The Cost of Migrating

In the past I never have the slightest idea to migrate to another country. After graduating from Australia, I came back to Penang straight away eager to contribute to my country. Asia was booming back in the 90s with mega projects sprouting out all over the place. As a young architectural student, it is not difficult to understand why I hoped to work in one of those projects compared to designing single houses in Australia. 

I had big dream back then before the brutal reality hit me in the face. First, it was the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997 that brought the entire construction industry to its knees. Suddenly all potential architectural projects were put on hold. I couldn't find job for 2 whole months. Managed to land a temporary job as an intern with merely RM750/ month; even the security guard earned more than me.

I continued to work my way up and did spent the most part of my early career in Penang, a total of 13 years to be exact. The first time that I thought about migrating was when one of my colleague asked me this question: "Don't you ever thought of going back (referring to Australia)?" That question was the seed that planted in my head that eventually grew into a full fledged plan to migrate to Australia.

Many reasons that contributed to this decision to leave my home to move to a foreign land. To cut the story short, just simply says that the grass always looks greener when you admired it from afar. I was ecstatic when my Permanent Residence Visa was granted in 2011 and can't wait to start my new life in Perth! The prospect of a new life with better career, bigger house, cleaner air, first world environment filled up my tiny little head and I was confident that life will now change for the better.

But is migrating to a foreign country going to solve all the problems that I thought I was facing at the time? Below was I said on 4^th September 2012, just 2 months after I moved to Perth:

“Isn't it a fantastic idea to migrate to a foreign country and start a new life? Most people will have this same intention especially when they feel that their future in their home country is bleak. The idea does sound great especially when you think that you will be treated equally, have greater opportunity and better quality of life in your new found home. 

However, when you actually take action and start your new life in a foreign land, you have to be mentally prepared for challenges and hardships initially. After all everything has to begin from zero again. You need to adapt to the new climate, culture, lifestyle and work environment. You also have to start establishing your new social network from scratch.   

The top 2 challenges you will be facing when migrating to a new country is to find a job and a place to stay. You could send hundreds of job application online but you won't be getting anywhere unless anyone respond to you. It is indeed tough especially when you know no one in this new land and hard to get a reference from anybody. It is the same when looking for a place to stay; the landlord or real estate agent will only entertain you if you have reference. This almost become mission impossible when you know no one in this place!

Nobody would ever want to leave their home; the place where you were born and grew up in. You will always be emotionally attached to your home no matter where you go. Everybody thought that migration is an enjoyment of life but in actual fact it is one of the greatest sacrifice one can ever make in life.”

Reality is always different from what we think. Yes, I did land myself onto the Lucky Country but things were not as lucky as I thought. I have to first find a place to stay. I thought it shouldn't be an issue right as long as I have the money to pay for rental. WRONG! Renting a place to stay in Australia is not as simple as having the means to pay for rental. You have to be in a long list of potential tenants competing against each other to be accepted by the landlord. Some of the criteria that he/ she will look at is your job, how many people in your family, whether you have a pet or not, basically they want to know your lifestyle as well before they decided to rent you their property.

Then came the next big challenge which is to find a job. Again, I thought it shouldn't be a problem for me as I have more than a decade of works experience back in Malaysia. WRONG AGAIN! For a new migrant, I was considered as having zero 'local experience' in Australia. Hence it is almost close to impossible to even find one job to start with. How can any person has local experience if he can't get hired because he has no local experience. It's really a culture shock to me.

I did manage to work in a few jobs for the first three years but they were all not stable. Getting in and out of job every now and then in the beginning was not a good start for a new life in a foreign land. It was indeed very stressful and I even got depressed at one stage.

It was not after the fourth year that things started turning for better. This is now my eighth year of living in Australia and am glad to say that life has become more stable now. But the first four years really took a toll on both my physical and mental health.

Migrating to a new country is not for the faint hearted. While the monetary cost is manageable, the other intangible costs such as your mental health are not so easily quantifiable. While Australia is a lot better than Malaysia in various aspects of life that one aspires to, living here is no walk in the park. It comes at a huge cost. The question is whether it is worth it. I shall explore this in another post.

Let's not get too stressful folks, Happy Friday!