I would stay within your country if it is at all possible.
The problem with giving advice is different countries have different systems.
US and Canadian medical school seem to be leaning more towards people completing 3-4 years of undergraduate before applying and I know many who went into medicine with PhDs (7 years of school to get PhD and then medical school after that)!
Perhaps some European countries let you go straight to med school with no university or 1-2 years.
For medical school these days, you're going to want to have good grades, volunteering experience (not necessarily medical related) and an interesting life story (talk about your volunteering experience and why you want to be a doctor).
Getting into medical school is difficult and the earlier you start the better.
You talked about the taxi driver thing for immigrants: the problem with medical degrees is some countries won't recognize your degree as soon as you land in the country and almost all of them will require you take a test and show you can pass it before you can start practicing. That costs money and it takes time (to study for the test) and often it's in the new country's language that you are learning. And then you have to find a way to get a job with no connections. It's no impossible but alot of these men and women coming from say India to the US don't have the time and money to pass tests. They have families to support and they will take the first job they can get.