Moving to Canada was harder than I thought. I'm not sure I'd do it again

This First Person article is the experience of Misbah Noor who lives in Calgary. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.

I believe there's a light at the end of every dark tunnel, but it took years to find it after we moved to Canada.

My husband and I moved to Calgary with two children — ages five and two — in 2015. We started looking for jobs immediately and were full of hope because my husband had been a branch manager at a renowned bank in Pakistan. But we were in for a shock. The only job he could find to start was installing carpet. 

After just a week of work, he looked exhausted and said, "When I was climbing the stairs of our apartment building, I was wishing for a house without a staircase. My legs are so sore." 

The next morning, he changed again into his work clothes, which were torn and shabby at his knees. His black shirt was faded from being washed every day. His hands were full of cracks from the dust and dryness at work.

"I can't even stand on my feet today," he said.

He left and I sat with my cup of tea. All I could think was: Why are we here? 

We were not happy. We lived in a small apartment with little furniture and missed our family and friends back home. Every day we worried about what the next day would bring.

Moving to another country gives you a different picture of life and changes you into a new person. My brother applied to come to Canada on my behalf back in 2008 when I was still single. I was excited to move, happy to do the required language tests and gather the many documents.

But it took a long time — seven years before we finally got the permanent resident visa in the mail. In the meantime, I got married and had two kids.

I was still eager to come to Canada, hoping for better job opportunities, higher salaries and a brighter future for the kids. But now that we had young children, the struggle to get re-established was way bigger than we had anticipated.

After I finished my tea, I started looking for work desperately. I have a master's in education but filling out online job applications was new for me and every job I found required Canadian work experience.

It was life with constant stress.

I am normally shy but I started talking to strangers — people in my building, parents in my children's school, people at the library. I asked them how to get a job here. They would leave me with a link to some recruiting companies and websites I could not understand.