TORONTO – Karim Dabi, a recent immigrant to Canada, became an inspiration to the local new immigrant community by achieving the Canadian dream of landing a role at a tech startup in Austin,Texas
Dabi, who moved here as a professional engineer to pursue his masters at U of T admitted that living with 3 roommates because of an overinflated real estate market and a stagnant wage trend did remind him of being back at home. However, the competitive Austin salary – along with the outlandish fever dream of actually affording a home while keeping all his organs intact – just seemed too good of an offer to turn down.
The Canadian new immigrant community, who are often ostracized for not immediately assimilating into Canadian culture and financial markets, hope that stories like Dabi’s can help shed a light on how they can be as Canadian as anyone.
Still, this story is not without its detractors who believe immigrants should not be stealing jobs that Canadians stole from Americans in the first place.
“Taking high paying American tech jobs is a Canadian birthright and American corporations who prioritize profits over American jobs should not do that same thing to Canadians” said Gordie McCaull, of Regina.
On reflection, Dabi mentioned his struggles as an immigrant to Canada. “I took concerted efforts to try to be more Canadian, doing everything from trying to play hockey to coercing myself into having a superiority complex over the United States. Still, I feel I found my answer when this opportunity came along, since moving to the states to earn a living in US dollars is as Canadian as maple syrup!”
On his future plans to come back, Dabi said he would try to assimilate into American culture by moving to Canada only when he’s dissatisfied by their election results.
