuala Lumpur, I made a conscious decision of skipping the capital city until things settled down more. So I carefully mapped out a totally different route to visit Bangladesh. Instead of doing my routine circling around a country, I zigzagged BD in order of popularity of the attractions. In the event that I had to leave the country before the scheduled departure date, I would have visited the more important sites.

I took an express train to Chittagong within a couple hours of arrival in the Dhaka Airport. Then I visited the world's longest unbroken natural beach in Cox's Bazar, 150 kms south of Chittagong. Then I headed to the NW corner to visit my first UNESCO site in Bangladesh. Somapura Mahavihara is ancient Buddhist temple ruins from the 8th century. It turned out to be my favourite place in Bangladesh.

I spent five nights in my next destination city, Khulna. The second Bangladeshi UNESCO site is in Bagerhat which is 50 kms south of Khulna. There I learnt about a local saint, Khan Jahan Ali. His mausoleum and pond are revered by the locals. Many people washed themselves in the pond. Other than the Mosque of Sixty Domes, the Mausoleum and pond of the saint were visited by all local tourists.

Unfortunately I was not able to visit the Sundarbans and perchance see the Royal Bengal Tigers. Well, I found out later that I would not be able to spot a tiger so easily because they are usually sighted near late afternoons. There are only 104 Bengal Tigers in the entire National Park.

From Khulna, I headed out to the NE corner, Sylhet City which is near the Indian border. The NE corner of Bangladesh is famous for its tea gardens. However, I came at a wrong time. The tea gardens were pretty brown. 

The last stop is the capital city, Dhaka. I spent several days visiting Old Dhaka. I managed to visit Sonargaon before bidding farewell to Bangladesh. Sonargaon was founded in the 13th century and abandoned in the 19th century.

Bangladesh is also known for its many rivers. I had plans to take an overnight ferry from Dhaka to visit Barisal. A chain of events in the last week of my visit prevented me from visiting the "Venice of the East". Instead I had an opportunity to see the more modern side of Dhaka and I did more shopping. 

My biggest pet peeve is the traffic congestion in all Bangladeshi cities. The drivers have a habit of honking with or without problems. The air is very dusty. The locals are constantly spitting. The streets and waterways are filled with litter. Even the toll roads are in poor condition. A 250 km trip would often take more than eight hours to complete. 

Many Bangladeshis asked me what I think of their country. My honest reply would always be, "It is a very unique country". I didn't think manual rickshaws would still be in use in the 21st century but I rode on them many times. I did not think there would be day labourers working at the docks loading and unloading cargo boats and trucks. But I stayed in a hotel where these labourers also stayed in Khulna. They were always so kind to me even when I teased them with my silly jokes. May God protect and keep Bangladeshi people from all harms.

#bangladesh #rickshaws #bangladeshi #developing country #Bengal Tigers 

2023 in Review

I was sitting in the lobby of a small hotel outside Cubao Bus Station in Quezon City as I reflected upon the past 355 days. It was 3 AM in the morning. But the city was not sleeping and the air was humid. What a contrast it is to the way how the year 2023 started in Vancouver. The snowfalls were exceptionally heavy prior to Christmas 2022.

Inflation has been rampant eversince I returned to Canada in March 2022 and I didn't even have the desire to window shop during my stay in New Westminster in 2023. For months I battled with skin problems; I was hiding in my room a lot in the first few months of the year. Yet I didn't sleep a whole lot because I was constantly being bombarded by my overseas friends asking me to help them to immigrate into Canada. There were over one million newcomers in Canada in 2022. The trend continued in 2023 and Canadian cities were bursting at the seams.

In April, I renewed my Driver's license which is also my provincial ID card. Because of this 5-year renewal, my travel plans had to be delayed by almost a year. It worked out well in the end as plane tickets got to be ridiculously costly around spring break. I had to wait until the school holidays were over.

My landlord texted me in early April that there would be a rent increase of 12% starting May 1st. I informed him that it is illegal to jack up the rent more than the government stipulated rate of 2% in 2023. By law he would also have to give me a 3-month notice for the rent increase. Then he told me about his relatives coming to Canada in August and staying in his house. By early May, I was searching for cheap plane tickets to fly out of Vancouver in August to make room for his relatives.

June and July went by quickly once I bought the one way plane ticket from Seattle to Seoul. As much as I did not like flying out from the States, I had no other option in terms of getting a relatively affordable ticket to fly to Asia. I suppose the airport taxes and fees are much higher at YVR than SEA.

After trying all sorts of ways to reduce the amount of time that I spent on being an immigration consultant for my friends, I made a drastic decision of permanently deleting my Facebook account. I deactivated my FB account a few years ago and had to reactivate when I needed to be in a group to get up-to-date information to travel in West Africa. Well, this time I made provisions to substitute its various functions before I clicked the permanent delete button.

Out of the 454 FB friends that I had, only four people expressed their wish to stay in touch with me outside FB. Subsequently I set up a WhatsApp group so that I could share photos and stories with people who are enthusiastic about traveling. I have had no desire to reactivate or join another social media platform so far. Friendships are like two-way streets. It is through interactions that people get to understand each other more deeply. 

In planning the "Back to Asia, Final Chapter" journey, I made South Korea as the starting point because it would still be warm in mid-August. That was the first time that I visited S. Korea and I really loved it there. I began to understand why S. Korea has become such an economic powerhouse. I even fell in love with K pop. 

The second country was Japan which I visited twice before. I took an overnight ferry from Busan to Fukuoka. Even though I spent only 19 days in Japan, I managed to see several UNESCO sites there. I liked Wakayama the most. There were many tourists everywhere I went in Japan. However, it is in Wakayama that I witnessed the more traditional way of life in Japan. In terms of costs, it was slightly cheaper than Korea.

Because the national days of China and Taiwan taking place in the first ten days of October, I had to extend my stay in Hong Kong by a few more days to get a seat on an outbound flight from Hong Kong. I visited a couple of outlying islands. I also visited several museums on Hong Kong Island. There were many tourists from Mainland China and the accommodation costs were more than double the regular amount, making HK the most expensive place to visit on this journey.

Singapore is the next country that I visited. It was expensive to travel in but public transportation cost was still affordable. I saw many foreign workers in Singapore. Even though this city state is densely populated, there are trees and/or small city parks everywhere. My plan to have a selfie with the country's icon couldn't realise because the Merlion was getting a facelift. As much as the Port has changed since my last visit 38 years ago, areas near the mouth of Singapore River remain the same.

Kuala Lumpur has been the hub of my air travels in the subsequent months. From Singapore, I took a coach to KL. I flew to Timor Leste from KL via Bali, Indonesia. Timor Leste had been on my mind since 2013 when I learned that it became a sovereign state in 2002. I learned the real story behind its independence from Indonesia. I developed a persistent cough after staying in Timor Leste for two weeks. I had to cut short my visit and return to KL via Kupang, Indonesia. My prayers are with the lovely people of Timor Leste as this youngest country in Asia develops rapidly. 

Even though my 2013 Malaysian visit was rather comprehensive, there were places that I didn't visit ten years ago. I visited Ipoh for three days before flying to Taiwan. My visit in Taiwan is 32 days long, circling around the island in a counterclockwise direction starting and ending in Taipei. Taiwan is affordable and relatively easy to travel in, especially if the visitors can read and speak a little Chinese.

From Taiwan, I flew to the Philippines. I had been keeping this visit a secret for fear to jinx my visit. What a change of scenery it is to see the streets to be bustling with people and jeepneys. Things are actually cheaper than three years ago because the peso devalued by 33%. Yesterday I bought a pair of Filipino made prescription glasses for $25CAD with a free eye exam. The holiday season in the Philippines is a very joyful one. 

In a few days, I will be flying back to KL to get ready to fly out to the west side of Asia and visit the last two countries on this journey. I pray that my next review will be a more peaceful one. The more I travel, the more similarities I see between cultures. We all want "Peace, Love and Happiness".

I have quit FB for good.

I have quit Facebook again. This time I deleted my account permanently. Five years ago when I wanted to quit Facebook, the website managed to persuade me to only deactivate my account temporarily. I had to reactivate it when I needed travel information on West Africa a few months later. I needed to join a FB group. I was hoping someone would develop a social media website similar to FB. But it did not happen. This time I sought after substitutes before I deleted my FB account. For messenger, I would rely on WhatsApp. For marketplace, I would use Craigslist again. For updating my friends with travelogues and photos, I continue to use email. For photo back up, I would use Google Photos which also offer a memories function. As for travel information on the unpopular destinations, I have made a conscious decision not to visit certain places because they are just too dangerous or not ready to receive visitors. 

With the introduction of ChatGPT at the end of 2022, there are way more outrageous images floating around online. Lately FB created a special class of users called Digital Creators that is equivalent to the Influencers on Instagram. These digital creators frequently use photoshopped and/or A.I. generated images to spread false information. FB news feeds are flooded with customized ads and suggestions for groups to join and Digital Creators to follow. I would hardly see updates from my friends. With FB's refusal to pay news media in Canada for the links, it would be increasingly difficult to find real news or info on this social media platform. My dependence on FB for news and connection with my friends became very minimal as a result of these recent developments. 

After I have announced that I would quit FB, only four of my 472 FB friends expressed their wish to stay in touch with me. I suppose I wasted too much time on FB, thinking that people actually cared about what was on my mind. I might as well be commenting in unfamiliar territories such as Reddit or Quora. Well, it's time to hit the road and experience humanity face-to-face again. LOL

Back to February 1983 for 4 days

1981 Movie Raiders of the Lost Ark

I conducted an experiment a few weeks ago. I went back in time to February 1983 when internet, personal computers and smartphones did not exist. As a matter of fact, the main source of entertainment was scheduled television programs. Music was played on tape recorders and CD players. Microwave ovens were rather common in North America; however, many other kitchen appliances were not invented yet. The reasons why I wanted to go back in time are to revert to a simpler lifestyle to see if my vital stats and skin problems would improve, to live in a not so wired environment to see if I could overcome my F.O.M.O. feelings (Fear Of Missing Out), and to see if I could still manage to live comfortably without the modern conveniences. I chose forty years because it would be difficult and/or costly to simulate a time earlier than the 1980's. From my travelling days in undeveloped countries, I learned that many people in the world are still somewhat stuck in the 1980's. I would try to put myself in their shoes for four days. 

On Feb 6, 2023 6:00 p.m. (PST) Experiment commenced. An hour before the start of the experiment, I posted on Facebook that I would be conducting this experiment. At 6:00 pm I turned off my laptop computer and smartphone, and turned on my bedside radio/clock. I heard news of powerful earthquakes striking the region near the Turkey/Syria border. Because I do not have a television, I could not see any images or video clips of the natural disaster. I was antsy about getting more information about the earthquakes. My insomnia had only gotten worse than the day before. I had my radio on overnight.

The next day, Feb 7, 2023, I went to the library after breakfast. I took out some pre-1983 books but no VHS. There were no newspapers that I could read in the library. Then I went to the nearby mall to do some grocery shopping. I avoided using the self check-outs and paid with cash. I might have a credit card in 1983 but POS machines were not invented then. I wanted to make a phone call but I could not find any payphones within a 2 km radius of the mall. That night I accessed internet to find out more details of the earthquakes. I was restless and could not fall sleep until 6 a.m. in the morning.

On Feb 8, 2023, I woke up in the afternoon and heard on radio the news of a city bus driving right into a daycare building in Laval, QC, Canada. I spent the day in a haze, getting emotional at times and cried several times during the day. My mind wandered off miles away. Reading did not help. I managed to calm down with meditation. I kept telling myself not to access internet but I simply could not. I read all the related news articles and shut off my laptop again. What would provoke the mentally unstable bus driver to commit such a horrific crime to innocent children? What has our world turned into? Falling asleep was just as hard the night before.

On Feb 9, 2023, I woke up around noon. I thought I must try to do something else to divert my attention to the disasters. Making spring rolls in an air fryer would not take more than 45 minutes normally. Deep frying the old fashioned way using a small pot actually took two hours. I also decided to quit drinking coffee. It took me a much longer time to prepare chai with the traditional Indian method. I read a book cover to cover that day. Falling asleep came naturally at 2 a.m.

The final day of the experiment came on Feb 10, 2023. After my morning chai and breakfast, I went to a nearby drug store. My blood pressure had gone down to a somewhat normal level, 132/84. The breakouts on face had subsided. I returned the books and stayed in the library until dinner time. At 6:00 p.m., I turned on my cell phone and laptop. I almost immediately posted on FB pleading for prayers for the earthquake victims and survivors in Turkey/Syria and for the injured children and victims in Laval. I fell asleep at 2 a.m. that night.

What did I gain from this experiment? The number of email and notifications decreased exponentially as I stayed offline for an extended period of time. The principle of "If you don't use it, you'll lose it." also applies to electronic communication. Newspapers, books, payphones, VHS players, etc. and most of things that I grew up with, would soon be totally out of sight. As long as I have internet access, I could live in a vacuum. The rate of information transfer is almost instantaneous these days. Whether I want to know so much and so fast is another issue. I wonder how much of independent thinking I have lost because of these technological advances. I never really have enough time to digest it all these days.

2022 in Review

New Year's Eve in Cali, Colombia

I started the year in Cali, Colombia. Subsequent to spending another two weeks in Colombia. I flew to Costa Rica. Based in the capital city, San Jose, I made day trips to different parts of this small Central American country. Inter-city transportation in Costa Rica is sporadic but still doable for the most part. I could have enjoyed Costa Rica more if I were an outdoor sports enthusiast. I, however, enjoyed its renown biodiversity. Following my Costa Rican visit, I flew to El Salvador. In order to avoid the stringent Covid requirements of Nicaragua, I had to forgo land transport from Costa Rica to El Salvador via Nicaragua. That would have been a 25 hour bus ride with a transfer in Managua. I saw a lot more historical sites than expected in El Salvador, which is one of the less touristy countries in Central America.

El Rosario Church in San Salvador, El Salvador

In early February, I travelled from El Salvador to Cancun so that I could get a PCR test to fulfill a requirement to fly into Cuba. Cancun, Mexico is a hub for Cuban flights from North America. I had planned to spend only three days in Cancun but ended up spending six days. To sort out all the trouble boarding an airplane, I stayed in Cancun Airport for over 60 hours and took 3 PCR tests. I believe the real reason for so much red tape was that the Mexican airlines were profiting from operating the Cuba-bound passenger flights as cargo planes. Cuba was in such short supply of food and goods. Less than 30% of the seats were occupied. Mexicans labs also benefited from conducting the PCR tests on transiting travelers.

Cancun, Mexico

I spent four weeks in Cuba. Even though I travelled from one end to the other in Cuba, I was not able to visit all the places that I wanted to visit. There were few independent tourists. Even the resorts in Varadero were half full in February. Food was scarce and I made a conscious decision not to eat at restaurants in Cuba. Cuban government had special provisions for the tourists. I ate what was available to the locals. Soon I was also fasting for the Ukrainians when news of the Russia-Ukraine war broke. The visitors in Cuba at that time were mainly from Europe. The war was the only thing that the young travelers could talk about. Although there is internet access in Cuba, many websites are not available in Cuba. Using VPN’s was the only way that I could obtain contact with the outside world. I have posted another blog about my visit in Cuba.

Varadero, Cuba

When I returned to Vancouver in early March, I stayed in a hostel in downtown Vancouver. Masks were mandatory throughout the hostel even though there was no quarantine requirement upon entering Canada from overseas. The hostel was completely filled with returning international students and working holiday visa holders. Housing shortage was once again in a crisis state in Vancouver. I managed to find a place in a suburb called New Westminster. As luck would have it, my current home is in the oldest part of Metro Vancouver close to Fraser River, about 7.5 km from where I grew up in Burnaby.

Spring and summer came very late this year. It was raining so much that I hardly had any opportunity to explore the hidden gems of Metro Vancouver. Instead I took up indoor hobbies such as making crafts and joining online groups after my numerous attempts in creating an edible garden failed miserably. When the rain stopped, I would be out exploring various historic neighborhoods in New Westminster on foot. I consider myself lucky to be able to relearn the history of British Columbia and Vancouver this year. I have also developed a stronger sense of belonging and a helping spirit. New Westminster reminds me so much of my younger days growing up in Burnaby.

My heart was broken at the passing of Queen Elizabeth II in September. She was my role model for as long as I could remember. I am not a monarchist; however, I admire QE II for her loyalty to her realm and people, and for her life of service. The whole world had changed, and yet her steadfastness to the vows she made 75 years ago, did not change. In the same month, I turned 60. My bank changed the label on my account from Everyday Chequing Account to Chequing Account With Seniors Rebate. In reality, nothing changed with the account. I simply do not understand why our society still likes labelling so much.

Inflation hit the world big time. As if the pandemic was not a convincing enough cause for rapidly rising prices, we were told that broken supply chains and the Russia-Ukraine war would further reduce supply and raise prices. If Canada is not a major oil & gas and wheat/Canola oil producer, I would have agreed with the reasons and paid the drastically higher prices. I resisted instead. To combat the ever-ballooning prices, I tried to take less bus rides, buy almost no processed food, cook from scratch, make my HBA products from natural ingredients and refashion my old clothes. I remained on track with my monthly budget. These activities are time-consuming and my days became very full.

The West Coast had severe winter conditions a week before Christmas. With the portable heater cranked up in my bedroom, I stayed inside for a week with only 3 activities (eating, watching videos and sleeping) everyday. I began to understand how it felt like to be in  hibernation. It seems to me that winter in Vancouver is turning as harsh as it is in the rest of Canada. This winter gives me more incentives to reside in a warmer place during the cold months in Canada. After all, I am a “senior citizen” now. LOL