In this revealing commentary, Stephen Armah Quaye dismantles the popular myth that migration to Canada guarantees automatic success and prosperity for Ghanaians. Drawing attention to the stark contrast between social media portrayals and lived reality, Quaye outlines the multifaceted challenges facing Ghanaian immigrants: brutal winter conditions that test physical and mental endurance, professional downgrading where credentials go unrecognized, a punishing housing crisis that forces overcrowded living arrangements, and the relentless pressure of high living costs that necessitates multiple jobs just for survival. Beyond the economic hardships, he explores the emotional toll of family separation, social isolation, and the often-unspoken burden of expectations from relatives back home who assume wealth is instantaneous upon arrival.

Harsh realities facing Ghanaians in Canada

By Stephen Armah Quaye

Everyone wants to travel to Canada or the United States of America.
Everyone believes life there is easy. But what if I told you that for thousands of Ghanaians abroad, survival, not success, is the daily struggle? There is a side of migration nobody posts on social media. No filters. No airport photos. No smiling selfies in winter jackets. Just hard truths.
Before you pack your bags and say goodbye to Ghana, here is what you need to know.

The Other Side of the Dream

For many young Ghanaians, Canada represents opportunity, stability, and prosperity. It is seen as a land where hard work automatically produces success. Families gather at airports with tears of joy, believing their relative is stepping into an instant transformation. But migration is not magic. It is a transition, often a difficult one.

The Weather Shock

One of the first harsh realities facing Ghanaians in Canada is the weather.
Coming from a tropical country where sunshine dominates most of the year, winter in Canada can be physically and emotionally overwhelming. Temperatures drop far below zero. Snow blankets roads and sidewalks. The wind can pierce through layers of clothing. Winter is not just cold; it is exhausting.
Many immigrants wake up as early as 4:00 a.m., stepping into darkness and freezing temperatures to catch buses to work. Public transport delays during snowstorms are common. Walking even short distances becomes physically demanding.

Seasonal depression is real. Long months without adequate sunlight affect mood, energy, and mental health. For someone unprepared, winter alone can become a serious emotional test.

Employment and Credential Barriers

Another harsh reality is employment, specifically underemployment.
Many Ghanaians arrive with degrees and professional experience. Engineers, teachers, accountants, nurses, and other skilled workers often discover that their credentials are not immediately recognised in Canada. Licensing requirements, additional certifications, and “Canadian experience” become barriers.

As a result, many find themselves taking survival jobs such as factory work, warehouse labour, cleaning services, security shifts, or restaurant jobs. There is dignity in all honest work, but it can be emotionally draining when years of education do not translate into professional recognition. Some immigrants send money home and project success, but internally they struggle with frustration and identity loss. The reality is simple: being educated does not guarantee immediate success in Canada.

The Housing Crisis

Housing is another significant challenge. Rent in major Canadian cities is extremely expensive. In some cases, a single room can consume more than half of a person’s monthly income. Apartments require credit checks, proof of employment, and deposits. As a result, many newcomers share accommodation. Two or three people may occupy one bedroom. Some live-in basements with limited ventilation. Others rely on temporary stays with friends until they stabilise financially.

Meanwhile, families back home may assume their relative abroad owns a spacious apartment or house. The truth is different. Many immigrants are simply trying to secure safe and affordable shelter.

High Cost of Living

The cost of living in Canada is significantly higher than many expect.
Groceries are expensive. Transportation costs add up quickly. Winter clothing is costly but necessary. Phone bills, internet services, and insurance payments are ongoing financial commitments.
Healthcare in Canada is publicly funded, but not everything is covered. Dental care, prescription medication, and some specialist services often require private insurance or out-of-pocket payment.
For many immigrants, income disappears quickly once bills are paid. Savings take time. Financial stability does not happen overnight. This financial pressure pushes some individuals to work two or even three jobs, often with little rest. The goal is not luxury. The goal is survival.

Utility Bills and Winter Expenses

Winter brings additional financial strain.
Heating costs rise significantly during cold months. Electricity and gas bills can increase unexpectedly. Missing payments can lead to service disruptions and penalties.
Life can become a cycle: work, pay bills, repeat. The image of comfort and ease often portrayed abroad does not reflect this ongoing pressure.

Social Isolation and Emotional Strain

Beyond economics, there is emotional hardship. Migration separates families. Parents miss milestones in their children’s lives. Spouses endure long-distance marriages. Friendships change.
Loneliness is common, especially during the early years. Community networks help, but the adjustment period can be mentally challenging. Cultural differences, accent barriers, and subtle discrimination can also make integration difficult.

Pressure from Home

Perhaps one of the most overlooked realities is pressure from back home. Families often expect financial support. Some assume that anyone living in Canada is wealthy. When money does not flow as expected, disappointment may arise.

In some cases, funds sent home for projects such as building houses are mismanaged. This adds emotional and financial stress to an already difficult situation. Expectations can weigh heavily on immigrants who are still struggling to establish themselves.

A Call for Informed Migration

This article is not meant to discourage migration. Canada offers opportunities, safety, quality education, and structured systems. Many Ghanaians have succeeded and built fulfilling lives there.
However, success requires preparation so, if you are considering migration, research your profession and licensing requirements, save sufficient funds before travelling, prepare mentally for weather and cultural adjustment, develop adaptable skills, and build realistic expectations.

Migration is not an escape from hardship; it is often a different kind of hardship. The dream is possible, but it is earned through resilience, patience, sacrifice, and strategic planning.

Before you migrate, know the full story, not just the glamorous parts. Because sometimes, survival itself is an achievement.

In this article, Francesca Jackson of Lancaster University states that the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, which occurred at the Sandringham estate, marks the first time in modern history that a member of the extended British royal family has been taken into custody, though he was stripped of his official titles in 2025. While the monarch enjoys sovereign immunity from prosecution, this protection does not generally extend to other royals, who can face legal consequences—Princess Anne was prosecuted for a dog bite incident in 2002, and the King has explicitly stated that “the law must take its course.”

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. The arrest comes after the US government released files that appeared to indicate he had shared official information with financier and convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while serving as a trade envoy for the UK. But the police have not given details of exactly what they are investigating.

It is important to be clear that the arrest is not related to accusations of sexual assault or misconduct. In 2022, Mountbatten-Windsor reached a settlement with the late Virginia Giuffre for an undisclosed sum that did not include an admission of liability.

Being named in the Epstein files is not an indication of misconduct. Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied any wrongdoing in his association with Epstein and and has previously rejected any suggestion he used his time as trade envoy to further his own interests.

What was Mountbatten-Windsor’s official role and why did he lose it?

In 2001, Tony Blair’s government made the then-prince the UK’s special representative for trade and investment. According to the government at the time, his remit was to “promote UK business internationally, market the UK to potential inward investors, and build relationships in support of UK business interests”. He did not receive a salary, but he did go on hundreds of trips to promote British businesses.

Members of the royal family are often deployed by the government on international missions to promote trade. When negotiating with other countries, particularly those which are also monarchies, sending a prominent figure like a royal may help seal the deal. Indeed, the then-government claimed that the former Duke of York’s “unique position gives him unrivalled access to members of royal families, heads of state, government ministers and chief executives of companies”.

It is not unusual for members of the royal family to be deployed by the government for diplomatic missions. Royals often host incoming state visits and lead similar visits abroad, and can be deployed to lead delegations on more specific missions.

However, Mountbatten-Windsor had an official role as trade envoy. He stepped down from this role in 2011 following reports about his friendship with Epstein, who was convicted of sex offences in 2011.

Are royals protected from prosecution?

The monarch is protected by sovereign immunity, a wide-ranging constitutional principle exempting him from all criminal and civil liability. According to the leading 19th century constitutionalist Alfred Dicey, the monarch could not even be prosecuted for “shooting the Prime Minister through the head”. The Prince of Wales also enjoys immunity as Duke of Cornwall, which protects him from punishment for breaking a range of laws.

The State Immunity Act 1978, which confers immunity on the head of state, also extends to “members of the family forming part of the household”. However, this phrase has been interpreted narrowly to apply to a very tight circle of people and does not appear to apply to the monarch’s children in general. For example, in 2002 Princess Anne was prosecuted (though not arrested) for failing to control her dogs in Windsor Great Park after they bit two children.

Nevertheless, there has often been a perception that members of the royal family are held to a different standard when it comes to the law. In 2016 Thames Valley Police were criticised by anti-monarchy groups for not prosecuting the then-prince after newspaper reports alleged he had driven his car through the gates of Windsor Great Park. In 2019 the Crown Prosecution Service declined to prosecute Prince Philip for causing a car crash which injured two people.

The monarch also cannot be compelled to give evidence in court. For example, prosecutors were unable to summon the late queen to give evidence in the trial of Princess Diana’s former butler, who was accused of stealing her jewellery.

In response to Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest, the king said: “What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities. In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation. Let me state clearly: the law must take its course.”

When was the last time a royal was arrested?

You have to go back quite a long way to find the last time that a member of the British royal family was arrested. This was during the English civil war, when Charles I was taken prisoner for treason before being found guilty and ultimately executed in 1649.

A number of royals, including Princess Anne, have committed driving-related offences, including speeding. But this arrest makes Mountbatten-Windsor the first member of the royal family to be arrested in modern times, though it should be noted that he is no longer a royal – he was stripped of all his official titles in October 2025 as his friendship with Epstein came under even more scrutiny.

What limits do police have on investigating royal estates?

Sovereign immunity also prevents police from entering private royal estates to investigate alleged crimes without permission. This can, theoretically, protect members of the royal family from arrest and prosecution. The Cultural Property (Armed Conflicts) Act 2017 also bans police from searching royal estates for stolen or looted artefacts.

In 2007, two hen harriers were illegally shot at Sandringham estate. However, Norfolk Police first needed to ask Sandringham officials for permission to enter the estate, by which time the dead birds’ bodies had been removed. Police questioned Prince Harry, but did not bring charges.

Other incidents have allegedly led to Sandringham being accused of becoming a wildlife crime hotspot, with at least 18 reported cases of suspected wildlife offences taking place between 2003-23 – yet only one resulting in prosecution.

Another longstanding legal precedent is that no one may be arrested in the presence of the monarch or within the precincts of a royal palace. It was thought that this rule could protect other members of the royal family and royal employees. However, Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest at Sandringham suggests that this antiquated principle may no longer hold true today.

Francesca Jackson, PhD candidate, Lancaster Law School, Lancaster University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The images are searing: a Russian man, ordinary-looking designer eyewear fittingly fixed on his face, approaching women in Accra’s malls, on its beaches, along its streets.

The women smile, engage, trust. They have no way of knowing that the glasses are recording. They have no way of knowing that the man, Yaytseslav Trahov, is allegedly not seeking connection, but content to sell.

This case, now the subject of an international extradition request and a firestorm of advocacy by organizations like Leading Ladies Africa, exposes two deeply uncomfortable realities that converged to enable the alleged violation of dozens of African women.

The first is a technology that has outpaced the law. The second is a social poison centuries old: the lingering colonial mentality that can grant a foreigner, particularly a white foreigner, an automatic presumption of trust.

The Technology of Deception

At a purely technical level, Trahov’s alleged method reveals a critical regulatory gap. The tool of choice was not a bulky camera or an obvious recording device. It was a pair of smart glasses—fashionable, unremarkable, and equipped with the capacity to record everything with no red lights, no tell-tale clicks, no outward sign of surveillance.

This is not science fiction. It is consumer technology, readily available and deliberately designed for seamless integration into daily life. But as the Trahov case demonstrates, the same features that make smart glasses convenient—discretion, ease of use, high-quality capture—make them devastatingly effective weapons in the hands of a predator.

The technology facilitates mass violation precisely because it is designed for deception. And while the devices have evolved at the speed of innovation, the legal frameworks governing their use, and the prosecution of those who misuse them, lag dangerously behind.

The Camouflage of Colonialism

But the smart glasses alone would not have been enough. For the technology to work, Trahov needed access. He needed women to trust him enough to enter hotel rooms. And it is here that the case confronts African societies with a more uncomfortable truth.

The campaign against Trahov alleges that he deliberately weaponized his identity.

His whiteness, in a continent still grappling with the psychological residue of colonialism, became a credential. It positioned him, in the eyes of some, as more desirable, more worldly, more trustworthy than a local might have been perceived.

This is not to blame the women who were allegedly violated. It is to name the system Trahov is accused of exploiting. Colonial mentalities did not vanish with independence. They persist in subtle hierarchies of desire, in assumptions about who is safe and who is suspect, in the reflexive credibility granted to the foreigner. Trahov, if all the allegations are true, studied this landscape and used it as camouflage. He knew that his passport and his skin colour could function as a master key.

The Deadly Intersection

When these two elements combine—the technological capacity to record without consent and the social capacity to approach without suspicion—the result is a uniquely potent form of predation. The smart glasses provide the means of violation. The colonial mentality provides the access.

This is the “deadly intersection of technology, privilege, and misogyny” that advocates describe. It is not an accident. It is a deliberate convergence of tools and attitudes that Trahov allegedly exploited to turn women’s bodies into products and their trauma into revenue, selling explicit footage on paid Telegram channels to a global audience of strangers.

Ghana Acts, But the Gaps Remain

Ghana has responded with commendable force. Technology Minister Sam George has activated Interpol resources, summoned the Russian ambassador, and made clear that Trahov will be pursued under the Cybersecurity Act 2020, which carries a penalty of up to 25 years for non-consensual sharing of intimate images. The government has stated it will request extradition and, if necessary, try him in absentia.

But prosecution, however vigorous, cannot undo the violation. It cannot scrub the internet of images now circulating forever. It cannot fully address the deeper questions this case raises about how African societies value and protect their women.

The Reckoning Ahead

The Trahov case is therefore not merely a criminal matter. It is a mirror held up to the continent and the world. It asks whether technology companies will design products with consent and safety in mind, or continue to prioritize seamless functionality over the potential for abuse. It asks whether African nations will coordinate their responses, or leave individual countries like Ghana to fight alone. And it asks whether African societies will confront the lingering colonial attitudes that can make a foreign predator less visible, more trusted, and therefore more dangerous.

For the women whose lives are now permanently altered—whose Google results are poisoned, whose intimate moments are currency for strangers—these are not academic questions. They are the daily reality of living with footage they never consented to, circulating forever.

And Trahov? He sits in Russia, beyond reach, protected by a state that rarely extradites its citizens. His technology served him. His privilege served him. The question now is whether justice, finally, will find a way to serve the women he left behind.