Living in Canada
-
I would suggest Calgary. Hot job market; mild winters and sunny Summers; an hour's drive from the rockies/Banff (skiing, sight-seeing, etc.). Lots of soccer camps for kids. -Khalid
OK, Calgary is also added in the list!
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
You should look at the Okanagan valley in B.C. (Kelowna) Would meet most of your specs. Downside is the cost of living - housing in particular. Also might want to plan on a year or two working through immigration prior to coming to Canada. (unless Canada has a shortage of Swedish C programmers that I don't know about :) ) Tim
-
Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
Hi Håkan I'm a South African living in Canberra, Australia. Have you perhaps considered Australia. OK the English is not that great! But it's a beautiful country. Ask Chris, he lived here for a while - though he claims Melbourne is his hometown! :) Canberra offers many cycle tracks to work, ski fields an hour away, really good pay as it's goverment base and there is so much demand here - a really good clean place to bring up kids, loads of soccer and no traffic jams. Takes me 15-20 min to get to work and I live north Canberra. The only things I don't think we have is the hot springs. Check out: http://www.liveincanberra.com.au/[^] Let me know if you need any other info, like contacts for finding work. Thanks, Trace
-
Laid back and activated people sounds good, I'm one of those myself. If I should be a workaholic I should do something more steady than building computer systems, I should build houses instead or plan cities instead. Very important for me is my family activities, a lot of soccer, excercising, skating, skiing and so on. Next week I travel to Island for 6 days, 3 days business and 3 days leasure - hill walking :)
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
Well you might like it here then. I just got back 5 minutes ago from my daily mountain bike ride. My wife and I do a fast burn through the forest for about an hour every day pretty much. Only about 2 weeks to a month a year is it too snowy to ride the trails on a mountain bike here and that's at our low altitude, there is a ski hill right near here that we can go to any time in the winter. Hiking is really good here as well, we go geocaching a lot for the fun of it.
-
Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
It's nice to see some people like to come to Canada :D I'm a french speaking quebecer, or québécois as we say here, and I'm currently living in Sherbrooke, Quebec, for the university. First of all, you seem to realy know what you want and I'll try to help you a bit. It seems that if you want some nice weather, you'll have to go for Vancouver,BC or maybe Windsor, On. -10 degrees in winter time is hard to find, as it can easily get to minus 30, even in southern Quebec in some days. But with global warming, we get less and less such hard temperature, so if you still don't mind 6-7 cold hard days during winter and can support between -15 and -25 you'll be able to live almost everywhere in the continental estern Canada. Summer time can be realy hot here in Quebec too, except that we currently have some crappy weather. Humidity play a crutial role during summer, some days temperature is 32 but can rise to 40 with the humidity factor. Still this don't happen realy often, sometime it may last a week, but not much more. Anyway, I guess you could afford an A/C at last. British Columbia is currently the best weather, but also one of the most rainy one. I think Quebec could be a nice choice, if you wouldn't mind to learn french a bit. English can be used almost anywhere in the metropolitan region of Montreal and on both shore, but once you'll get in regional area, you could have hard time, except in the eastern township, where the english speaking population is more concentrated. Also for your kids, foreigners here can go to english school so your child could learn both french and english. For the soccer teams, just look at cities that have at least 35,000 inhabitants and I'm sure there'll be no problem. The only one that you may get is to find an english speaking soccer team. Services here are all in french, except in the metropolis where it is more cosmopolitan and in some village in the eastern township. For your job I guest that you'll be able to find something in the region of Montreal. If you can get your experience recognised, I think you could easily find job at 75,000$ per year, surely more. Programmer usualy start at 45,000$. Keep in mind that taxes level on job earning are realy high (54% at max), but you'll get free medical coverage from the public system and some other services like this. For paperwork, you'll have to get a working visa and your family should be covered by it. But your wife will have to have one too if she wants to work. You're better to find the company first so it get easier for y
-
Nowadays, there are even folks in Paris and southern france who speaks english even if you don't start speaking with the in french first! I'm surprised :)
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
It's nice to see some people like to come to Canada :D I'm a french speaking quebecer, or québécois as we say here, and I'm currently living in Sherbrooke, Quebec, for the university. First of all, you seem to realy know what you want and I'll try to help you a bit. It seems that if you want some nice weather, you'll have to go for Vancouver,BC or maybe Windsor, On. -10 degrees in winter time is hard to find, as it can easily get to minus 30, even in southern Quebec in some days. But with global warming, we get less and less such hard temperature, so if you still don't mind 6-7 cold hard days during winter and can support between -15 and -25 you'll be able to live almost everywhere in the continental estern Canada. Summer time can be realy hot here in Quebec too, except that we currently have some crappy weather. Humidity play a crutial role during summer, some days temperature is 32 but can rise to 40 with the humidity factor. Still this don't happen realy often, sometime it may last a week, but not much more. Anyway, I guess you could afford an A/C at last. British Columbia is currently the best weather, but also one of the most rainy one. I think Quebec could be a nice choice, if you wouldn't mind to learn french a bit. English can be used almost anywhere in the metropolitan region of Montreal and on both shore, but once you'll get in regional area, you could have hard time, except in the eastern township, where the english speaking population is more concentrated. Also for your kids, foreigners here can go to english school so your child could learn both french and english. For the soccer teams, just look at cities that have at least 35,000 inhabitants and I'm sure there'll be no problem. The only one that you may get is to find an english speaking soccer team. Services here are all in french, except in the metropolis where it is more cosmopolitan and in some village in the eastern township. For your job I guest that you'll be able to find something in the region of Montreal. If you can get your experience recognised, I think you could easily find job at 75,000$ per year, surely more. Programmer usualy start at 45,000$. Keep in mind that taxes level on job earning are realy high (54% at max), but you'll get free medical coverage from the public system and some other services like this. For paperwork, you'll have to get a working visa and your family should be covered by it. But your wife will have to have one too if she wants to work. You're better to find the company first so it get easier for y
Thanks for the comprehensive answer! No problem with temperatur, I'm a little bit mad and used to quite extreme temperatures, goes cross skiing in -25 and running and sunning in +40. But i agree, a long hot period could break anything if you don't just relax. Oh, I forgot, I gota family too... but they get used to it and it shouldn't be a problem. We had our summer holiday on french riviera and italia for three weeks in july this year with 30-40 dgrs. A/C are for people over 65. I'm not that kind of guy who easily learn french, I speak english and german, I just had french leson for two months in school and I'm more into learning italiano. I manage my way anyway and my wife leaarned french for 6 years, so she will order the baguettes and croissantes sunday mornings. That high taxes? I thought sweden had the worst taxes on wages in the world. But I think we do, when getting over 60,000$ we got higher taxes. Well educated people in sweden usually don't get payed for their high education because there are too many with university diploma. A lot of useful info, thank you very much :)
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
As a Canadian immigrant since 1964 (moved due N 6 hrs from Minnesota) and as someone who has mostly made their living as a Programmer here since 1981 and as someone who has visited almost every province - enough to judge the weather and job climate, and as someone who has visited Sweden - I feel somewhat qualified to to respond with advice (something I have experience with also LOL). English as 1st language requirement does rule out anywhere in Quebec. Sorry, but if it IS important, that's still the way it is. I studied French at Laval and did find Quebecers friendly and tolerant once they got to know you - which actually is true of pretty much all Canadians (except perhaps Toronto...and maybe Calgary)- and Montreal and especially Old Quebec City are beautiful. Vancouver (in Beautiful B.C.) is probably where I would choose to live if family considerations hadn't intervened, but fails your weather test ("Vancouverites don't tan - they rust"). The closest places to fit your criteria are probably Winnipeg (where I live) and Saskatoon. But as much as I enjoy living here, it is one of the last places I'd recommend for working as a Programmer - and not just because of the low salaries (I have in fact sworn to NEVER ever again work as a full-time Programmer in Manitoba), and as for Saskatchewan, everybody that I have ever known who went there to work in IT, drops out of contact, which is just too eerie for words (I am totally serious about that). (...and it's really too bad, because the Mid-Western States just South of the border - Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin - are crammed with people of Nordic heritage (in fact, I am part Norwegian and at our lake place in Minnesota we are surrounded by Andersons, Christiansons, Larsons, etc. Uf-Da!) Thunder Bay in NW Ontario has a thriving Finnish community, but it's not a big city. The only place I know of in Canada that has natural hot-springs (I assume that's what you're referring to) is Banff (National Park SW of Calgary), but I find Calgarians to be oppressively distant emotionally. Edmonton might be good, but I'm not current on the job situation right now, though I think it's good. Should be good for your wife as well. The kids should fit in fine anywhere and easily find their activities - even the prairies have ski hills. I have personally cycled (or known those who have) in evry locale and that's definitely no problem either, though DRIVERS tend to be the main thing you have to worry about in Winnipeg and Quebec. As far as paperwork and permissions, if you get a job li
-
It's true, I live in Paris, I'm Scottish, and know how to order a coffee. That's about it, although Im slowly getting to understand a little better. C'est la vie.
In Pezenas, south france, I've even met a english guy married with a madame, but of course he was often very near to get burned from the fire and he was very humble/week.
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
In Pezenas, south france, I've even met a english guy married with a madame, but of course he was often very near to get burned from the fire and he was very humble/week.
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
As a Canadian immigrant since 1964 (moved due N 6 hrs from Minnesota) and as someone who has mostly made their living as a Programmer here since 1981 and as someone who has visited almost every province - enough to judge the weather and job climate, and as someone who has visited Sweden - I feel somewhat qualified to to respond with advice (something I have experience with also LOL). English as 1st language requirement does rule out anywhere in Quebec. Sorry, but if it IS important, that's still the way it is. I studied French at Laval and did find Quebecers friendly and tolerant once they got to know you - which actually is true of pretty much all Canadians (except perhaps Toronto...and maybe Calgary)- and Montreal and especially Old Quebec City are beautiful. Vancouver (in Beautiful B.C.) is probably where I would choose to live if family considerations hadn't intervened, but fails your weather test ("Vancouverites don't tan - they rust"). The closest places to fit your criteria are probably Winnipeg (where I live) and Saskatoon. But as much as I enjoy living here, it is one of the last places I'd recommend for working as a Programmer - and not just because of the low salaries (I have in fact sworn to NEVER ever again work as a full-time Programmer in Manitoba), and as for Saskatchewan, everybody that I have ever known who went there to work in IT, drops out of contact, which is just too eerie for words (I am totally serious about that). (...and it's really too bad, because the Mid-Western States just South of the border - Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin - are crammed with people of Nordic heritage (in fact, I am part Norwegian and at our lake place in Minnesota we are surrounded by Andersons, Christiansons, Larsons, etc. Uf-Da!) Thunder Bay in NW Ontario has a thriving Finnish community, but it's not a big city. The only place I know of in Canada that has natural hot-springs (I assume that's what you're referring to) is Banff (National Park SW of Calgary), but I find Calgarians to be oppressively distant emotionally. Edmonton might be good, but I'm not current on the job situation right now, though I think it's good. Should be good for your wife as well. The kids should fit in fine anywhere and easily find their activities - even the prairies have ski hills. I have personally cycled (or known those who have) in evry locale and that's definitely no problem either, though DRIVERS tend to be the main thing you have to worry about in Winnipeg and Quebec. As far as paperwork and permissions, if you get a job li
Very good answers from you :) You are probably one of the best guy to ask for advice around here and I maybee do so later on if it becomes more serious. I also think the job part will be the hardest thing to figure out. Finding a stable, growing company with good staffing with normal wages... I knew this will probably take some time and as usual, it's after my two first months or so in office I will notice what kind of company hired me! Since mu last name is Nilsson, I mostly keep out of way from all Anderssons and rest of them, but I think the ones who spell their names with just one "s" are born canadians and the ones with two s are immigrants from sweden and other nordic places? Right or wrong?
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
I would suggest looking at Ottawa as an option. It's the nations capital and located in Ontario but on the border with Quebec. The city on the Quebec side is Hull and there is a mountain range very close. Both French and English is spoken extensively in the Ottawa/Hull area. Maybe a bit colder than you like in the winter but summer is really nice. Close by is the town of Kanata which is a bit of a hub for IT and technology companies.
Mark Buchanan Giffels Associates Ltd.
-
I've believe that you may be right about swedes and canadians. Ummm, ice hockey is fun to play, I'm the youngest son in a hockey family, but now i'm coaching teams in soccer and bandy. My two favourite sports. I don't knon the english word for bandy if the exist one. It mainly exists in Sweden, Finland, Russia. 22 players with skates, short sticks and a small red ball. I just saw the icebreakers here in Sweden, that's Forsberg's team of swedes playing in NHL. They were just playing for fun so it's hard to say how good the are. Do they still remember Börje Salming in Toronto?
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
Borje Salming is still more highly regarded in Toronto than our Prime Minister! He gets a huge ovation from the crowd whenever he is at one of the games. From talking about Bandy with one of my Swedish colleagues, it is very similar to a game called Broom Ball that we play except that we do not use skates, but rather normal shoes. Good Luck with your move if/when you make it... and welcome to Canada
-
Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
There're lots of cities in canada that could fullfill all youre requests. I've read the comments about Vancouver and I've been there myself and I would doubt that it is a good place to stay for a long time because it rains all the time. When I went there, it was the 22nd straight rainy day! Also, the house prices and rental are very high and it's hard to find a place to stay. The trip I did there cost me (for four people) 16 000$ for a 7 days vacation. Ok, I went to a ranch that cost a lot but, it's still pricy. Now Montreal, I live in montreal and english is mandatory in certain parts of the city. Most people can answer a question in english and english people are generally welcome in any store/attraction/school. If you live on the island, rental is acceptable but houses are kinda high. I rent a 4½ for 650$/month heated in a good neighborhood near a park and subway. I go to work by bike easily and it's the hottest city in the province of quebec in term of temperature. In resumé, Montreal can be a good choice. Quebec city is more french than montreal but is not bad too. This city is less populated than montreal (400 000 instead of 1 500 000 for the island of montreal). If you want a place to work, both cities are good but there's more computer oriented companies in montreal than in quebec. For a senior developper, I guess the wages could approach 80 000$/year. Another option could be a city in ontario where people speaks english and the climate is a bit hotter than in quebec and montreal. I heard the rental is very high in big cities but there're lots of smaller cities with good employment possibilities in which the rent prices can be lower. For the middle canada provinces (alberta, saskachewan, manitoba) I know people that went there and they say it was boring and there's no mountains so forget skiing. There're are great skiing mountains in quebec (near montreal as well as near quebec city) and there are lots of outdoor activities to do in the quebec province. Immigration is common in Canada and if you're not a criminal, it would be easy to come to Canada! hope that helps If you have other questions, email me!
Jean-Michel Aubin Software Engineer Imaging division Matrox Electronics Ltee.
-
You should look at the Okanagan valley in B.C. (Kelowna) Would meet most of your specs. Downside is the cost of living - housing in particular. Also might want to plan on a year or two working through immigration prior to coming to Canada. (unless Canada has a shortage of Swedish C programmers that I don't know about :) ) Tim
Thanks, I will end up with a long list of places to visit! Living costs and costs are living. I won't take a job as C/C# programmer, I'm too old for that. SQL programming makes more fun and working as DBA is easiest for me.
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
I would suggest either Vancouver or Toronto then. Toronto is nice because it is central, but Vancouver has warmer weather, although it can get rainy. I think the choice ultimately comes down to personal opinion. :)
Håkan Nilsson wrote:
I knew that Canada is not another Sovjet state so I'm sure I can somehow select my own living! I'm just surprised that I will be called immigrant in Canada. We don't call folks from north-america immigrants in Sweden. Immigrants in Sweden are people from Afghanistan or Bosnia, north-americans are settlers. It's a "north-south-east-west-cultural-thing" in sweden.
Immigrant in this case is not an insulting term, it is just the only term used. If you are planning on moving to Canada to obtain citizenship, then you are considered an immigrant. If you are moving there to just work and live I guess you would be called an expatriate or temporary worker or something... It's just a term the government uses.. Also, you are probably okay to choose where you live. I looked into it and it is mostly teachers and doctors that they relocate due to oversupply and underdemand in some regions. Don't think it will be a problem for you.
Of course the swedish government consideres all people coming to sweden as immigrants, but there's a big different made between work and refugee immigration. No new citizenship, just a relaxed stay for some years should be enough. But the only thing I knew is that it's hard to know anyything about the future :)
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
Squamish just up north a bit from Vancouver, BC is known world-wide as capital for outdoors activities - rock climbing, hiking, mountain biking, rafting, kite boarding, you name it... It's beautiful part of country for sure! I'm a bit envious that you have the means/adventurous spirit to up and move to a whole different country. Right now, if I was in your position, I'd definately put Vancouver at the very top of my list. I regularly drive up from Oregon to ride at Whistler just up the road from Squamish (that's also a world class skiing destination I hear but that's not my bag...) I like downhill mountain biking and Whistler, BC is the mecca!
sounds nice up there! There's nothing wrong with my spirit but I'm far from there yet! I've got a very careful wife to convince and it won't be easy :-D It will take a lot's off efforts from my side with house keeping and other things I'm not used to do at home. A problem families may have in sweden is that both mum and dad has to work 100% full time (because of the low wages) and then there's of course less time to catch up children's activities, house-keeping own activities friends... and so on. This may be a great advantage and argument for moving to Canada. Now the clock is 17 here and I end my working day. It's 14 dgrs rainy and I will take 5-10 kms running in the forrest 7-10 mins with bike from my house. It's quite easy living in my town Örebro, just too short summer and poor good natural bathing capabilities nearby.
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
Hi Håkan I'm a South African living in Canberra, Australia. Have you perhaps considered Australia. OK the English is not that great! But it's a beautiful country. Ask Chris, he lived here for a while - though he claims Melbourne is his hometown! :) Canberra offers many cycle tracks to work, ski fields an hour away, really good pay as it's goverment base and there is so much demand here - a really good clean place to bring up kids, loads of soccer and no traffic jams. Takes me 15-20 min to get to work and I live north Canberra. The only things I don't think we have is the hot springs. Check out: http://www.liveincanberra.com.au/[^] Let me know if you need any other info, like contacts for finding work. Thanks, Trace
As I told Chris I've talked about Austalia with my wife and she's quite concerned about sharks and other scaring animals in Australia, or maybee she was afraid of aboriginals or something. So Australia was the first small attempt and the second place I could imagine my family should enjoy was Canada. We got a long winter in front of us to think about living somewhere else. I don't know why they are hesitating, I like the swedish winter, they don't! They should persuade me that we should move to Austalia :) Otherwise I think Canada is the english speaking country most like sweden. But who says we must have it exatly like in sweden, then we better stay at home! I think I start with my son aged 13, he's easy to handle, he knows that Australia plays soccer much better than Canada! And the english dialect are more fun in Aus. A question, who is the wizard from Oz?
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
There're lots of cities in canada that could fullfill all youre requests. I've read the comments about Vancouver and I've been there myself and I would doubt that it is a good place to stay for a long time because it rains all the time. When I went there, it was the 22nd straight rainy day! Also, the house prices and rental are very high and it's hard to find a place to stay. The trip I did there cost me (for four people) 16 000$ for a 7 days vacation. Ok, I went to a ranch that cost a lot but, it's still pricy. Now Montreal, I live in montreal and english is mandatory in certain parts of the city. Most people can answer a question in english and english people are generally welcome in any store/attraction/school. If you live on the island, rental is acceptable but houses are kinda high. I rent a 4½ for 650$/month heated in a good neighborhood near a park and subway. I go to work by bike easily and it's the hottest city in the province of quebec in term of temperature. In resumé, Montreal can be a good choice. Quebec city is more french than montreal but is not bad too. This city is less populated than montreal (400 000 instead of 1 500 000 for the island of montreal). If you want a place to work, both cities are good but there's more computer oriented companies in montreal than in quebec. For a senior developper, I guess the wages could approach 80 000$/year. Another option could be a city in ontario where people speaks english and the climate is a bit hotter than in quebec and montreal. I heard the rental is very high in big cities but there're lots of smaller cities with good employment possibilities in which the rent prices can be lower. For the middle canada provinces (alberta, saskachewan, manitoba) I know people that went there and they say it was boring and there's no mountains so forget skiing. There're are great skiing mountains in quebec (near montreal as well as near quebec city) and there are lots of outdoor activities to do in the quebec province. Immigration is common in Canada and if you're not a criminal, it would be easy to come to Canada! hope that helps If you have other questions, email me!
Jean-Michel Aubin Software Engineer Imaging division Matrox Electronics Ltee.
Thank you very much for your nice answer! Soon I can write a complete tourist guide for non-canadians intersted in canada. Montreal sounds very french to me but I trust you they are english speaking most of them. I will tell my family we have to go for a hliday to Canada next summer!
Håkan Nilsson -- Swedish developer, DBA, C#, SQL Server, soccer trainer, C64 player
-
Canadians out there and the rest of you who knews a lot of Canada, help me! I'm thinking about taking two or three years abroad with my family - wife and three children. Main reasons are: the children will learn proper english and we want to see something more than sweden for a longer time. We have just been traveling in Europe on our vacations, we have never been in the States or Canada, but I think Canada could be just fine. We live in Örebro, Sweden and if you look on the map and follow the latitude you will find yourself in southern Alaska, but we got about 20-30 degrees summertime and minus 5-25 wintertime. Now to the questions: 1) Which town should we head for? Criterias: English as 1:st language, there are soccer teams for my sons to play in (8, 13 years old). Some of us like hot temperatures at summertime and cold sunny > -10 degrees wintertime. We like skiing both downhill and cross country (ok, I like both, rest if the family just downhill :)) There must be good natural bathing with warm water > 18 degrees). We want to travel mostly by bike to school or work. Oh, what a list of demands! :-D 2) Working? How is the market for DBA:s / SQL Server programmers? My wife is occupational therapist, but maybee she could do something different just for fun halftime or so. 3) Get paid? What about the wages for senior developers/DBA:s 4) Administration, papers, permissions, formalia and... and so on. What do we need Anyone? All comments are welcome!
/Håkan Nilsson ------------------------------------------------ - Old fashion C programmer since 1988 - Bachelor in systems analysis 1991 - Systems developer at work with C#, SQL Server... - DBA, database design, SQL, admin ------------------------------------------------
In my personal opinion.... Europe is 5* and Canada is 3* when it comes to people, family, social life and raising children. but Canada it's a little bit better when it comes about jobs, and USA it's even better and you can make double the money you make in Canada. So at this point you decide what's best for your you. But if you really want to move to Canada I suggest Calgary because that is a city that is starting to go better and better, more and more jobs and good pay. That's where the BOOM is happening. A lot of programmers moved to Clagary lately because they got really good jobs. Besides that.. there are mountains and nice things to see (comparing to where I live - flat like my hand) so your children could enjoy that. Again... this is my personal opinion.