![\"Selfie](\"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Photo-Marushka6-281x500.jpg\")
Photo courtesy of Marushka Loshki Nair<\/p><\/div>\n
Originally from Bombay, India, Nair arrived from Dubai where she was working as a consultant for PwC. She already had a job waiting for her in Toronto at the same company. Nonetheless, it was still a struggle for her to adapt. Without any time to meet new people, she had to work from home permanently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to office and got to meet two coworkers, then I was told to go back home because there was nothing for me to do. The next day we received an email saying we all had to work from home,\u201d Nair says.<\/p>\n
Since then, she hasn\u2019t been able to go back to the office and meet the people with whom she\u2019s working. For Cassandra Fultz, an immigration consultant based in Toronto, being a new immigrant in Toronto is hard and it\u2019s even harder with the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are starting from the bottom. No matter what job you had before, no matter how powerful you were, you\u2019re new in town and nobody knows who you are. And it\u2019s even more difficult now,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
Nair says she struggled to find an apartment. Landlords were reluctant to offer her a lease because she couldn\u2019t provide a Canadian reference or credit score. She found herself very lonely in a time of need.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re going through all of this by yourself, you want some emotional support. And my emotional support is on the other side of the world,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
After a few months of uncertainty, with no social life and a constant fear of losing her job, she was finally able to make some friends online. And with summer coming and the lockdown rules becoming more lenient, she met them in person for a little while.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would spend every weekend, birthday or holiday together. This is how I formed my big friend circle, which is why I think my situation is not tragic at this point. If you decide to take action and work on it you\u2019ll be fine, COVID-19 or not.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Fultz, if the government did what it could to financially assist people in Canada, there is not much that was done to provide any other kind of support.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one is really paying attention to the mental health toll that this is taking. Because that\u2019s one of the hardest part of being an immigrant: finding your new place in a community,\u201d says Fultz.<\/p>\n
Nair remains optimistic about the future, and she\u2019s impatient to see her new city back to normal. But she\u2019s not deluding herself, the pandemic is far from over.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t wait to see what it\u2019s like, but for now I\u2019m not holding my breath. I\u2019m just going to live each day as it comes,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n