Hashmeen Bains and Canada

language barriers: Transportation, accommodation, language barriers, paperwork, SIN numbers, drivers' licences and banking can all be a confusing mess for immigrants, said project member Hashmeen Bains, who came to Canada at the beginning of this semester, according to Hamilton Spectator. Bains, who is in the Master of Engineering Entrepreneurship and Innovation stream, says when she arrived in Canada a few months ago it was surprisingly difficult to balance the challenges of a transitioning into her academic endeavours while she dealt with relearning things as simple as banking, which differs from her home country. That exactly what three international students from India who are taking their engineering master degree at McMaster University are hoping to do through a project drawing from their experiences immigrating to Canada. What she and fellow group members Arshpreet Malhi and Binal Solanki noticed is that these experiences were far from unique — whether their interview subjects came from India, China, Japan, Mexico or Egypt, the basic functions of Canadian society presented a more difficult transition than expected. "A major problem was accommodation," said Bains, adding that more than 70 per cent of respondents experienced problems finding places to stay. That when the team came up with the idea of GSIS — a simple app or web portal that would serve as the central hub for combining all of the services a Canadian newcomer would need. A Chinese student the team interviewed had to stay in a hotel for about a month because of errors in communication between him and a landlord. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.