Canada Chalo
"Go West, young man!" advised someone once. It wasn't meant for them, but Pakistanis, young and old alike, seem to have taken this counsel to heart as they move west, west and further west.
Earlier, they went in droves to "London" (meaning anywhere in the UK) – the young and the affluent for "higher studies" and the young and the old able-bodied as skilled and unskilled labour. The next wave of labourers and job-seekers streamed to the Gulf countries, a phenomenon captured in the catchy title of a 1970s Lollywood (Pakistan's Lahore-based film industry) film called Dubai Chalo – Let's go to Dubai.
Then it was Lady Liberty that drew migrants to try their luck in the land of the free and home of the brave. And now, although the numbers of applicants for the US "green card" have not exactly dwindled, the rush is on for Canada. For students "it's half the cost of studying in the US," as one parent points out. "And the education is just as good."