By Brooke Wilkinson

Why did you want to leave your home country?

For a better life in a freer country.

Why did you decide to move to Toronto?

Because a family member lived here.

What family members or friends did you leave behind? How do you stay in touch?

My parents, siblings and my friends. I stay in touch via phone and email.

The recession and financial crisis have put tremendous pressure on the Canadian job market even for ‘real’ born-and-bred Canadians. Of course, for immigrants, that means ever more pressure to find employment and choosing a career when even during hunky-dory times they faced such scarcity of work — their high educational and professional backgrounds notwithstanding.

I’ve compiled a list, after painstaking research (my readers expect nothing less from me) and visiting hundreds of jobs and employment boards’. Regular readers will know that my expertise in employment, and my credentials are, to say the least, impeccable.

As a free service to the Canadian Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, I have written an insider’s guide to the inner workings of an idle immigrant mind in Ontario. It will help the Ministry spend more money on government-funded programs for immigrants and will also add more glossy literature to put at the airports and Service Canada Centres nationwide, thus creating more secure jobs for bilingual Canadians from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.

This is an ongoing guide. Check back often to find more tidbits and help and support information as my adventure continues. I’m still working on the French version.