Sami From Syria

Transcript

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.