OP I am very much in a similar stance as you!
I am a European that moved over in 2020, I primarily was seeking the opportunity to move to a country to be closer to the snow and my options were here or your homeland! I decided to try CA first as I’ve never lived in NA and it’ll be easier to move to Austria when I’m a bit older.
In my time here, I have had opportunities to snowboard a lot, hike and camp over the summer. Despite this, I still feel like Canada is severely weighing me down and holding me back in life. The 2-3 weeks vacation doesn’t give much opportunity to travel with the long distance flights or long drives here and huge taxes on both domestic/international travel don’t help. For me to travel to central America, it is cheaper and quicker to fly from Ireland than Vancouver where I have to fly to NA or Toronto and connect.
I have been incredibly fortunate to earn a six figure salary here but as my few friends aren’t in the same boat, they cannot afford to do the travels or desired activities with me.
I have found people to be quite reserved here, and happily live a quiet life, immigrants keep to their own nationalities and their is heightened by friend groups moving over together and not looking to expand their circles.
I was due to move last June but I secured my dream role in a company I’ve wanted to work in since I was a kid, this is the best/worst thing for me as everyday outside of work feels like a slug now. I am going to ask in the new year about finishing my contract in EU.
The cost of living for the lower quality, no real vacation time, no employee/consumer protection and lack of social scene are driving me back to EU. I even am in the middle of my PR application (applied Dec '2, 600 points and no movement!), at this rate it’ll probably come through by the time I’ve left the country for good.
I am grateful for the opportunities and memories in Canada but I feel like if I were to stay for a fifth year, I’ll be very behind in my life goals.
Everywhere has racism unfortunately however I have to honestly say I’ve witnessed the highest amount of racism in Canada. How some people think they can treat and speak to immigrants in this country is disgusting, a lot of the time the people don’t even realise they’re racist. How English Canadians treat indigenous is a fine example.
Whoever does Canada’s PR has done a mighty job of painting a big picture vastly different to the reality of everyday life