Moving to Quebec was meant to improve the lives of 20-year-old Rayan Geist and his family. But the dream that these French people from Toulouse had two years ago has collapsed because of the multiple delays, the documents to be completed and the difficulty in obtaining work permits. The young man now lives alone, in precarious conditions, waiting for documents that are slow to arrive.
“I didn’t expect that… If I had been told there would be so many problems, pitfalls and disappointments, so many emotional lifts, I wouldn’t have left France”, drops the tall, well-built young man, polite, with a clear and frank gaze.
The duty met him on Friday on the grounds of the Harnois Irrigation company, in Saint-Thomas, near Joliette. Dressed in the blue polo shirt of the company in the agricultural sector, he is however forced to work there as a volunteer and struggles to support himself, far from his family, the time to obtain a permit from the Working Holiday Program (PVT).
Danielle Harnois, general manager of the SME, has been busy for years recruiting a shipping and receiving clerk, as this labor is hard to find.
I did not expect that. If I had been told that there would be so many problems, pitfalls and disappointments, so many emotional lifts, I would not have left France.
It has been since November 2020 that she has been trying multiple ways to obtain a work permit for Rayan, whom she quickly wanted to hire. “When he arrived in the area, he was knocking on the doors of my partner’s neighbors to offer his help with snow removal and odd jobs,” she says. It surprised us, because a young man of 18 who goes door to door to want to help, there are not many. It piqued our curiosity. »
“The boy I have with me right now, he’s demolished,” she adds. “He is no longer the young man I met two years ago. I understand that there is a big bottleneck at immigration, but there are humans behind who are very affected. »
A torn family
It all started when the young man’s father, an experienced truck driver, let himself be tempted by the Quebec adventure after passing through a recruitment mission in France. The rest of the family was thrilled with the project. “We wanted to get closer to nature,” says Rayan. It was a departure for a new life, totally the opposite of what we lived in a French metropolis. We wanted to start life from scratch, thinking that it would be more pleasant in Canada. »
With a two-year work permit in hand for the father, the family then sold the house to settle in Quebec. But since then disappointments have followed disappointments.
His mother, a beneficiary attendant, was unable to find an employer to oversee a work permit application. Discouraged, explaining the thing badly, she returned to France in June 2021 with the sister of Rayan. “It was heartbreaking for us, because our family is very close. We never leave each other for too long, ”drops the latter.
Meanwhile, Danielle Harnois was scrambling to obtain a Labor Market Impact Assessment (LMIA), a document required to hire a foreign worker that aims to prove that the job cannot not be occupied by a Canadian worker. But the process is demanding for a modest — and busy — SME like hers: she was unable to file the application in the required time.
However, she did not let go. With a law firm, she explored avenues requiring less time. After several steps, stroke of luck: Rayan was selected in May during a draw for a PVT. He then provides the required documents. But a new tile is falling: the biometric data he took in mid-June at the Laval office of Service Canada has been misplaced; he had to do it again two months later.
“Right now, I have volunteer hours covered by the CNESST. I can’t pay him for his work, so we went to the Saint-Thomas support center. Harnois Irrigation paid her two months’ rent,” explains Danielle Harnois. “But there is an end to this. What do we have to do ? I do not know. I’m coming to the end of my ideas, I’m coming to the end of the energies we can provide. »
Waiting for her dreams
The young man lives alone. His father has also returned to France, pending receipt of a Quebec Selection Certificate (CSQ), the application for which was submitted in April and which is slow to arrive.
“Things have to change, no one should have to go through this,” says Rayan. “I try to build from my life, but it’s sticking with toothpicks. »
He tries despite everything to keep his spirits up, supported by his girlfriend, whom he met in Quebec, and by his few close friends. He is determined to eventually obtain his Canadian citizenship and hopes one day to be able to do the job that makes him dream, and for which he was trained in France for three years: truck driver, like his father.