‘You start to believe in humanity again’

Credit to Author: Vivien Fellegi| Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2023 23:22:25 +0000

Through its unique programs, Canada has provided a warm welcome to refugees and displaced people like Anastasiia Seitaj and her family.

Ukrainian Anastasiia Seitaj had never intended to leave her beloved homeland. When war broke out, she and her husband were visiting Albania. Seitaj’s father begged her to stay put. “Please just hold on,” he said. “Don’t come.” Reluctantly, the couple decided to seek safety in a country neither knew anything about – Canada.

The duo and their daughter arrived in Ottawa in September 2022. The relocation was challenging.

“It was a completely new, unique experience for us,” says Seitaj. Most of all, she missed her family back home. “It breaks my heart,” she says. The pressure of finding work in the expensive new country was also stressful.

Canada’s spontaneously emerging host program, developed through Facebook, proved to be a godsend. Seitaj’s hosts invited them into their homes indefinitely. Their hosts also helped them navigate everything from obtaining a document to finding a doctor. The locals also became the Ukrainians’ cheerleaders as they tackled other challenges. “‘Guys, you can do it,’” they told the couple.

Two weeks following the family’s arrival in Canada, a deadly attack on Seitaj’s hometown of Kiev killed several of her friends. Her hosts rallied around the shocked family, staying close and listening. “My feelings were valued,” says Seitaj.

Over time the Ukrainian family merged with that of their Canadian hosts. Both have children of the same age, who regard each other as siblings. Even after the newcomers moved out on their own, they’ve still been keeping in close touch. “We consider each other family,” says Seitaj.

Today Seitaj is a settlement worker at the YMCA and is expecting the arrival of her Canadian baby. She credits her successful adjustment not only to her host family, but also to the larger Canadian society who welcomed the couple so warmly.

“I’ve never ever seen this kind of generosity,” says Seitaj. “You start to believe in humanity again.”

Senior resettlement officer at UNHCR Canada, Michael Casasola, is not surprised by Seitaj’s warm reception. “Canada can be quite welcoming,” says Casasola.

Through the years, Canada has shown a knack for integrating refugees, says the expert. For those who meet the refugee designation, there are two main channels of assimilation: government-assistant refugees (GARs) and private sponsorship of refugees (PSRs). In the PSR program, humanitarian and religious organizations or a private group of Canadians pool their resources to support a refugee family financially and logistically for at least one year. The sponsors help their dependents find housing, furniture and clothing, locate language courses and enroll refugee children into schools.

Sponsors are also good sources of social capital, connecting refugees with potential employers. Because of their personalized contacts, refugees who enter the PSR stream have better integration outcomes short term compared to GARs, says Casasola. In the long run, both streams of refugees integrate successfully, with levels of homeownership and education ultimately reaching that of native Canadians.

The PSR program was established as part of the Immigration Act of l976, a few years after Canada had signed on to the Refugee Convention. Refugees from Vietnam, who were admitted to Canada in the late 1970s, were the first to benefit from the program. The Syrians fleeing civil war in their country were the last large group of refugees admitted into the PSR program in 2015-2016. Today several countries around the world have adopted Canada’s PSR program, including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK.

But the Ukrainians’ situation was very different from that of most other refugees to Canada. In an effort to fast-track large numbers of people fleeing war, Canada processed the Ukrainians under the category of emergency travel.

Without the refugee designation, these de facto refugees were not entitled to programs like the government assisted refugees or the private sponsorship of refugees. In response to their overwhelming needs, private Canadian citizens stepped up to the plate, hosting Ukrainians for free in their homes, orienting them to Canadian programs, and served as emotional supports.

The Alshamalys moved to Canada in 2016.

The hosting program’s benefits overlap with those of the privately sponsored refugees program, says Casasola. Both sponsors and hosts guide refugees through the Canadian landscape, practice English with them, and befriend them. These personalized interactions propel refugees forward with more assurance in their new lives.

For the Alshamalys, a refugee family from Syria, Canada’s PSR program helped them kickstart their shattered lives. The Alshamalys had never dreamed of uprooting their perfect lives in Syria — Ahmad Alshamaly had a lucrative career as an IT engineer, they had a comfortable home, and family just minutes away. But when the war broke out in 2011 and their then two-year-old daughter, Shahd, saw blood on the streets, Ahmad and his wife Nour knew they had no choice. “We were emotionally destroyed,” says Alshamaly, who brought his family to Turkey and then Canada in 2016.

Their group of PSR sponsors immediately made the immigrants feel comfortable. One of them picked up the Alshamalys at the Toronto airport. The sponsors helped them open a bank account, located a good school for the children, and found language training for the adults. Another one helped Alshamaly connect to several companies, helping him secure a job in IT just a month and a half after landing in Toronto.

The sponsors were also nurturing. Shortly after their arrival, the family was invited to their first Thanksgiving dinner, followed by supper on Halloween. Over many meals, the Alshamalys bonded with their sponsors and created an alternate community. “Everything was new to us,” says Nour, “they helped us feel like we belong to this place.”

The advantages of these new connections were beneficial for both sides, says Alshamaly, who recently launched his own startup, Hyphonics Edugames, which teaches children a fun way to learn Arabic. Meanwhile, Nour opened a catering business, Jasmine Kitchen sharing her culture through her cooking.

The couple’s two daughters, Sedra and Shahd, are telling the world about Syrian children in refugee camps. The sisters paint scenes of refugee life onto postcards that are filled with wildflower seeds, ready to bloom. This enterprise raises both money and awareness of Syrian refugee children.

Today the Alshamalys are fully integrated into the fabric of Canadian life – their children have music lessons and the whole family enjoys camping. The family feels grateful not only to their sponsors but also to the wider Canadian public who greeted them with open arms.

“Most of Canadians are welcoming,” says Alshamaly. “We feel lucky.”

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