|
Archived Articles
Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.
He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.
In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.
Global Real Estate Project
|
 |
The long and winding road to America
Editor's note: We are more proud than we can say to welcome Simeon and his family to north America. We look forward to meeting his family soon, and spending more time learning about his long journey from Communism to life in the West, and hope that he will share much of it with our readers as well. Welcome home, dear friend!
One dreamFirst let me tell something about myself before going to my American immigration project itself. When I was a child I had a dream. It wasn't an ordinary dream - I wanted to live in a country where my dignity as a human being would be respected. At that time I lived under a political regime whose brutality many people nowadays can hardly imagine. It was called a communist tyranny but the words couldn't explain the nature of the social reality. It was like a drug addiction - people preferred to give up instead of dreaming for a better life. Some escaped from the country putting at risk their lives; many others stayed silent till the end of communism.Then the communist regime fell apart and I thought that I could help my fellow citizens live in their country this better life I dreamed of. 13 years ago I was a young political scientist, I wanted to be of help to my society and I didn't leave my home country, Bulgaria, with so many others in the early 90s. Then I thought I was right, for me the better life didn't mean a life abroad, in the West. Over the next years I realized that all my efforts to help my country were in vain. I have chosen to be a journalist, which means to show the people what's going on behind the political curtain. In countries like Bulgaria that can't go unpunished for too long. In brief, I realized that my dream couldn't be accomplished in my own country. It isn't easy to change your life when one third of it is already behind you, but it's even more difficult to see how your children are growing and how inevitably they will have to face the same dilemma - to have their dreams come true abroad or to give up and become Mr. or Mrs. Nobody at home.
One projectMany people in the US still think that it's relatively easy for a foreigner to come and settle in America. The country (countries if considered both the USA and Canada) is believed to be a promised land for immigrants from around the world. In reality millions of people from different countries will never reach this land, neither as immigrants nor as simple visitors. Look at the numbers - the US so-called "Green card" lottery covers 55,000 lucky applicants out of total of 5-7 million. For example, I have applied for 6 consecutive years together with my wife and didn't get any positive results.As a matter of fact my first choice for immigration was the USA but unfortunately the US "Green card" computer didn't like me as an immigrant, so I decided to turn my attention to Canada, a country with more developed immigration policy, which is somehow different from that of the US. The applicants in Canada aren't chosen randomly by a computer, but according to their skills, education, profession and the knowledge of the two main languages - English and French. The procedure is longer compared to the US "Green card" lottery - 2-3 years. Also it's more expensive - for a family of 4 you have to prepay almost $3,000, which doesn't include the tickets. For a family of the same size the "Green cards" cost somewhere around $1,500*. My project started in late 1999 and the final approval came in January 2002. The procedure for me was a little bit more complicated because my family applied for the French-speaking province of Quebec. One realityOur final hours in Bulgaria for me are like in a fog. I still can't believe I have experienced all this - packaging the huge baggage, the travel to the airport, the last night in Europe (Prague), the never-ending flight to Montreal (8 ½ hours), the never-ending official procedures at the airport, the Arab crowd that met us in the main hall, then our agent coming to "rescue" us, then his van, the road to the city, our apartment that we rented from Bulgaria (thanks to the internet), the first night...And the life began again - new places, new people, many things look strange and have to be learned. But as far as I understand it, the ability to learn means that we are still alive and we can still do something good on this earth. We tried to make it in the past, we'll try to do it in the future.
EndnoteI began these lines with my childhood dream and now my words are also dedicated to the children, this time to my own children. I hope they will soon forget all the bad things they have experienced in the past and will truly enjoy their new life in Canada. I hope they will never have such dreams like mine - to live in a country where they will be respected, because it won't be a dream anymore, it will be a reality. What kind of dreams they will have then? I don't know, but I wish them two things - never to forget the past and always to dream for a better future.
- - -
|
See also:
