캐나다 이웃에게 영어로 쓴 편지: 핼리팩스 이민의 진짜 현실 (Full English Text)

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캐나다 핼리팩스 이민, '진짜' 현실은 이래요: 2025년 최신 생활비부터 교육·이민 꼼꼼 분석! (ft. R

 

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An Open Letter to My Canadian Neighbours: What Is the Real Life to Start Over in Halifax

Hello from the east coast!

I've been living here in Halifax for quite a long time, splitting my year between this city and my other home. It’s funny, just as Canadians don’t really ask your age, I’ve found myself losing track of time, too. It’s one of the charms of this place.

I still keep in touch with friends back in Korea, and through them, I get a surprising number of questions about immigrating to Canada. It reached a point where typing replies on my phone felt like a losing battle. So, I decided to write down some of my honest thoughts and experiences, not as a guide for newcomers, but as a glimpse into a world that might be happening right next door to you, unseen.

I figured there was no point to write about the best brunch spots or the prettiest playgrounds. You already know your city. Instead, I wanted to share the side of the story you might not see: the financial hurdles, the education dilemmas, and the hidden struggles that come with rebuilding a life from scratch in a new country.

So, shall we take a look at the unfiltered reality of life in Halifax, from an immigrant’s perspective?

The Real Cost of Living: Beyond the Numbers

"How much money do you need to live in Canada?" It’s a very difficult question, isn't it? I sometimes joke, "Well, the more the better!" But the truth is more complicated. I’ve seen so many newcomers, regardless of their starting capital, burn through a significant portion of their savings in the first year just trying to find their footings.

But to give you a rough idea, here’s a snapshot of a family’s monthly budget in Halifax as of 2025:

• Housing: A modest house rental runs about $2,800 a month. If you’re looking to buy, a mortgage payment on a starter home is easily $2,500 a month or more with current interest rates.
• Utilities: For a small three-bedroom house, you’re looking at an average of $800 monthly, which can spike to over $1,200 during a particularly cold winter.
• Transportation: In Halifax, it’s almost impossible to function without a car for each adult in the household. Leaving aside the car payment itself, basic insurance for a new driver starts around $2,000 per year. Gas might be a little cheaper than in Ontario, but you’re still looking at around $300 a month for a moderate commute.
• Groceries: With the cost of everything rising, a family that enjoys cooking and wants access to familiar Korean ingredients will easily spend $1,000 a month. Sure, AAA beef can be cheaper than pork here, but even lobster becomes a once-a-week treat. (And if you want truly authentic Tangsuyuk or Sundaeguk? You’re probably flying to Toronto for that. It’s not a knock on Halifax’s Korean restaurants; the reality is that sourcing the right ingredients to replicate the exact taste of home is a near-impossible challenge here.)

When you add it all up, it’s a lot. And this is before life’s other expenses: a vacation to Florida or even just a trip to Vancouver (which can be as cheap as $300 round-trip if you’re savvy!), or the occasional flight back home to Korea (around $2,000 on Air Canada, or maybe $1,400 on the new WestJet route). We didn’t move to Canada to just breathe the air; we came to live a life.

The Education Question: Is it Really a Paradise for Kids?

Yes and no. The image of children running freely on green lawns is a powerful one, but the reality is more nuanced. Public school is free, of course. But many families with the means, particularly in the immigrant community, opt for private schools due to concerns about the quality of public education in the Atlantic region. Tuition starts at $20,000 yearly and can easily climb to over $60,000 for a boarding school like King's-Edgehill.

And even in our quiet corner of the world, the pressure of extracurriculars is real. You’ll find Kumon learning centres and private essay tutors. Because we’re on the coast, activities like canoeing, kayaking, and horseback riding are popular and surprisingly affordable. The catch? There are no school buses for these activities, meaning parents become full-time chauffeurs, waiting in the car for hours.

Here’s an observation you might find interesting: there’s a quiet, intense competition among some immigrant parents. You’ll hear hushed conversations at the Starbucks in Clayton Park about which schools are "good" and which are "bad." It’s a strange echo of the hyper-competitive environment they wanted to escape from.

Sadly, this often leads to the spread of misinformation within the community. A school gets a bad reputation because one student, who perhaps had issues back in Korea, didn't adjust well. Or a parent with limited English misinterprets a situation, and suddenly a school is labeled as having a "problem."

You can often spot who is getting their information from local, English-language sources and who is trapped in a community echo chamber by a simple tell: how they spell place names. If someone writes "Halifex" or "Sobeys" as "Sobey," it’s often a sign they aren't engaging with mainstream Canadian media. It seems small, but it speaks volumes about thier level of integration.

The Unfiltered Truth About Immigration & Finding Work

There's a dangerous myth that getting Permanent Residency (PR) is a golden ticket. The reality is, if you were a foreign worker struggling with English before PR, you simply become a "domestic" worker struggling with English after PR. The credential doesn't magically grant you a new identity or career.

The most reliable path to success is through the education: graduating from a two-year college program, getting a post-graduation work permit, and building a career from there. In Halifax, the high-demand fields for newcomers are overwhelmingly Early Childhood Education (ECE) and Culinary Arts.

But one has to ask why ECE is in such high demand. The blunt truth is that it's a field many locals don't want to enter. The starting pay is shockingly low, and the five-year salary isn’t much different. It’s a high-turnover, low-wage profession, which is precisely why the government has designated it as a shortage occupation open to foreigners.

Final, Unfiltered Advice: The Scams and The Warnings

This is the hardest part to write about, but the most important. The dream of a new life makes people vulnerable, and unfortunately, there are those who prey on that vulnerability.

In the Korean community here, there are heartbreaking stories about the RESP, a wonderful government program to help save for a child's education. Predatory, unlicensed brokers within the community sell complex, high-fee plans that can eat up over $5,000 in hidden commissions. Parents, trusting someone who speaks their language, sign up, only to discover twenty years later—when their child is ready for university—that their investment has barely grown, and they can’t even withdraw their own money without massive penalties. This kind of exploitation is a painful reality.

Another is the "study abroad" industry. You see programs advertised in Korea for international students to come to Nova Scotia. But the glossy brochures don't tell you that the "Halifax ESL camp" is actually a dorm room in a rural college an hour outside the city. They don't tell you that for the $6,000 fee, the middlemen take such a large cut that the host families and programs are left with barely enough to provide proper care. I've seen too many young kids, sent here alone, struggling in silence because they don't want to worry their parents back home.

So, when you see a new family in your neighbourhood, or a new colleague at work, know that their journey here was likely far more complex and fraught with peril than you can imagine. Their polite smiles might hide financial anxieties, concerns about their children's future, and the quiet struggle of navigating a world that is still new and, at times, intimidating.

Your kindness, your patience, and your willingness to look past the language barrier and see the person standing before you, definitely makes all the difference. Thank you for reading.