Any Advice for this Young Man?

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Last year, when I did my ticker.art project, I hired a bright young man from Pakistan to do the artwork. He was a pleasure to work with, and his English skills were superb. Even though the project was completed long ago, we’ve maintained a friendly relationship, but this young fellow (early 20s, I think) really wants to GTFO out Pakistan, as you’ll read below. I offer this only to see if anyone has any clever ideas for him, or any angles I might suggest? He’s a good egg, and I’d love to be able to give him some good advice.


I wanted to discuss something with you, something that I’ve been actively working on but came to a dead end.

I don’t know if you know; but the economic and political crisis in Pakistan has reached to an all time high. Corruption at every corner and inflation at peak, it’s almost near downright impossible to survive in the country.

This is especially true for creative individuals working in niche industries, i.e, me. 

Therefore I’m seriously considering to move. I’ve been living on the internet scouting for opportunities abroad and to somehow land to a country where basic necessities of life aren’t as big of a challenge as they’ve become in Pakistan. 

The only country that realistically make sense to immigrate to and where I’m the closest to reach the requirements seems to be Canada. The only problem I’m facing is that I don’t have education beyond High School. Although I had gained admissions to the best universities in my field, such as Drexel and NYU, the scholarship was not suffice and thus, I could never complete my education beyond High School.

If you’re aware of Canadian immigration, owning a bachelors or even 2 years diploma known as Associate Degree allows you to reach the minimum points for immigration. Thus, it’s a crucial requirement that I must meet. I had been trying to save as much as possible but college expense is out of reach, I still haven’t even made enough to upgrade to a better laptop, it’s that tough in Pakistan nowadays. 

So, the reason I’m writing this to you is to ask for what you think I should do, or if there’s a way around it or something that I missed. It’s not that I don’t love Pakistan, I do, but it’s a sad reality that it’s very hard to survive here, especially for art fields as they don’t recognise this as a talent in the first place. 

If you have any advice that you think could help me with the immigration process for Canada, that’d be fantastic.