想来加拿大，现不知该选择哪个城市，请教新移民来温莎合适否？温莎的房价现是多少啊，10多万能买house么？

It depends. is 100K RMB or Canadian dollars?

这里的生活费用相对来说是低的,若想买房子,那得看你的标准

Immigration! I am not so sure. It all depends on what you are going to do in Canada.

The fact is that Windsor is the best place in Ontario to purchase a house. You can find a house in Windsor for 100K CDN but not in Toronto (At least double that amount). For a normal family, they only need to spend 35 % of income for the house, but compare to Toronto is 50%.

For Jobs, Windsor has the highest unemployment rate in Ontario. But on the other hand, you can try to find a job in Detroit and live in Windsor. I know a lot of friends doing that.
For life style, Windsor is a quiet city. We do not have any night life here.
For studying, it is a good place since you do not have a lot of place to go.
For traveling to USA. Windsor is s a city near Detroit. Around 20 minutes, you can be in the USA.

General facts compare: Windsor VS Toronto

Food: Toronto is cheaper
Housing: Windsor is cheaper
Salary (professional jobs): Toronto is higher
Traffic (public transit): Toronto is better
Traffic (driving): Windsor is better
Insurance: Windsor is cheaper
Studying: Windsor is better
Employment rate: Toronto is better
Shopping: Toronto is better

Many thanks for all your inforamtion.

My LG's major is automotive engineering, and we both work for automotive component company in Shanghai.  My questions are following:

1. Monthly cost for a small family (my daughter is 3 years old)
2. We plan to come Windsor 3 years later, could you give us some suggestion on what we should do/learn more now? (we are 27 years old)

Thank you very much!

Annie

比起多伦多温莎真的是理想选择
   安全 物价低 真的不错
       不过10w买house比较悬

俺还是prefer ToronToooo......

因为有很多人说汉语。。。。

我认为这里会很快发展起来的，这里真的有很大的商业市场

引用:

原帖由 alexdong 于 2006-11-2 02:31 发表
Many thanks for all your inforamtion.

My LG's major is automotive engineering, and we both work for automotive component company in Shanghai.  My questions are following:

1. Monthly cost fo ...

(1) Monthly estimation:

Car insurance: 150-250 depends on your driver license
Rental + utilities: 600-1000 (depends on the size of the house) + 250 - 400 (vary b/c of market rate on gas and electricity)
Food: 350
Travel by bus: 20-100 (depends on how many ticket you need or monthly pass
Travel by car (gas): 80-150 (depends on how far you need to travel)
Misc. expense: 150-300
Phone: 50
Internet: 50
Cable for TV: 60

All cost listed upper are rough estimate. Some may apply to you and some may not.

In that case, you are looking for around $1500 a month.

(2) I would recommend you improve your English. Your salary really depends on your English level. If you have high education in China, but you are very bad in English. You cannot get back to your professional field. You must be well prepared to speak and write fluent English.

Major in Automotive engineering? Windsor may be a good choice as it is close to Detroit, a Motor city.
may find a job in Detroit.

引用:

原帖由 Smartpo 于 2006-11-2 11:35 发表


(1) Monthly estimation:

Car insurance: 150-250 depends on your driver license
Rental + utilities: 600-1000 (depends on the size of the house) + 250 - 400 (vary b/c of market rate on gas a ...

Thank you, Smartpo. Since we have no relatives and freind in Ca, your information are very precious for us.

Below are three situation for our new life preparation  

1. Funds - okay: $1800X24MX7.5=324K rmb  (base on currunt famiy income, we can save 10K rmb per month for 3 years )

2.English - not good but in slow improving:  Although we both work for foreign company and use English sometimes, language is still our first barriers to get good life in Canada, so we prepare funds to get more time for language learning and new life adjustment.  

3.Body health - okay: But we have no experience to do labour work, do I need learn some skill like cooking, haircut from now ? or to get some working experience in surpermarket, KFC, McDonald before land ?

I'd like to get good preparation for this immigration planning, because don't wanna my family suffur too much pain during the life transition. 看到网上有些案例，小家庭因为移民刚开始的生活反差太大，精神上受痛苦太大而分解．吓人！

引用:

原帖由 windsorland 于 2006-11-2 12:54 发表
Major in Automotive engineering? Windsor may be a good choice as it is close to Detroit, a Motor city.
may find a job in Detroit.

could you pls advise more details of job position? my LG's title is account manager, doing sales +tech. support+program coordinator.

Program transition/operation is his direction.These years many foreign automotive component company set Asia Pacific center in Shanghai and move production line to China.

Annie

引用:

原帖由 鱼人娃娃 于 2006-11-2 09:19 发表
因为有很多人说汉语。。。。

娃娃，你好！

我现在还在上海．温莎的中国女性的日常生活是怎样的呢？　

是否和我想象的一样呢，读书，照顾家庭，做 part time?　我一象认为女生有时更坚强并且更仔细一点．

问了大家好多问题，不好意思．有什么大家对上海感趣的问题我也会尽量回复的．

安妮

引用:

原帖由 alexdong 于 2006-11-2 20:58 发表


Thank you, Smartpo. Since we have no relatives and freind in Ca, your information are very precious for us.

Below are three situation for our new life preparation  

1. Funds - okay: $18 ...

Friends? Don't worry, you can always meet new one here. May be I am the first one you meet here too? Who knows? We have members from different part of China. There is a chance that you meet someone from 上海 too.

(1) Since I do not came from Main land, I am not familiar the exchange rate. Therefore I have not idea how much you will have after 3 years in CDN, May be you can tell me a little bit more details.

(2) Good! Working on a foreign company may help u find a job here because Canadians only know those big companies. Your writing seems ok. I think you may need to focus on speaking, listening and reading. The first 2 will be the priority.

(3) Health? You have most of the health coverage from the government. It is the citizenship's right to have basic health coverage. It is free to see the doctor - I mean once you landed here. You only need to pay for the medicines yourself. I do not think you need to do labor work, since you have experience working on English speaking environment. Most of the labor jobs are for the Chinese who can not speak fluent English. Plus labor work in China will not help you get a good job here. Cooking yes, since going out to eat can cost you a lot here. Haircut is option. There is nothing bad to know it. I learn to cut the hair for myself here.

Bad Case? Yes. We have a lot. It was because they are not prepared. They think living in Canada should be easy. Canadian money should be good compare to China. The truth is that the money you earn here, you need to spend here too. The cheapest hamburger is CDN$1.90 (Whopper in Wednesday - Burger King). Base on that you can compare the live expense in China. It is a total different story. Plus we have high tax rate too. I am paying 25% of my income every year. It still does not include the tax when you buy stuff. (14%)

Everyone lives here have a tough life. Good jobs are for good English speaking people. No matter you are professional or not, there is not guarantee that you can find a good paid job which is same as before (in China). I will not recommend you to come over, if you cannot communicate with other people (in English).

PS. By the time you are leaving China, remember ask for reference letter from you superior. It may help you get a jobs here.

Reference posting for you:

http://windsor8.com/bbs/thread-383-1-1.html

引用:

原帖由 Smartpo 于 2006-11-3 01:06 发表
Reference posting for you:

http://windsor8.com/bbs/thread-383-1-1.html

Got it. Thank you, PO.

Annie (^@^)

First the big picture of automotive here is not great recently. '3 Big' and their suppliers have big job cuts due to lose market shares and outsourcings. Especially blue collar jobs in auto manufacturers. Some plants in Windsor and US had been closed or will be closed also. The lower house price and buyer market in Detroit and Windsor reflect this situation also.

However, there are still many opportunities over there. For instance R&D, warranty, technical supports, program managements, etc.

For your case, based on your brief descriptions, your husband's background is good. Due to outsourcing to China or India, may find some opportunities match your LG's background too.
I think you can feel positive about that, and given that your husband's English is not bad.
Another thing I can see from your posts is that you plan things early. That is really good.

Regarding the living cost, it also depends on how much you want to spend, it could be less $1500/month for a family with one kid I believe.  

If you can support your family by saving for about, let say, one year, do not do the labor job if you want to have a professional job. Otherwise you may lose your passion, energy, ambitions, and most importantly focus. I know some friends did that. By the way, I do respect labor jobs. All make livings. But my point here is that if you want a better one.

Good luck.

My ten cents.

Windorsland, thank you. Feel Windors is a better place to us. ))

About jobs in automotive, the market here in Shanghai is greatly growing these years by investment from big foreign automotive components company. And one thing need to be noted that the most of managerment are foreigners, or foreign citizen of Chinese origin.

BTW, how long have you been in Windsor? and what's the meaning of "my ten cents"?

Annie

I heard about tha in Shanghai too.

It's just my opinion for reference only, so it is valued as 'my ten cents' only
Be positive, but also please be advised, there are some white-collar job cuts in Detroit area too. Anyways if you are good enough you are still needed somewhere.