Transcript

Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders

About Mohammed

Mohammed is a student from Palestine who is studying business and arrived in Canada in 2023.

Interview Transcript

Brief Glossary

There are certain terms and phrases that may be used in this interview that are commonly used by Muslims.

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu: May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah (God) be upon you.

Alhumdulillah: All praise belongs to Allah

InshaAllah: God-Willing

JazakAllah Khair: May Allah reward you well

Du’a: A form of prayer

Sabr: Patience

Beginning of Transcript

Fariah:

Assalamu Alaikum, Peace be upon you, Hello everyone, Welcome to Stories Without Borders, a platform to share the stories of refugees and newcomers in Canada. Today, we’ll be interviewing Mohammed to learn more about his life experiences. Mohammed is a student from Palestine who is studying business and arrived in Canada in 2023. 

Mohammed, thank you so much for being with us today. To start, I wanted to ask you, What was your experience like living in Canada as a newcomer? What are some barriers you faced and what helped you overcome those barriers?

Mohammed:

Well, at the beginning, like when I arrived here, the first, the main goal for me is studying. So when I tried to join the university, so I couldn’t because I had my high school in Palestine and they told me, no, you can’t do that. And after that they brought me in high school, which I was surprised from. So I had like to spend a year and a half of my life, like just in high school, which I didn’t take any like this, that they chose like my level. So like, it’s like I wasted a year and a half of my life.

And you know, when I first arrived here, like now, the trauma that happened like back home because like I went out from a war that recently happened and it continued when I was here. So it’s like your family, it’s on the other, other side fighting. And I’m here fighting too, but like for my future, but they’re fighting for their lives. So that was. These two, were the. The main two things that I faced especially. 

And as I told you, like when I first came here, like, as any newcomer, so I had like. Like I wasn’t that much involved in the community. Like, I had this like, trauma from like changing the people. Like when I go out to the streets, like the people I never saw in my life and I’ve never talked to in my life. So I had this feeling of like not belonging here.

You know, like after a few months, let’s say, like with some organizations that help, that it’s actually from the government. So I was involved, like in some of them. I volunteered with some of them. So that’s when I started to like, get involved more.

And one other thing that because I’m a student, I couldn’t work that much to like, to have my enough salary to pay the uni, to pay my study, to be paid for my life. So that’s why that was one of the hardships that I faced when I first came here.

Fariah:

Thank you so much for sharing, Mohammed. I appreciate that. It’s very important for us to learn about the experiences of newcomers in Canada. My next question is how did your faith support you during your experience?

Mohammed:

Well, actually, my faith, like, it’s, I think it’s the main reason that, that I successfully, like, continued my journey in studying and in the community. Like, I didn’t give up and just say, like, no, I don’t want this country, I want out.

Because, like, because I’m a Muslim too. We, since I was young, my parents teach me how sabr could help you and how we could handle those hardships.

And one other thing, because as I said, I went out from war. So when I came here, I told myself that I wasn’t just representing myself. I was here on behalf of my people there who was facing more hardships than I am, than I do. So this thing gave me like, the push to continue and to do my best to represent those people. 

And one other thing, like, as a Muslim, we go to mosques and we get involved and some like, Islamic things like gatherings, kind of like that. So like, this helped me like, socially get involved with people and talking to people and normal people that helped me a lot in this journey.

Fariah:

Mohammed, thank you very much for sharing. That’s very inspiring. And it’s important for us to learn about your experiences and how faith can support you. Thank you so much for sharing that.

My next question is what resources are currently missing in Canada that can help us better support refugees and newcomers?

Mohammed:

Well, well, this problem is not just facing me, it’s facing a lot of people here, like, which is like, some people, like, did have their certificates out of the country and their diplomas and many, many different things. So actually we don’t have here, it’s, you don’t accept like, some of the other diplomas in the other countries, which, which is gonna make it way harder for the people that had already finished their studies and now they have to do that again. So like, many people will of course, like, see that as a waste of time, but like, and they might give up. I’m not saying most, all the people like, but most of them, they do because of like, the feeling that they had. They hadn’t done anything eventually. So they, they just give up. And that’s the main thing, actually.

And one other thing is, like, some people, they want to, some of them when they come here, they want to like, be depending on themselves. Like, when I first came here, I was thinking that to work at the beginning and get my money, my own money and that’s, and my university money, but it didn’t work like that. Because of like the money, the papers and your residency here and the government can’t allow that and those kind of things. So they, these things that really affected like and those things that I know eventually but I know about other people. Yeah.

Fariah:

Thank you so much for sharing, Mohammed. Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Mohammed:

No, I’m good. I’m good with my answers. But if you have any more questions, I will be glad to answer.

Fariah:

Sure. I had one question that I thought of based on your responses.

So how, what are some specific challenges that students face? So for example, you mentioned how like your credentials from Palestine, they didn’t accept those in Canada and you had to redo those years in high school. So I was wondering are there any other specific challenges that students in particular face when they come to Canada?

Mohammed:

Well, yeah, there is actually. So as I know some Palestinian students here, well they have like some problems with living, living conditions like with, with the money and that stuff. Like they don’t have that support here and because of the, like they can’t, those Palestinian students, that’s a, an international student. So like some of them might have trouble.

That and one other thing that I really saw that the new students that came here like me or like others, they didn’t get involved in the community that much. Like they just closing themselves which is actually like I see as a danger for them and for me too, like they might just give up at a specific time that they feel that they can’t do it or something like that.

So like I think there should be like, especially for the students, there should be more programs that help them because like the students, they are the main thing like, without students there is nothing.

Fariah:

Yes, thank you so much for sharing. JazakMullahu Khairan. That’s very important. So Mohammed, thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Your journey is very inspiring and I appreciate your honesty and insight. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope your story inspires many others. Thank you so much.

Mohammed:

You’re welcome. Thank you.

The post Mohammed From Palestine appeared first on Refugee Stories Without Borders.

Transcript

Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders

About Tara

Tara is a research and strategy consultant with over 10 years of experience spanning education, nonprofits, business, immigration, sustainability, and creative industries. She also plays an active role as a community volunteer. Follow her on LinkedIn.

Interview Transcript

Fariah:

Assalamu Alaikum, Peace be upon you, Hello everyone, Welcome to Stories Without Borders, a platform to share the stories of refugees and newcomers in Canada. Today, we’ll be interviewing Tara to learn more about her life experiences. Tara is a Muslim Iranian-Canadian who resettled in Canada as a government-sponsored refugee in 2001. She is a research and strategy consultant who has worked across sectors including education, nonprofits, business, immigration, sustainability, and creative industries and has over 10 years of experience. She is also an active volunteer in her community. 

Tara, thank you so much for being with us today. To start, I wanted to ask you, what was your experience like living in Canada as a newcomer? What are some barriers you faced and what helped you overcome those barriers?

Tara: 

Yes, Salaam alaikum. Thank you for the question. So I moved to Canada with my single mother as government assisted refugees when I was 8. This was back in 2001. So we arrived in, in Ontario with permanent residency status and the first year, I would say was not stable. We moved around a lot from place to place, from relatives to reception homes, and before finally like finding our own apartments.

I came here completely illiterate. I spent two years as a refugee in Turkey, so I lost two years of schooling there. And so when I came to Canada, I didn’t know how to read, write, I didn’t speak a word of English. And yeah, everything was just very different and school especially was very difficult.

I was placed in a regular classroom, like, with a standardized curriculum that really didn’t fit my needs. I got pulled out of class many times to like be in ESL classes, but I think my teachers were just weren’t trained to do, like work with refugee children or newcomer children, so, and not just in terms of like, academically, like, not just in terms of like teaching and a language, but in just also in how they understand like emotional and social realities of newcomers and refugees. And my mom didn’t speak a word of English as well, so she couldn’t help me with homework or communicate with my teachers. And she was trying to survive, heal. She had her own, you know, challenges and she had to raise me like while figuring out life in this new country.

And so yeah, I was also bullied a lot for being different. I was actually the only Iranian in my school and in my community, like, I’m sorry, in the whole neighborhood, which made me feel even more isolated. And some of my closest friends were immigrant or Muslim kids. I had a lot of Somali and Lebanese friends, but, and that gave me like a sense of belonging for sure because we shared some similar values, but I still felt very disconnected.

And over time, the Internet came around, I got a computer, and I started actually connecting with other Iranian children online. And I eventually convinced my mom to move closer to the Iranian community, like in North York. And that sense of belonging slowly started to come and, you know, like, hearing familiar words, eating familiar food, or being around, like, Iranian stores and being able to go to, like, cultural events and seeing just, just seeing people that looked like me just made a huge difference.

And I also received a lot of, like, I’ll never forget the kindness I received in the early years from different organizations that, you know, gave me toys and clothes, like, during the winter. And really, that left an impact and really made me feel, like, seen and included. And that kind of stayed with me.

And actually, like, my mom and I, we started volunteering not too long after our arrival in Canada, supporting other families who were either in Turkey, like, in a similar situation as we were, or they had just resettled to Canada. So from a very young age, I was, like, doing, as soon as I learned English, I was, like, translating, helping people, like, with their appointments, to even get a bank card. And, yeah, so got really involved in the community. And this helped me a lot with my healing and just having a sense of belonging and purpose.

And so Canada definitely gave us or me the, a sense or gave me safety and an opportunity. But I think it definitely took years before I felt like it was like home. And it wasn’t automatically done. It was. It came through a lot of resilience and community and people who showed compassion and yeah.

Fariah:

Thank you so much for sharing Tara. It’s so important for us to learn about the experiences of newcomers. And your story was very inspiring, learning how you were able to volunteer at a young age and how it helped with your healing process. Thank you so much for sharing that. My next question is, how did your faith support you during your experience?

Tara:

Yeah, so actually, to be honest, it kind of didn’t. I think I would say it did and it didn’t because at least not at first, like, I should put it that way, didn’t at first because when I came, I actually drifted away from my faith because I was, I don’t, I wouldn’t say because of Canada or like, the country itself, but because I was just so focused on adapting and learning English and trying to fit in. Like I said, there was just, I was, I felt so different and so just trying to fit in. And that shifted me a little bit away from my faith.

And, you know, I’ve come to realize that maybe even though I wasn’t consciously, like, holding on to faith or practicing it, I think the certain values like patience, gratitude, resilience, hope, these are still what my faith is about and what helps me, what carried me through those times.

And ironically, it wasn’t until I moved abroad years later, which is not too, like, long from now. Like, just recently, I, I moved abroad kind of back and forth between Canada and that’s when I just started to reconnect with my faith again. Being in a Muslim country, this is when I started to reconnect with my faith.

So, yeah, when I think of it, I think newcomers or refugees going through this transition, I just, I really recognize how important faith is. Like I said, this just gives you that patience, those values and this perspective and a sense of like, who you are and when everything around you is really, like, changing and it’s so different.

Fariah: 

Thank you so much for sharing, Tara. My next question is what resources are currently missing in Canada that can help us better support refugees and newcomers?

Tara:

Okay, I’ll try to keep this one short because I probably have so many things to say about this, but I think one of the biggest gaps we have is housing. And I say this both from a personal and professional experience. Okay, like, we already know, like, Canada is facing a housing crisis. This is a reality for a lot of people, not just newcomers or refugees, but I think for them it’s, there’s an extra layer of challenge.

And places like reception houses and shelters, they’re very underfunded, over capacity, very institutional. They provide safety in some sense, but, like, not this warmth that should come with this feeling that you should have when you just come to Canada. And yeah, that’s small bedrooms, sometimes shared bedrooms, shared bathrooms, very strict schedules. It’s temporary. I don’t know, it’s just not a space, I think, for people trying to heal and start and integrate into society.

And I think specifically there’s a faith and cultural gap in housing. So these, like, a large number of these reception houses are either like secular or they’re church run. And while, like, it’s, the generosity is admirable, these churches are filling in gaps that like, the government is leaving. 

But I think for many new Muslim newcomers, it feels very unfamiliar. I’ve met families who just didn’t like through my work, I’ve worked in reception homes and I’ve worked with refugees that have stayed in reception homes. And I’ve, you know, I’ve, they’ve told me how like, uncomfortable they have been with things basic as just food, the type of food provided during the holidays, like Christmas is always celebrated. But you know, they, there’s, yeah, there’s no like prayer space.

There’s just these little things that you know, mean so much to, to Muslims but really makes them feel isolated. So I think what’s missing is definitely like this culturally and faith sensitive housing option for, for newcomers and refugees in particular. So the same kind of support, like we just need the same kind of support from the Muslim community to receive like this kind of like funding and partnership opportunities that churches have and what they’re doing.

If I have time, I’ll go into like some other challenges like mental health support. I think this especially like early intervention. Again, mental health support is also a challenge for a lot of people in Canada, including citizens and stuff. But I think again, extra layer of challenge for refugees and newcomers.

Some of them like asylum seekers in Canada who seek asylum while in Canada, they often have to wait months before they’re eligible to get the interim federal health program which is very limited in like their access to support health. Healthcare support is limited. Long wait list, there’s few trauma informed therapists, few and most of the counseling is very Western. And they don’t always make sense to people coming from different cultures and experience of displacement. And yeah, like I’ve seen social workers and non profit organizations trying to fill these gaps but the ratio is impossible. It just, it doesn’t make sense.

And, and I think, I think in general one of the biggest, like if I want to address this question, I would say the biggest gap we have right now is data. We just simply don’t have enough up to date, data on like what refugees experiences are right now. And I think this project is great for that. It’s, you know, like it’s helping tell stories. So these kind of things definitely help but I think we just don’t have enough data to, to say what their needs really are. So you know, my experience as a former refugee or newcomer many years ago is very, could be very different than someone who has just come and what their experiences are. So yeah, for me, what’s, we just need some resources that feel very human but they should be based on real lived experiences and data. So yeah. 

Fariah:

Thank you so much Tara for sharing your insight. My last question is how can we support refugees and newcomers in getting employment and higher education in Canada?

Tara: 

Yeah, so I think one of the ways I think is like right now is a good time to, to do this is like I think we need to connect these systematic problems. Like we have like, limited funding, over capacity, outdated teaching, any of these systematic issues, I think we can really, like, connect them with innovative and practical solutions.

So when we talk about supporting refugees and newcomers in education and employment, I think we really like work, it all starts with, like, language. I think language is one of the biggest barriers, and without it, everything else becomes 10 times harder. I say this again from personal experience too, and professional experience. And the reality is that, like, language training is not adequate in at least Ontario. I don’t want to generalize for all of Canada, but from GTA, at least from where I live, I don’t think it’s meeting the needs of, it’s not sufficient.

And I think we need to start looking at capacity building through technology. So instead of depending only on, like, human-led classes, we can, like, use technology to help newcomers, like, learn at their own pace in their own language while still connecting them to, like, real teachers and mentors and yeah, so to make that work, we also need to teach digital literacy to these newcomers.

So it’s all about, like, flexibility and inclusion, having micro credentials, online programs, mentorships for children, for the parents, but also training teachers about understanding trauma and displacement. But really, like, the training also has to be not just about checking off these check boxes and saying, okay, we’ve done this and that, but actually it really needs to, to be sufficient.

And I think on the employment side, there are a lot of new, I wouldn’t say a lot, but there’s many new or somewhat new organizations, like, I think like Jumpstart Refugee Talent and these. Like, they’re doing a great job at like, connecting refugees with employers and giving them the resources and training that they need to help them prepare for the job market.

But some, a lot of people also don’t know that these programs exist. So I think one thing that’s missing is accessible information. So we need, like, guides and resources in different languages to help people understand where to go, what programs they can join, and yeah. So I think, in short, I’d say it’s not just about creating more programs. It’s about modernizing how we deliver them using technology and making, like, learning continuous, accessible and very empowering.

Fariah:

Tara, thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Your journey is very inspiring and I appreciate all the wisdom and knowledge that you gave us. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope your story inspires many others. Thank you so much.

Tara:

Yeah, thank you for, for making this happen. Thank you.

The post Tara From Iran appeared first on Refugee Stories Without Borders.

Transcript

Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders

About Nariman

Nariman is an accomplished human resources professional, researcher, and medical translator, fluent in English, French, and Arabic. She is also a mother of three. Follow her on LinkedIn.

Interview Transcript

Brief Glossary

There are certain terms and phrases that may be used in this interview that are commonly used by Muslims.

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu: May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah (God) be upon you.

Alhumdulillah: All praise belongs to Allah

InshaAllah: God-Willing

JazakAllah Khair: May Allah reward you well

Du’a: A form of prayer

Tawakkul: Having trust in Allah

Beginning of Transcript

Fariah:

Assalamu Alaikum. Peace be upon you. Hello everyone. Welcome to Stories Without Borders, a platform to share the stories of refugees and newcomers in Canada. Today we’ll be interviewing Nariman to learn more about her life experiences.

Nariman is a former refugee and is a talented human resources professional, researcher and medical translator, fluent in English, French and Arabic. She is also a mother of three children.

Nariman, thank you so much for being with us today. To start, I wanted to ask you what was your experience like living in Canada as a newcomer? What are some barriers you faced and what helped you overcome those barriers?

Nariman: 

First, thank you for having me. And my experience in Canada as a refugee and as a newcomer was a mix of safety and struggle. Coming from a place where safety is a dream and peace is a dream that we have been, we haven’t seen yet and living the safety here and be grateful for the safety I’m being in and like my kids are safe, at the same time struggling to restart again from scratch. 

When I moved here, I was in my early 30s and you know, with more than 10 years experience restarting again from scratch. I tried applying everywhere and I thought at that time, being fluent in English and having this experience working with Doctors Without Borders, which is an international organization that are also working here in Canada, I thought that would help me and also having an MBA. But I struggled to have my first job here and I work my first job was data entry, which is a very entry level compared to what I used to work. This has affected me emotionally and I can say it was hard for me to keep working as in entry level jobs.

Fariah: 

Thank you so much for sharing. It’s very important for us to learn about the experience of newcomers. My next question would be how does your faith support you during your experience?

Nariman:

I think my faith was and still my anchor in all the moments of fear and the moments when I experienced loss, when I was here safe and my family are struggling back home, I lost many family members and having like my faith was the main reason to build my resilience and also to help me and also keeping the faith of my job search. You know, when you are applying again and again and as I explained the way that you’re trying to go back to where you stopped, but you can’t, you will start from scratch. Having the faith that it’s all happening for a reason. Allah knows that this is the best for me, the best for my family. Seeing, believing in the result without seeing the way, Tawakkul, had helped me a lot and made a big difference even with me standing until today.

Fariah: 

Thank you so much, Nariman. That’s very heartwarming and inspiring to hear. Thank you for sharing that. For my next question I wanted to ask what resources are currently missing in Canada that can help us better support refugees and newcomers.

Nariman:

I will split this question to two, the answer to two, maybe. Because when I first came here I was a refugee claimant, not as a refugee. And at that time I had very limited access to resources, even work PC services. I wasn’t eligible to, most of the services I wasn’t eligible to. So I had to fight for some resources I can say to fight for some opportunities.

And also because like it takes time until you, you became a refugee after you became a protected person, a refugee after being a refugee claimant. So I hope that in the future this process would be shorter or we can provide the refugee claimants, Canada can provide the refugee claimants with more resources during this period so that they, they could be engaged more in the community.

And, I wasn’t also eligible to most of the newcomers services, then after being a protected person and then applying to my PR there still wasn’t the main, I can say like the mental health support as I mentioned, being from a place where I wasn’t lucky to be born and raised in a place where there’s stability or peace and having all this trauma and coming here trying to find resources. There wasn’t any free resources for mental health support for refugees who are mostly coming from they have trauma whether it’s because of wars or different reasons. Even for my kids I didn’t find any resources. And when I find a resource it took two years to start counseling and by that time my kids were already engaged with the community and they were managing by themselves the way they are dealing with their trauma. So it wasn’t needed at the end. And the only time when I was eligible to free mental health support was when I had a baby. And that mental health support wasn’t related to trauma. It was more of supporting a new mom after delivering a baby.

So I think what we are missing here is a way to get refugees more like finding pathways where we can and I think this is the other part is that is shared with any other newcomers, especially professional newcomers. Finding pathway where we can make the process of doing their credential and like their experience and engaging them with the workplaces much easier and also doing a kind of counseling for like cultural counseling because it, the different culture here, the different workplace culture. Some, some points, some points as a newcomer, you won’t understand unless you face this. You know, some actions or some incidents that happen and then you understand the difference between our cultures.

Yeah, I think that’s it.

I never felt that I’m not welcomed because being different or being a refugee or being Muslim. But I, I think this is related more to having an international experience other than being in having your experience from Canada.

Fariah: Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today, Nariman. Your journey is very inspiring and I appreciate your wisdom, your knowledge, honesty and insight. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope your story inspires many others. Thank you so much. JazakaMullahu Khairan. 

Nariman:

I wish you all the best too and good luck with all your initiative.

Fariah:

Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Nariman:

Yeah, maybe I would add here something more personal than being professional, that maybe you heard about the family reunification program that was issued for families in Gaza during the genocide and how this has affected us as like Gazans or Palestinians who have families in Gaza and how the government wasn’t supporting us in bringing our families to safety. This also had a big and huge impact on our lives, on our professional life because how you can function while your family are going undergoing a genocide.

Many of my friends, Palestinians who have families in Gaza, they, they were fired from their jobs, they left their jobs or they weren’t even able. They take long leave because they weren’t able to function in this, you know, hard times. The way we have been treated, whether in this TRV program or like in general, not having a support and feeling the support from our government was something very heavy on our hearts and being, yeah, like some of us are also Canadian citizens. So you consider Canada as your second home. And then feeling all this discrimination was so heartbreaking.

Fariah:

Thank you for sharing that. This is very important for us to know firsthand, like your experiences so that we can improve our communities and our society. Thank you so much for sharing that.

The post Nariman From Palestine appeared first on Refugee Stories Without Borders.

This illustration is created by Ayat, a refugee from Palestine.

Transcript

Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders

About Ghada

Ghada is a civil engineer and a skilled expert in project management, procurement, and finance, with additional strengths in auditing and reporting. She brings over 15 years of experience working with both national and international organizations. Follow her on LinkedIn.

Interview Transcript

Brief Glossary

There are certain terms and phrases that may be used in this interview that are commonly used by Muslims.

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu: May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah (God) be upon you.

Alhumdulillah: All praise belongs to Allah

InshaAllah: God-Willing

JazakAllah Khair: May Allah reward you well

Du’a: A form of prayer

Beginning of Transcript

Fariah:

Assalamu Alaikum. Peace be upon you. Hello everyone. Welcome to Stories Without Borders, a platform to share the stories of refugees and newcomers in Canada. Today we’ll be interviewing Ghada to learn more about her life experiences.

Ghada is a Palestinian from Gaza and is a talented expert in project management, procurement and finance, in addition to auditing and reporting with over 15 years of experience with both national and international organizations.

Ghada, thank you so much for being with us today. To start, I wanted to ask you what was your experience like living in Canada as a newcomer? What are some barriers you faced and what helped you overcome those barriers?

Ghada:

Salam alaykum everybody and thank you for inviting me for that interview.

My experience living in Canada as a newcomer, as Fariah had told, that my family and I were evacuated from Gaza during the recent conflict and arrived in Canada under the one year temporary resident permit. While I am deeply grateful for the safety and stability that Canada has provided to us, the experience has been both challenging and transformative for us. Adjusting to new environment, rebuilding my professional and personal life and coping with the emotional impact of the war have required resilience and adaptation for us.

Despite the uncertainty of my temporary status, I am committed to contribute positively to my community here, to my community in Palestine and to Canada and I hope for the opportunity to continue building a stable future for us, for me, and for my husband and my kids and adults here where I can apply my skills and experience that I gained in my original country to make a meaningful difference here in Canada for me and myself.

Regarding the other question which is what is the barrier that I faced and what helped me to overcome these barriers? So it is a long story. As a newcomer evacuated from Gaza, I faced several significant barriers while trying to rebuild my life and my family life in Canada.

One of the main challenges was finding stable employment for more than one year and half nearly I was unable to secure work that matched my qualification and experience as an engineer and as a program manager and management. Eventually I accepted lower level job to support my family. This happened when I had a work permit but when it is finished I couldn’t continue because of my political situation and policy.

One of the main challenges was finding stable employment for me and my husband as well as so I accepted low level job to support my family. This happened when I had work permit but when it is finished and I couldn’t renew or extend my work permit for more than five or six months till now. Until now I didn’t get the new work permit for to continue work or to start new work.

So I stopped my work which is low level job now and waiting the new temporary resident permit which will give us give me a chance to extend my work permit. And this caused for me and for my family major difficulties to cover the basic needs for my family and for me.

And also we lose our health insurance and coverage. In addition to this we couldn’t, for me and my daughter I got an admission from the university but I couldn’t start my master’s in management and my daughter couldn’t start her master’s in pharmacy because we didn’t have, we didn’t get the study permit which relies on the extension of the temporary resident permit. So we are now stuck and stopped. We couldn’t do anything. This is the first challenge.

The second one is housing and the living cost which is very high comparing with the prices in Palestine or Gaza for example. So the high price of renting, transportation, the food consumed our saving of money that we bring with us from Gaza and which led us to sell our house in Gaza and our car in order to cover the expenses here in Canada. So also my children faces a lot of difficulties in school because the administration requests a lot and repeatedly their new documents in order to be stable in their education in school.

So as I told you regarding the study permit and everything like this and in addition to that our credits or our certificate as civil engineer for example, I couldn’t work as engineer because I have to equivalent my certificate and I start this process. But I stopped now because my temporary resident permit are expired and they couldn’t continue equivalent my credit till I got new documents.

These are some of the challenges that we faced in the beginning and still facing till now.

Fariah:

Thank you very much for sharing, Ghada. It’s very important for us to learn about your experiences.

My next question is how did your faith support you during your experience?

Ghada:

Of course our faith guided us to remain calm, compensate and determined to rebuild our life with dignity. So it encouraged us to support each other. Each one of the family are supporting each other. So if I feel frustrated or if I was sad, so my husband support me with his words, his hope and his belief in future because we are good persons and we had a lot of experience and skills and one day we will, we will give the chance, we will take the chance and have the chance to succeed here in Canada and find a suitable job and dignity life for me and my family.

So and in addition to that there is some friends here who helped us to overcome the bad situation and the hard condition because there is also another families from Gaza coming together with us and we are facing together the same challenges.

So we are encouraging each other, we are supporting each other and start to think how to adapt in this country, how to gain Canadian experience, how to make connections which helps us to overcome all of these challenges.

In addition to this, there is national communities for newcomers which helped, but it was not enough. So the main challenges that we are facing with this community, community centers or community organization for the newcomers that they are also dealing with the newcomers if they got PR. So I was wondering how I am a newcomer and how can I get PR. So they will not help us except we got PR. So the in order to get PR you have to stay here more than three years. So suppose the person who stayed for three years here in Canada, he’s not a newcomer. The newcomer is the one who came here during maximum last year, something like this.

So in order to gain services especially in English and language barrier how they are supporting us in English. So you are not allowed to take that sessions. So we were lucky, the persons or the educated person from Gaza because we were able to talk English, to communicate with the persons or the community, because we are well educated and can talk English, can communicate, can overcome these barriers. But some of the people who are newcomers and didn’t know anything about English, they are suffering more than us.

That’s why even us from who are coming from Gaza, we are studying English in our schools and our university. So we study English, in study our specialization in English. But the way of study in English is different than communicating and talking with the people in the community, the ordinary community. So it, it is a formal language. So I cannot communicate well with the people in the mall, the people in the street and the people in the school itself. So I cannot continue talking in English all the time, because may some, in some points I didn’t find the correct or the suitable words that express my feelings or my inquiry. So that’s why we are facing some challenges. That’s why we are working on ourselves, make self learning, online training or online session to enhance our English language and overcome this barrier.

Fariah:

Thank you very much for sharing, Ghada. That’s very important information for us to know and you provided a lot of important information for this question, but I was wondering if you wanted to also add anything to it.

The next question would be: what resources are currently missing in Canada that can help us better support refugees and newcomers?

Ghada: 

Yes, actually Canada is a big country and a strong one. And they provided a lot of safety and valuable opportunity for refugees and newcomers. And several important resources are still missing to help us as a refugee or as a newcomer to rebuild our lives effectively. 

So there is a strong need to shorten the processing time for the IRCC applications. So when we are coming to Canada, as I told you, we got one year temporary residency permit and some people from the same situation, got three years, they are still in safe side, but when the period is almost finished, they have to renew it. So the processing time to deal with that type of application is very, very long. And also it is not available online. You have to make it on paper and send it by email, by mail. And after long, long time and long communication with the web form or the website of the IRCC and calling their help center, they didn’t open our application for a long time. You know, I applied to extend my temporary resident on February, the first day of February. So it is before, it is expired three and half months. So I thought that before the ending of my temporary resident permit, I will get a new one. But this not happened till now, I didn’t get my new extension of the temporary resident permit. And just before two weeks they confirmed that they got the application and gave me application number only. So how much time should I wait till they got, until they gave us the papers and the documents of extension. And if I can, for me, my husband had PR and he could find a job and secure some income for the family.

But for the others, other family who are coming here, they are at the same situation of me. So they couldn’t work, they couldn’t study in university. So they are stuck. So how they will cover their basic needs, their expenses? This is a big question.

So there should be an organization or governmental bodies who can take care of that type of persons who are stuck and couldn’t resume his ordinary life. So if they are decreased or short the processing time for everything and they quickly dealing with that type of application, it will be good. And more than so if they are giving more funds or more budget for the community organization who are dealing with the newcomers, they can work well, they can help us more efficiently. 

Especially in increasing our skills and preparing us for the market work here in Canada. So if my certificate is not good and not suitable for the marketplace in Canada, they can give me training, long time training in English or in any, any professional for at least any six months. And when I got this certificate I can work in that sector and start a new career. We don’t mind if we shift our career from engineering to any other career which is suitable and which is requested in the labor market here.

And in addition to that, if there is big organization who are allowed or can help us in housing. Housing in different aspect. So when we came to Canada, we came with a few clothes. So we didn’t have a house. We didn’t have any furniture or any food, anything. So we are starting from scratch to find a house. In order to find house you have to rent. So this is the first step. To rent a house, you have to credit score, they are asking us about credit score, we didn’t have credit score now, we are new. So we had to pay six months in advance for housing which makes an extra load for us. And in addition to this, we have to open a bank account and everything related to the housing. Then we have to buy furniture. So we found a small group of people who are supporting the newcomer. It is an individual effort. So some people helped us in bringing beds, for example, bringing KitchenAids, something like this. But this is not enough. The newcomers need someone, some organization, big and strong who can secure suitable house which is furnished and support us with the basic needs and food. And in addition to make an orientation for us, how to start life here, how to use the transportation, for example, it is totally different from our country. In our country we just walk 10 meters and find a public transportation with, from different aspects. We can use the car, we can use the bus and use Uber, many, many types. But for the transportation here, it is totally different, and the people had to learn how to use this public transportation or other type of transportation.

So the instruction, the information needed, how to, you know, when I wanted to register my school, my kids in school, there is a long application. So if I didn’t know how to fill in the application, I couldn’t be able to register my kids. So I couldn’t find people who are giving me and my family enough information. They didn’t guide us well, how to make the application, how to choose the children, the school, what is the meaning of the designated school, when I should restart my kids? Because the registration here finished in April and we came here in Canada in June, which was the end of the school year. So we are waiting, waiting three months without any school or without anything. But luckily, I find some people who advised me to let my kids to enter and participate in community centers, summer camps, something like this, in order to communicate and forced to talk in English. They are little kids, they didn’t know English well, but they are forced to learn English more than us.

So if there is an organization which is strong even it is public organization or community organization or governmental organization who are supporting the newcomers with housing, with education, with English, English courses and also the vocational training is very, very important.

And in addition to that, there is a lot of public recreation centers. You know that as a newcomer, we couldn’t benefit from this recreation center until we stay one and a half year in Canada. So if I didn’t have PR or citizenship or not living in Canada for one and a half year and got active status like temporary residency permit or work permit, so I couldn’t benefit from this recreation center. And if I got this, it is not free. I had to bring a lot of reports, a lot of taxes, reports, something like this, in order to make an evaluation for our application, after that, if I am eligible or not.

Maybe also we need mental health support and also health support and health insurance. So as newcomers, we didn’t know how we can benefit from the health sector here and if it is paid or not. And we need the medicine. Most of the people who are coming from Gaza and suffering from a lot of problems, even it is physical or mentally, because the things that we are overcome and going through it was totally very, very hard. And we need a lot of time to overcome these problems that are stable in our mind and the images of the war and in food security for us and destroy all the where, anywhere you are in Gaza there is a lot of destroy, a lot of victims, a lot of injured. So we saw a lot of things. So we need a lot of time to overcome these problem.

So also if we got paid on job training and if the community or the government put a percentage for employer to let the newcomer work in their companies, this will support us and give us a chance to invest our skills, and gain new skills and gain new Canadian experience and give us a chance to secure job and secure income for our family. So if all of these efforts coming together so the newcomers will not rely on country and government anymore, especially the Gazan people, the Palestinian people, they are used to work, they are used succeed, they are well educated. So we didn’t like and we don’t like, we are feeling bad if we got any service or any money or any benefit without paying, without working hard. This is what, what we learned from our parents, from our community there in Gaza. We are hard worker, we are learning fast, we are relying on ourselves and our efforts. We are well educated so we will if the country support us well in the first period, we will be a good citizen and practicing in development of the Canadian community and we will be the most people who are supporting the community and make community back. So if I find any person who helped us now, I can help the people in future. This is the things that I wanted to tell you.

Fariah:

Thank you so much, Ghada. This is very important. Thank you so much for sharing your story and all this wisdom that you have, today. Your journey is very inspiring and I appreciate your knowledge and your honesty and insight. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope your story inspires many others. Thank you so much. JazakMullahu Khairan. 

Ghada:

You are welcome. Thank you dear.

The post Ghada From Palestine appeared first on Refugee Stories Without Borders.

This illustration is created by Ayat, a refugee from Palestine.

Transcript

Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders

About Ayat

Ayat is a digital artist passionate about creating unique and visually captivating artwork. With a background in graphic design and traditional art, she combines classic techniques with cutting-edge digital tools to produce innovative and timeless pieces. She collaborates closely with filmmakers, animators, and other creatives to develop cohesive visual styles that enhance storytelling. Committed to excellence, Ayat continually pushes the boundaries of visual development, crafting unforgettable worlds and characters. Follow her on LinkedIn.

Interview Transcript

Brief Glossary

There are certain terms and phrases in this interview that are commonly used by Muslims.

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu: May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah (God) be upon you.

Alhumdulillah: All praise belongs to Allah

InshaAllah: God-Willing

JazakAllah Khair: May Allah reward you well

Du’a: A form of prayer

Beginning of Transcript

Fariah:

Assalamu Alaikum, Peace be upon you, Hello everyone, Welcome to Stories Without Borders, a platform to share the stories of refugees in Canada. Today, we’ll be interviewing Ayat to learn more about her life experiences. Ayat is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza and is a talented digital artist, painter, illustrator and animator with exceptional knowledge of Blender, concept art and environment illustration.

Ayat, thank you so much for being with us today. Your journey is very inspiring, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to learn from you. To start, is there a particular story or experience from your life that stands out to you—something meaningful that you’d like to share?

Ayat:

Hello, how is your day? How is it going? Thank you for getting me today. 

My story began in Gaza where I worked as a digital artist and found happiness in my daily life despite the challenges. However, everything changed after October 7th when war broke out and turned our life upside down. We were forced to leave everything behind, our dreams, our homes and even the smallest detail of our lives in search of safety. The journey was anything but easy. We endured hunger, cold, and constant fear of death. 

After a year, Canada announced a special program to accept people from Gaza, offering them safety and a chance at a new life. This program felt like our last hope, lifeline, when we had lost everything. We applied, waited anxiously for approval, and eventually received a code that allowed us to travel to Egypt for biometrics at the Canadian embassy. Leaving Gaza was challenging in itself, and we had to sell everything we owned and pay $5,000 per person to secure our way out. Fortunately, we managed to leave just two days before the border was closed indefinitely. 

Once in Egypt, we spent six months waiting for Canadian visa, struggling with uncertain future in country where we had no work, no connection. Finally, we received our visa and it felt like true lifeline, a new beginning away from fear, terror and destruction.

Fariah: 

Thank you for sharing, Ayat. That’s a very powerful experience, and I appreciate you opening up about it. It’s amazing how resilient the Palestinian people are. How did your faith support you during your experience?

Ayat:

Yeah. Okay, about my faith. As a Muslim, my faith has been my source of strength. Islam teaches us to trust in God’s plan. And the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, encouraged optimistic when he said, expect good and you’ll find it. The Quran also reassures us with a verse, and We shall bring them out from darkness into light by Our will. No matter how lost you are or how broken I felt, my unwavering trust in God helped me push through. Even in darkest times, I believed that a better day would come and that faith gave me hope and resilience.

Fariah:

Thank you so much. That’s very inspiring, Ayat. It’s beautiful how faith can provide us with strength. Thank you so much for sharing that. How is it like living in Canada as a refugee?

Ayat:

Okay. At first, the biggest shock was weather. I never imagined such a freezing temperature, but over time, I adapted. Canada is a peaceful and stable country. and the people here have been incredibly kind and supportive. The Arab community has also been very helpful, guiding us towards job opportunity and education options. However, there are challenges. One of the biggest obstacles is employment. Canada companies often require Canadian experience, so Canadian degree regardless of the experience you had in your home country. So many refugees have to start from zero, even if they were highly skilled professionals back home. Without credential recognition, working in my field feels almost impossible, unless I go back to school or getting my qualification assessed. 

Despite these difficulties, life here offers stability and security, which is something I deeply appreciate. So we are still in the process of understanding this new country and hopefully one day, maybe one day, we will have the opportunity to truly build a future here. 

Fariah:

Thank you so much. Adjusting to a new country is such a complex journey, and I appreciate you sharing both the challenges and the positive moments. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share—whether about your journey, your hopes for the future, or anything else on your mind?

Ayat:

Not really. Yeah maybe, I guess I hope someday I’ll be working in a company in the game industry field. I hope so. 

Fariah:

Yeah, I hope so too. I wish you all the best, Inshallah. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Your journey is very inspiring, and I appreciate your honesty and insight. I wish you all the best moving forward, and I hope your story inspires many others. Take care, and Ramadan Kareem

Ayat:

Ramadan Kareem. Thank you so much for getting me today. 

The post Ayat From Palestine appeared first on Refugee Stories Without Borders.

This illustration is created by Ayat, a refugee from Palestine.

Transcript

Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders

About Ahmad

Ahmad is a highly skilled Palestinian UI/UX designer with over five years of experience in crafting seamless digital experiences. His expertise spans dashboard UI/UX, prototyping, wireframing, and interactive design, utilizing industry-leading tools such as Figma, Webflow, Framer, and AI-driven technologies. His approach combines research, usability testing, and innovative automation to create high-performing digital products. He is passionate about leveraging technology to build smarter, more accessible digital experiences. Follow him on LinkedIn. Ahmad also actively contributes to the Stories Without Borders Instagram account.

Interview Transcript

Brief Glossary

There are certain terms and phrases in this interview that are commonly used by Muslims.

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu: May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah (God) be upon you.

Alhumdulillah: All praise belongs to Allah

InshaAllah: God-Willing

JazakAllah Khair: May Allah reward you well

Du’a: A form of prayer

Beginning of Transcript

Fariah:

Assalamu Alaikum. Peace be upon you. Hello everyone. Welcome to Stories Without Borders. A platform to share the stories of refugees in Canada. Today we’ll be interviewing Ahmad to learn more about his life experiences. Ahmad is a Palestinian refugee from Gaza and is a talented Senior UI/UX Designer, App Developer and Expert in Figma, Webflow, No-Code & AI-Driven Design. 

Ahmad, thank you so much for being with us today. Your journey is very inspiring, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to learn from you. To start, is there a particular story or experience from your life that stands out to you—something meaningful that you’d like to share?

Ahmad:

I’m 36 years old and based in Gaza. My home country is Palestine, Gaza.

Actually there is not something very special about my story or something charming, but I will say a quick story about ourself, our family and how things came to be in this country, in Canada.

So we have been before in Gaza, during the conflict in Gaza. We have faced many issues and many hard days during the war. We lost our jobs, we fled from our home, from our Northern Gaza, and we fled more than five or six times during the war. We are struggling to survive for more than 50 days long in the war.

But hopefully thanks God, we successfully managed to escape from Gaza, me with my family,

my wife and my two small kids and also my mom and second family of my brother. We have escaped, managed to escape to get to the Egyptian Gazan border in Rafah. But in order to make this happen and succeed, everyone of us pay more than five thousand dollars per person. We began during this issue, we managed and launched many fundraising campaigns. So we can collect the funds and get the fees for the traveling.

When we arrived in Egypt, we have lived there for about five months and our brother, the big brother, was our uncle. He actually has a PR in Canada. And he successfully managed to invite us as a second family to be living in Canada.

But as you can see, as you can know, the refugee, the newcomer of anyone who came outside from Canada, especially from crisis areas, like Syria, Gaza, Lebanon. These, we have seen difficult days. We have lost many money. We have lost two things, especially including our home, our houses, our jobs. Hopefully thanks God, Alhumdulillah, we didn’t lose anyone from my relatives, close relatives. But in this war, actually everyone loses something. Maybe some money, maybe one of his friends, one of his family.

So when I come here in Canada, we were facing many things. First of all, Canada will give support, financial support for refugees or for newcomers.

But for us, for Gazan country, for Gazan newcomers, that does not include any assistance financially from the country.

So that’s the first thing, it’s too hard for us because in order to make my brother successful to get to evacuate us from Gaza to Canada, he was making a contract to the Canadian government that he will be successfully making the anchor. So he will, on his budget, he will move us from Gaza to Canada. So there is no special financial support or something like financial aids from the country.

We are struggling here to search for jobs. Thanks God we have a small house here from my aunt. My aunt stay there in Canada from 2000, so like 20 years ago.

We have been here in Canada, living in their house, temporary until we find a job so we can pay the rental lease.

So one of the most hardest issues or things for newcomers, refugees. One is finding the job, first thing. The second thing is language. So it’s very new for us. And we will get used to it in the ongoing days. Third, we don’t know if we can get back to our country, back home, in Gaza or not because the situation there is not stable, too difficult. There is no safety there, no safety, no future, no anything of hopes. 

So, these circumstances in Gaza is catastrophic and too hard. There is no water, no healthy water, no safety, no healthy food or canned food. And now the closing border is closed and there is no financial aids coming for Gaza. So we are here in Canada, temporarily, we don’t know if we can stay there in Canada. How long will be staying? How much will be the ceasefire, will hold in Gaza or live in Gaza.

Inshallah, we make always ceasefire and war will not continue.

So this is the first thing, excuse me for sometimes my, I can’t express my feelings about something in second language because I’m not used to it.

Fariah:

You’re doing a very good job. Thank you. Thank you so much. Jazakamullahu Khairan. That’s a very powerful and important experience. And thank you so much for sharing and I appreciate you opening up and it’s amazing how resilient and strong the Palestinian people are.

The next question would be how did your faith support you during your experience?

Ahmad:

About our faith. First of all, thank God, Alhumdulillah, we are Muslim and we have strongest faithful case in the world, the Palestinian case. It’s a [Arabic word], I don’t know what’s that meaning in English, but anyway. God was support us and God was behind us.

We are coming through these difficult circumstances because we are the real people of the land. We don’t have doing anything wrong.

At the same time also we are not superheroes. We are just normal people, normal families, we have normal dreams, some goals, not too special, we need to live a normal life but suddenly this thing was the whole setup from the beginning. The genocide come with a real immigration. They will force us to migrate. That’s why they bombed every area in Gaza Strip and forced our small group to leave to certain areas.

So we are finished from the northern Gaza, and for your safety, move to the middle of the Gaza,

and then bombed, there is no safety here. And then tell us move to the east, the south, the Gaza, towards Rafah, and Khan Younis. And now, Rafah is invaded until this time, it’s outside of the ceasefire deal. There is no safety there, in Rafah, also in the North Gaza, there is also no safety. So we keep lifting our feet from area to area, from area to area. 

That’s why we are, until this time, after saved by God, we are alive until this moment because of du’a, we were making du’a every day at every prayer, so this is why I think make us live until now. 

Fariah:

That was a very amazing answer. Thank you so much again. Jazakamullahu Khairan, that’s very inspiring, Ahmad. And it’s beautiful how your faith can provide us with strength. And thank you so much for sharing that. You touched upon this before. And if you have anything else to add to this, my next question would be, how is it like living in Canada as a refugee?

If you have anything else to add from your previous answer?

Ahmad:

Nothing special here. It’s a new experience for me, for my family, because it’s a foreign country

that’s talking another second language, not Arabic, it’s not a Muslim also.

It’s hard at the beginning, because of the different culture, different some subject of the life perspective. Things are not easy at the beginning. Because life here is too much high, too much high in prices. We are discovering this country day after day and I can’t give you a full experience of being a new refugee here because I have been there in Canada from four to five months. I have been there from the last October ‘24.

So I can’t give you the full experience because I don’t live here there too much.

Thank God, luckily there is some relative around me. There is my two aunt here, live beside us in the normal distance not too far, because I’m London, Ontario right now. Also I have my uncle live there and some friends lived at Canada. So I don’t feel like too much apart from my home, like Al Qurba.

I will get used to it day by day and the next month after one year or two years at least because things that needs to take that much time to make us feel like a Canadian citizen or someone who have experience in this country.

We are just exploring and discovering many things. We can’t decide if this country would be great for us or not, let the days judge on this. .

Fariah:

Thank you very much. Jazakamullahu Khairan. Adjusting to a new country is a very complex journey. And I appreciate you sharing both the challenges and the positive moments.

And before we wrap up, is there anything else that you’d like to share whether about your journey, your hopes for the future or anything else on your mind?

Ahmad:

Yes, I need one thing actually. I’m facing some trouble getting jobs in Canada here because the criteria is too high and certification and the experience they need. So I have a small request from you if you can help me that would be amazing. If you can give my resume and send it to your company, your work. I was checking your profile, you are working on some AI or artificial intelligence field. This is my favorite part at this time.

I’m using to designing and developing apps using AI without using any codes. So I have too many experience in this field and also for AI, if you can make a recommendation for me, taking my resume, that will be helpful

Fariah:

So Ahmad, thank you so much for sharing your story with us today. Your journey is very inspiring and I appreciate your honesty and insight. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope your story inspires many others. Take care and Ramadan Kareem.

Ahmad:

InshaAllah. Wa Alaikum Assalam Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuh

The post Ahmad From Palestine appeared first on Refugee Stories Without Borders.

Fariah: Interviewer, Project Lead for Stories Without Borders

Transcript

Interview Transcript

Brief Glossary

There are certain terms and phrases that may be used in this interview that are commonly used by Muslims.

Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu: May peace, mercy, and blessings of Allah (God) be upon you.

Alhumdulillah: All praise belongs to Allah

InshaAllah: God-Willing

JazakAllah Khair: May Allah reward you well

Du’a: A form of prayer

Tawakkul: Having trust in Allah

Beginning of Transcript

Fariah: 

Assalamu Alaikum, Peace be upon you, Hello everyone, Welcome to Stories Without Borders, a platform to share the stories of refugees and newcomers in Canada. Today, we’ll be interviewing Sami to learn more about his life experiences. Sami is a Muslim newcomer from Syria and is a talented English-to-Arabic translator and interpreter with two years of experience and is able to provide precise and high-quality translations in various fields. 

Sami, thank you so much for being with us today. To start, I wanted to ask you, What was your experience like living in Canada as a newcomer? What are some barriers you faced and what helped you overcome those barriers?

Sami:

Well, first, thank you for having me in this interview. I’d like to introduce myself to all people here. My name is Sami Djoukhadar, I am an Arabic to English interpreter and vice versa. I’m from Syria, I have an English literature degree from the University of Aleppo and I’m here in Canada as and I work as an interpreter as you all know. So my life in Canada, it was agree a truly great experience that I’ve like, I’ve lived and like especially that I was able to achieve something that I’m able to move and live in such advanced country.

Of course it wasn’t an easy trip but at the same time it was, I would say there was a relative ease since I know the language and also I came here with the assistance of my sponsor. So my I would say it was easy for me to navigate the system and integrate with the country easily because of the language.

And also my sponsor gave me like the very first notes about like how life here and how the we would say like how the system works. So but one of the things I would say like my experience in three main fields, the way I’ve seen the people, the way that I like the job market and in general and my view like towards the overall country, like also when it comes to red tape then things that related to the government transactions.

So I would say the people here are honestly I was surprised by how kind the people are here. Especially that when like taken away way like how the general people take a look at look at the people in the western as cold people who don’t have empathy with the others on the contrast here in Canada. It was a truly great experience where everyone from the day one here they would say hello, welcome to Canada and you I’m sure you’re gonna like the country here. So I was really impressed by how kind the people are here. 

In regards to the job market here, when I would say like, I’m also going to tell you in regards to the belief, but it was relatively somehow hard for me since my qualifications are out of this country. So I faced kind of difficulty when I started with my work. So it wasn’t easy thing to start with. I’ve applied for hundreds of works and I keep always receiving like rejections until I started and until I found a job and I was working, I was working and I was really happy when the system stood on my side.

When I faced kind of injustice at work and my employer refused to give me my earnings and my dues. So I was able to retrieve what I owe from, with assistance of the system. And it was a really good thing that I passed through. And those one, those are one of the, I would say the advantages of living in Canada. But also it wasn’t an easy hunt for job. It was really straining and hard.

But with belief, what with, with my own like with own belief that God (Allah) is not gonna fail me and where He allowed and assisted me in going to this country, He’s still on my side. He’s not going to fail me, He’s not going to fail me.

And one of the things also that assisted me is when I started with TIES, T I E S, The Immigrant, The Immigrant Education Society. I started with them, with E Y E program and they, they assisted us with acquainting to the system here in Canada. How, how people can access employment, how to establish a resume, how to deal in a Canadian job experience. So I’ve been in general, I’ve been taught and educated about the work system here in Canada and how. And really this really helped me with landing the job that I’m working here as an interpreter with Kelly Services. 

So I was able. So I tried to apply for this work and I was really nervous. But I started to do this as a work like as a training. I applied what I’ve trained from the, from the organization and I placed this with, I have applied this knowledge that I’ve learned and this really helped me with acquiring this job.

As for the experience, how my faith, I always believed that Allah has no boundaries, has no limit for His ability. And the moment that I started to apply for I started my application to Canada, I was really nervous though, I’m realizing and I’m following the news that some people are that there was like a huge possibility that the refugee system program was gonna stop.

So I did not stop my belief. I didn’t even like suspect God’s ability in that. I’m just gonna. Allah’s ability that He’s gonna assist me. And as long as He like gave me the, or paved the way for me to go in this way and trying to apply for this application, He’s not gonna fail me.

And even as I told you when I was looking for a job, like the expectation from the family, the friends and from the old people that you are in advanced country that you are going to start now with your life, but it was like a true challenge to your ability to live and survive. So I was under huge stress. I was looking for a job.

And as I told you so I’ve always sought refuge to, to the prayers (As-Salah) and also to the when asking Almighty God, du’a, which is and I’m knowing that Allah is not going to fail me. And this is where I am here now. So this is what like basically I’m just giving you an idea of this, my experience here in Canada.

Fariah:

Thank you so much for sharing, Sami. That’s very important and inspiring for us to hear.

You already touched upon it, this question, but I wanted to also ask it in case there’s anything else that you’d like to add. My next question is how did your faith support you during your experience?

Sami:

Well, as I told you, Allah said in Quran, “ ٱدْعُونِىٓ أَسْتَجِبْ لَكُمْ”, which means in English, pray to Me, I’ll answer your prayers. Whenever you ask, I have huge confidence that Allah is a Merciful God. As Allah is Merciful. Allah will not fail His people who depend, who depend on Him. Like, I am a hundred percent sure that whenever someone depends on Allah and you, inside of you, you are like trustworthy and you are like 100% confident that Allah is not going fail you. Believe me, you’ll see the wonders. And I reflected this and as I mentioned earlier, I committed to my prayers, to my, to my ask Almighty God. Alhamdulillah. As you can see, God did not fail me. Allah did not fail me.

I am all good now and I almost like I’m about to start a new level in my life. I’m not like, I don’t need anyone’s assistance. I’m doing my payments to my, the government and everything is good in my life. This is because Allah guided me so and stood by my side.

Fariah:

Thank you so much for sharing, Sami. That’s very inspiring. 

My next question is what resources are currently missing in Canada that can help us better support refugees and newcomers?

Sami:

Well, in this aspect, I have less to share based on my experience at work and also from like, from what I see, what I’m seeing in the, what I’m realizing here in the society.

So the problem here is that most of the people are lacking the education about the system, about the routine here, how things work, starting from the really, because of the language boundary, but at the same time, people that do not seem that they have the idea of how the system here works. When you know how to, when you ace the system, it’s not going to be hard for you. Believe me.

I came here and I came here and I knew that and. But this, as I told you here, the language assisted me, but I was able to navigate the system because I understood how the system works. 

For example, whenever it comes, like, I can give you a small idea. For example, not all people understand what do you mean by credit card, for example. Most of the people insist even like, they would tell you, okay, I need my Visa to be renewed. So you tell them you need your credit card to be renewed here. They would tell you, no, I only need my Visa. They don’t have the idea that Visa is one of the products of credit card or like banking product. So they don’t understand that the credit card is a kind of card that shows your obligation and your credibility towards the financial system. How much are you committed to this? They realize that, okay, this money that the bank lends us and we can pay some of it to the bank, but they don’t realize that they are having interest rates on it and they are having low credit scores. So this doesn’t give them. This is because they do not have, did not understand the system. This is one of the things. 

The other thing here is sometimes overgeneralization. I’m talking here about most of the Syrians because I know, like, like, as they say, like about the community talk that they, they always generalize the German, the German view or the German model. Like people, when they come to Germany, Germany is facing lack of workforce. So they are offering like trainings and vocational trainings that’s on the government, not like here. So all people come here knowing that, okay, we are gonna have works, by the government. But they don’t understand the, like how things are working.So this is one of the things.

So there are two main things over generalization, misunderstanding of how the system works. And the other thing, the language barrier. And some of them, I would not say I’m not gonna generalize again, I’m not gonna generalize.

But one of the things that the people, like the government needs a little bit of some. First they need to work on one thing, which is that we are not gonna sit here because there’s one thing that I want to share here. Is that some people miss they are abusing the system by sitting and not working and having lots of things to like they are just having their kids, having the income from the Fed.

They are not working that this is the thing that’s not okay. But the government needs to show some rough tough love to them that like if you don’t want to work, you’re abusing the system, you are draining this system, you are just doing injustice to the others. This is about. I just don’t want to seem to be rude. So the overgeneralization, the over like the misunderstanding of the system. Okay. 

And the other thing is I would say a little bit of elasticity from the government side. So one of the other things that needs to be a little bit put into consideration like the driver’s license. Some people, like the young age people are looking like you look for three years of waiting for you to be able to have a valid class 5 which is also, which is also like discouraging when you. For example, some people, they are really skilled in driving. So they can like they can assist the government, they can work but like they need to work on their side. Like they need to work a little bit of some. They need to provide some elasticity when it comes to the government thing. When it comes to government transactions like having. Issuing a driver’s license like this class 7, class 5 GDL, the class 5 there will be hard for the, for the people to just sit waiting for their driver’s license to be issued. This is, this is one of the things also.

Fariah:

Thank you so much for sharing, Sami. Thank you so much for sharing your story and your knowledge with us today. Your journey is very inspiring and I appreciate your honesty and insight. I wish you all the best moving forward and I hope your story inspires many others. Thank you so much.

Sami:

Absolutely, absolutely.

Fariah:

Thank you.

Is there anything else that you’d like to add?

Sami:

So one of the things that other like if we would say like one of the things that would assist us here in Canada for the newcomers is that we need to teach them the general routine here at the system. How the system here works starting from the credit like the financial system.

Like for example, not all people will be knowledgeable of what does, what is the credit cards and what are the like related responsibilities to it. So like a general explanation of how the system works. Like when it comes to the insurance, to the coverage to the financial system, to how things are done here in Canada, even in regards to the government transactions. Everything that needs to be explained at least like a cultural explanation of how things are done here.

One of the other things also is to work also on the language. Not all of people would be, not all of people are learning the language effectively. It would be a, it would be benefited. I’m talking about the Arab population or like the Arab people. It would be benefited if we can like integrate some of the Arabic speaking teachers to the Arab population so they can have a little bit of idea about what’s going on. I know that the immersion is a really, really important thing, but also at the same time, how would you immerse a person who doesn’t understand what you are talking about? If you are talking about something and this person doesn’t understand you, he would, there is no way that he can understand this. And at the same time, there’s a huge amount of huge sums that are being said spent on language education. So we will be benefited from some, from integrating some of the language, like the native language language of the people who are learning the English, the English, for example, like Ukrainian, Arabic. At least people can have some of the idea of what you are talking about.

That would be all.

Thank you.

Fariah:

Thank you so much for sharing, Sami.

It’s very important for us to learn.

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