E122: Kristina McPherson on feeling at home in Canada: 'It took 11 years'

In this episode, I’m speaking with Kristina McPherson, who moved from Jamaica to Canada in 2014, and now runs As Told By Canadian Immigrants, where she’s the guide she wishes she had before she moved to Canada.

There’s a lot to unpack in this episode, but the part I can’t stop thinking about is when Kristina talks about “post-immigration stress disorder,” a term she coined to describe what many immigrants go through as they try to settle into their new home. I believe it’s also called Ulysses Syndrome.

There’s the constant anxiety. There’s the uncertainty that has you feeling unsettled. There’s the mental load of running two parallel tracks—getting through today while worrying if you’ll even be here tomorrow.

For Kristina, it was LMIA complications. Provincial nominee programs that wouldn’t work in time. Express Entry launching with 800-point cutoffs. Submitting her PR application two months before her work permit expired, then living on implied status for months.

During that time, Christina lived with two pots, two plates, two glasses. Everything she owned fit in a suitcase. Because if immigration forced her to leave, she wanted it to be easy.

Kristina and I chat about the emotional toll of living in limbo for years. We also explore:

• Living two and a half years out of a suitcase

• Why she started “As Told by Canadian Immigrants”

• Why we need to put boundaries around how one consumes immigration information on social media

• Being ‘in-betweeners’ caught between cultures