Tara From Iran
Categories: Interview
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.