Coping with life after immigration :)

In short: five months into moving to Montreal as an international student, here is what migration actually felt like, why I picked this city and this lab, and what helped with the loneliness.

It has been almost five months since I moved to Montreal as an international student. I want to share the interesting parts of migration, what the society here is like, and some suggestions for dealing with your emotions afterwards.

---

Migration is a big deal in anyone's life. If you were born in a middle eastern country, it is one of your options for getting an acceptable quality of life, which is the platform everything else gets built on. People should try hard anywhere in the world to get what they want. I just think it is easier to grow in a developed country like Canada.

Here are the questions I want to answer:

1. Why migrate? Why cross two continents and an ocean to study in Canada?
2. Why Montreal? Why MuSAE Lab?
3. How did I deal with distance, homesickness, emotions and living alone? Had I lived alone before?
4. Do I need to socialize with new people here, or should I stick with the Iranian community? What can I do to meet people?

Why migrate? Why cross two continents and an ocean to study in Canada?

People answer "why" questions differently. I migrated because I was hitting a dead end, in education and in most other parts of life. I think you migrate to get something more, something you could not get where you were. In my case I could not see personal, educational or business growth in Iran.

I chose Canada over Europe and south Asian countries because it offers things they do not. Quebec in particular has excellent innovation centres, pioneering universities, and researchers whose collaboration will make me better at what I do. The ties between academic institutes and industry are what make Canada unique for me. Our institute, INRS, is research-intensive, equipped with modern facilities in my field, and well connected to industry.

Beyond the academic side, Canada is known for being multicultural, which you have heard everywhere, and which means being surrounded by people with very different backgrounds and ideas.

Was it worth it so far? Yes, of course. I have productive, knowledgeable, helpful people around me now. I have been getting closer to my goal every day since I landed in Montreal, thanks to lovely colleagues and a great supervisor :)

Why Montreal? Why MuSAE Lab?

Because this city and this province are different. Good or bad? Both. People here listen to you. Nobody mocks the way you speak English or French. Everyone is chill and nobody is in a hurry.

My field is interdisciplinary: neuroscience, biomedical and telecommunications. Montreal has a lot of frontier labs and faculties in it. One of the big names in my area is Prof. Falk at INRS-EMT, who directs MuSAE Lab. The lab works on multi-modal signal enhancement and processing, and we tackle the theory and the practice. Working with a group like that is a dream for anyone who wants to learn more.

---

How did I deal with distance, homesickness and living alone?

I have not felt homesick yet :) but of course I wanted my family beside me. Do they want to tear down what they built in Iran and start over in Canada? No. And the reason I am at peace with migrating is that I had not built anything back there yet, so cutting the connections was easy for me. Much easier than it would be for my father or mother.

Thanks to technology I can talk to my family regularly, so conversation is easy. But is talking all we need? No. As a normal human you need support, a hug, physical connection. That is the hard part, and how hard depends on your character. It hurt a lot at first. Then I accepted that I am alone, and I started respecting myself for it. Every time I felt sad, I reminded myself why I am here.

Should I socialize with new people, or stick with the Iranian community?

You need to be around people. We evolved for thousands of years living in groups, so it is in your nature :) But sticking only to people from your own country causes problems. As an immigrant you may cut the cultural ties to your country, and you are not connected to Canadian culture either. You are in transition. So yes, get in touch with people from here. At the very least, you develop alongside the cultural changes happening in Canadian society.

How do you meet people? I think the best route is groups: hiking, biking, reading, whatever you like. Do Tinder and the other dating apps help? Yeah, if you are good looking :)))) And note that there is only a 0.5% chance of finding a successful person on Tinder. Invest in better ways. Go to student association events, socialize, make friends :)