Arrivals

I travel a lot for work. When the flight home is over, and after the final exhaustion of body and soul by customs lines and luggage carousels, I used to race through the automatic doors to the international arrivals hall and grab a cab or Uber for the last twenty-one kilometres of the trip.

But for the past two years, though still always heart-hungry to get home quickly and see my family, I now stop and look around when I’m through those doors and free to leave.

I look for signs. Literally. “Welcome xxx Family to Canada!” they say, and, usually "مرحبا بكم في كندا." Sometimes "bienvenue au Canada”. If you know the acronyms and lingo, no small talk with the signs’ bearers is needed. GAR, JAS, or BVOR*? Have you already spoken with the family? How large is it? What country are they from? Do they speak English? How do they feel about coming to Canada? Do you know any of what they’ve been through? Best wishes for you all.

On June 6, I was there, in the international arrivals hall, with a sign. For the third time. I’d joined my friend Sawsan Awad and her family to greet her brother, Mahmoud, the latest human being sponsored by  Ripple and it was at this exact spot in Terminal 1, in December 2015, where we had first met Sawsan, her husband Mohamad, and the rest of the Abdallah family in person.

Family reunification is important for the wellbeing of newcomers, and was something that Sawsan had said she wanted and needed - to restore links with some of her family after being separated by war. And so we did not hesitate to sponsor her youngest brother, who was still stuck in Lebanon.

It can take four hours for newcomers to walk through those automatic doors, but I always want to be there, just on the other side, even before the plane lands and for the whole time it takes them to get processed. With my sign, red and white carnations, and Canadian flag. I will not miss the moment the arrivals doors open and they come through, a moment that represents joy, journey, meaning, grace, relief, grief, sadness, happiness, weariness, survival, openness, philanthropy, resistance, resilience, family, citizenry, past, present, and future. I’m unapologetic about this. Such human moments generate more humanity. It’s a ripple effect.

Two months of settling into his new life in Toronto, Mahmoud told me, “Arriving in Canada is one of the best things that ever happened to me. Because I speak English, I’ve faced nothing like the challenges faced by many newcomers. But settling in a new community takes effort. I’m working hard and trying to get involved in the community. I still miss my family and friends back in Syria and Lebanon. l had no choice but to leave. After so many years, I finally reunited with my sister and her family. She has three beautiful daughters, and the two older ones, Aya and Reemas, are very happy and excited to have another uncle around. My sister Sawsan was overwhelmed with joy, and burst into tears when she was at the airport to pick me up.”

In a couple of weeks I’ll be returning from another business trip and walking through that spot where we first met Sawsan and her family, then Amr, Rasha, and baby Kareem, the second Syrian family our group had sponsored, and now, Mahmoud. And I’ll look for more signs, think with gratitude of those who’ve arrived, and the many more we must bring through those automatic doors at arrivals.

*Government Assisted Refugees, Joint Assistance Sponsorship, Blended Visa Office-Referred

By Rebecca Davies