Imagine moving to a new country, settling in Burnaby, and living in a one-bedroom home with your triplets after your husband has left.
Or imagine you've given up on your career and taken a lowpaying job because your credentials aren't recognized in Canada, or you're living with your children in a home with bedbugs and rats because you can't afford anything else.
Those are just a few of scenarios for new immigrants, who are disproportionately represented in this year's report card on child poverty in B.C.
Gabriele Pistor, from Burnaby Family Life, has seen the hardships new Canadians face. Pistor is the supervisor for child-care and family resource programs, where parents and their kids can get help with things like food, clothing, housing and information on schools. Pistor estimates about 60 to 70 per cent of the families seeking help are immigrants.
That's partly why she was not surprised by new data from First Call's annual report on child poverty, which states nearly half (49.6 per cent) of immigrant children who came to Canada between 2001 and 2006 live below the poverty line, thanks to higher unemployment and lower income for new arrivals.
"I'm not surprised because very often, parents have to learn English first to get a good paying job," Pistor said.
"Even if you have a good pay-ing job in your country, you have to redo your certificates or your diploma, and that can take a really long time."
According to Pistor, there are highly educated Burnaby immigrants - doctors and lawyers, for instance - who can't find jobs. Factor in the high costs of housing, and there's often no money left for anything else, she added.
According to the First Call report, the province's child poverty rate rose from 14.5 per cent in 2008 to 16.4 per cent in 2009. (Poverty is defined as below the before-tax low-income cut-off levels set by Statistics Canada.)
When looking at after-tax levels, child poverty rose from 10.4 per cent to 12 per cent in 2009, ranking B.C. as the worst province for child poverty for the eighth consecutive year.
Before-tax statistics for 2009 show there are about 137,000 poor children living in B.C., which has risen from 121,000 in 2008.
The poverty rate for single moms fell to a record low of 24.2 per cent.
The First Call report recommends reducing child poverty by improving employment insurance benefits, child care and access to post-secondary education and increasing the minimum wage, welfare and child tax benefits.
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