Hi! Today I’d like to talk about difficulties of adjustments in immigration process and about all the stages of that process which one can experience living far from familiar environment of Motherland. And about that feeling when you just want to leave it all behind and go back home

I’ll share my experience as I moved to Australia several years ago and about difficulties I’ve experienced for this time, about mistakes I made and about possible ways of making this process easier. Those cockatoos today are going crazy!

So, I live in Australia for about 4.5 years and I came here using professional visa and I’ve just got Australian citizenship Yep, you can congratulate me 🙂 If you’re interested to know what visa I’ve got and how you can check out video in description below where I’ve explained whole process.

And if you want to know about process of getting a citizenship, please let me know in comments and I’ll make a video about that. For time of my life in Australia I noticed some changes of attitude towards the country and immigration in myself

This process feels like different stages of immigration and specialist distinguish 4 of them: 1. Honeymoon 2. Disappointment 3. Adjustments 4. Assimilation First I’d like to quickly describe each of those stages and will talk about my experience after and tell you what stage I’m currently on. 1. Honeymoon (euphoria)

You came to a new country, to the place of your dreams. This feels like being a tourist,, maybe even better You’re traveling, exploring a country, compare cultural differences and you’re excited about everything! You like it all. And it’s very easy to experience that especially in such beautiful country as Australia

This is a cool period of time which normally ends and they come a realization that you should not confuse a tourism to immigration. 2. Disappointment stage comes You start facing difficulties which tourists don’t normally experience such as domestic routine issues Language barrier becomes a real problem.

Sometimes you have moments when you don’t want to contact to anyone or you even have a fear just thinking of doing that. Even such simple action as phone conversation with internet provider freaks you out and you keep postpone it. You feel stupid only because you can’t understand people around.

You are becoming a home sick and miss your family and friends or other simple things you used to do. You can face financial difficulties which will add to the feeling of disappointment in new country

Also you’re starting to realise that it doesn’t matter what kind of great professional you were in your country it’s possible that you have to start over in new place. 3. And here it comes the 3rd stage of adjustment. People are facing difficulties and starting to overcome them.

It often comes together with such things as annoyance, frustration and rage. And this is the most dangerous stage when a person makes decision of leaving or staying And this condition can last for years! 4. For people who manage to overcome the process of adjustment there is a next stage of assimilation

Ideally a good assimilation is when you keep your authenticity and cultural background accepting a new culture and its’ culture integrating and feeling yourself as a part of this environment. You can finally call this place home. Voila! It sounds simple but it’s not. It’s a very complex process.

Now I wanna talk about my adjustments and mistakes I made during this process. A big mistake is I had really long “honeymoon” stage. I think I was trying to make it softer for myself and was very slow integrating in new culture as if I was scared of facing a real life.

I was coming up with some specific tasks for myself focusing just on them at a time. For example I was preparing to get my driving license and was only focusing on this process as it took a lot of my emotional power already.

I was saying to myself that I gonna think about everything else later… or tomorrow as Scarlet O’Hara would say (“Gone with the Wind”)

I was protecting myself not thinking that this stage will end sooner or later and then more I postponed the moment of ending it then more harsh the real life can be. My 2nd mistake was communication mostly in my 1st language writhing Russian speaking community

And this is a big problem. Sometimes I was even avoiding speaking English when I had a chance For instance during small talk with strangers I was trying to wrap it up as soon as I could. And finally my biggest problem was fear and lack of confidence.

I though that the level of my English is very bad and I’ll not be able to find a job. I was convinced that I also will not find it without Australian qualification or experience. And because all of it I didn’t even try to look for a job! I went to college instead.

And I’d like to add here that I was absolutely right about my English as I couldn’t understand maybe around 70% of speaking of my teachers and classmates. I could sit with classmates listening to conversation and about 5 minutes later realise that they discuss car service.

By the time I got that part they would move on to another topic. I’m not saying that studying was a bad idea as education always benefit you but I think that would be a good idea to look for a part time job and combine it with study.

When I finished studying I wasn’t able to find a job for my qualification and was looking for a job as a waitress. I needed money so could not make excuses anymore and I quickly find a job in a restaurant.

I believe that lack of money actually helped in a good way as I needed to do something as I had no other choice. I really didn’t like that job but the good thing is I wasn’t able to choose not to talk to people as my job was a communication!

I asked to repeat several times taking orders, was asking to spell names of drinks as I ether had no idea what it was or simply didn’t get accent. It was such a stress! But at least I started talking to people and most important fact I got the confidence of breaking a language barrier.

As a result I finally got a job in my professional area and I love it very much. I believe that time when I needed to get out of my comfort zone brought me to where I am now and made my life much better in a long perspective.

By the way I filmed videos about both of these jobs and you can check out link in the description. What conclusion can I make? Firstly I think that I’m currently at the third stage of adjustment wen you overcoming difficulties.

I have my moments of hard time or sometimes I’m even feeling depressed when I don’t want to talk to anyone or have no motivation to do anything But I’m convinced that this is a important process I need to go through

It probably depends only on me for how long this process gonna last but I also think there are some things which can helm to make it quicker. Firstly, it’s very important to learn a language. It’s good idea to do it before moving to other country and I did that

But I was mostly preparing to pass English exam IELTS as I needed to pass it in order to get visa

However, it’s also a good idea to practice language with a native speaker. You can do it when you passed your test so you don’t have to spread you attention or learning it at the same time works as well

When I came here I couldn’t understand people as it turned out that Australian English is very different and people sometimes don’t speak very clear I can’t even get what sales person asks me when I pay in shops

In my opinion language practice with a native speaker could help to improve understanding and overcoming that barrier I was scared to talk to people when I moved to Australia

I admire Latin American people in this respect. They absolutely don’t care if they make any mistakes but they speak a lot just fine. They’re getting experience in this way. And I was scared of making grammar mistakes and I didn’t speak at all.

You won’t move anywhere without practice. You can use special learning portals in internet and talk to native speakers and of course you need to talk more when you move and not avoid conversations. Use call centres, ask questions during shopping, participate in small talks,

Listen to music, podcasts. Surround yourself with new language and you will learn faster! Another thing. I’m sure that it’s better to face your fear and look for job as soon as you can. It was a real fear in my case about my bad English and lack of Australian experience

Even if you fail to find a job of your dream straight away I’d suggest to try any job as I think it’s better than nothing. You’re diving in new culture, talk to people, learn how things work here, you make connections and these people later can become your references

When you applying for a job here it’s important to use reference contacts. This camera will fly away now… So when you apply for job you can use people in professional community that know you and can recommend as a good and reliable worker

By the way if you don’t have work contacts you can use immigration lawyer or teachers from college or Uni as I did This weather is getting worse every minute! I’ll try to complete video though…

Another very important thing is your friends. They can be here for support when you need them (and other way around of course) I mentioned before that it’s important to communicate on that language you’re learning but I think that it’s you need close people around in general

If you have no one to talk about in that place you moved to then keep in touch with your friends back home It’s is extremely important and necessary to have this kind of support and have friends.

You need to make you going to meet ups, meet new people, search for hobbies and interesting activities making friends there Please don’t fall!

It’s critical to have something you love to do and spend some time with people you enjoy talking! This is all connected together as a part of adjustment to life in new country and affects how you gonna feel about it…

My phone fell down and I hope I put it in the same position. I lost one screw in my tripod… I’m getting blown away! It keeps falling! Yesterday I was obliged to interrupt filming as weather changed completely literally for 2 minutes. Crazy wind came, rain and even lightning Oi! What are you doing???

Get out! don’t attack me, stop it! This is craziness! He approached me and started hissing at me! So, I hope now I will manage to finish my thought. Immigration is very complex process indeed which no onw can go through easily.

If you decided to go through this experience than it means you are very strong and brave person who doesn’t get scared of difficulties. Be persistent! Be open to new opportunities and new people which life presents you Be happy and proud with even little wins and everything will definitely work out!

Thanks for watching and good luck in this not easy thing!

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