Keeping a balance between the now and my roots

Amr Al-Farham, his wife Rasha and their son Kareem arrived in Toronto in December 2016. They are the second Syrian family our group had sponsored to come to Canada. We asked Amr to give our supporters an update about how the family has settled in.  

I promised, with pleasure, that I would write a post a year after our arrival and now it’s been almost 19 months. My wife and I were, and still are, overwhelmed with life, and this is another sign of becoming Torontonians. I think that one of the most important signs of becoming a Torontonian is that what you think you can do is way less compared to what you can actually do. 

When I knew that moving to Canada is happening, my child had just gotten out of the incubator after two months of intensive care. He had been born prematurely. To celebrate both events, we threw a big party at our flat in the city of Gaziantep, which we call Aintab, in the south of Turkey. During the party, my Syrian friend who had been to Canada before gave me what sounded like a very precious advice: “Amr, you won’t believe me if I told you that the country is extremely cold. Please wrap-up very well even under your pants as many people lose their genitals due to the extreme cold. If you’re not well prepared, your genitals will fall off and you will lose them forever.” 

My friend’s advice was untrue but the cold he told me about was something I never experienced in my life. I know now where the famous Game of Thrones’ phrase “Winter is coming” comes from, and how weather here controls not only the way people dress “the crows on the wall” but also how people act, react, live, behave and even smile.

Upon arrival, most people in Toronto have been very welcoming. I later figured out that the reason was that we were the hot topic in the news. We were the topic of debate and, to a much lesser degree, a target of insult for some conservatives. Unlike many Syrian friends in the diaspora who were hiding their identity in the public fearing becoming a target of hate, discrimination or just simply getting bombarded with tons of political and religious questions, I decided to say out loud that I had recently arrived as a Syrian refugee and was open to all responses. In downtown Toronto, the responses were usually warm and welcoming.

However, I would receive the strangest comments and questions that one would not expect. Here are some examples from different people during the past 18 months:

-   "You’re Syrian! Oh wow, that’s cool! I am happy to meet one in person, are you really as traumatized as they say in the news?"

-   "Oh, welcome to Canada buddy! May I ask a question; did you really cross the sea and walk across Europe in order to make it here?"

-   "We are glad you are here and safe; do you need toasters? We have an extra one?"

In our culture we use different bread (what people call pita here is actually Syrian bread), so toasters are not essential in our diet. But my answer to the last question was: “Thank you very much, what we really need here is a job.”

Speaking English and having university degrees helped us jump many steps forward. Ripple Refugee group understood this from the very first time they met us. Instead of registering us in a language school or showing us how to take a first TTC ride, they put huge efforts into networking and helping us write our resumes and cover letters in an attractive way for a Canadian employer. I want to mention the invaluable one-on-one meetings with group member Keith, who is a HR specialist.

With all the support we received, and by being proactive, flexible and positive, by talking to everyone and sending our resumes everywhere, my wife started working in a media company in February. She has since been promoted and given a permanent contract, while I was able to get a limited contract with Doctors Without Borders as a project manager. 

Being in an advantaged position, I volunteered my language skills and translated for Syrian newcomer families who did not speak any English, which connected me with many families who were not as advantaged as we were back home. They told me how determined they were to build a new life for themselves and for their loved ones. They were eager to study, or just jump at any job opportunity and start providing for their families despite all the challenges. I was also introduced to different private sponsorship groups who were from different age groups and different professions. Some were faith based while other were just neighborhood groups, work colleagues or even dog walkers. But what they all shared is that they were amazing people who were willing to provide as much support and care as possible.

Fleeing a war-torn country is not something that is easy to overcome. We still have our parents in relatively safer cities but with mortars occasionally falling around and kidnappings. They live under a brutal, oppressive and corrupt regime in a permanent failed economy and prevailing misery in the air. We have friends and family who are scattered around the world, with similar education qualifications. Some have been successful while others are still struggling. We talk to them on the phone and many reveal how desperate and helpless they are. I believe that if my friends in Germany, Spain, France or even Turkey and Egypt were privately sponsored and provided with similar support opportunities as happened to me and my wife, they would have been doing much better now and their host countries would have been benefiting from their skills.

In my mindset now, I am not a refugee anymore. I am a newcomer with skills, a Torontonian who follows up with elections, local news and checks the TTC updates every weekend. I am writing this article while my son is running around me, mumbling short sentences of mixed English and Syrian Arabic words. I have a daily struggle of how to keep a balance between the now and the roots, the future and the past, my current Canadian dream of a diverse, fair and open society and my Syrian dream of a stable democratic and pluralist country.  

By Amr Al-Faham

A memorable meeting in Ethiopia

After the successful sponsorship of two Syrian families over the past year and a half, Ripple has been eagerly looking forward to our next sponsorship opportunities. Khaled’s situation was brought to our attention by our Syrian group member Ammar. Khaled had fled violence in Syria and is now living temporarily in Ethiopia. Ripple enthusiastically agreed to support his application to come to Canada.

In April, we received an update on Khaled’s application which read as follows:

Good Day,

Please be advised that this application is still in progress and is in queue for an Interview.

Unfortunately the interview dates have not been determined yet, once they are established the applicant will be notified accordingly.

Regards,

Immigration and Visa Section | Service Immigration-Visas

Canadian High Commission | Haut Commissariat du Canada

Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada

The following month I was in Ethiopia, as part of the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration in emergency medicine.

While there, I sent this simple text message:

“Hello Khaled, I’m part of your Canadian sponsorship group. I’m in Addis this week, it would be great to meet. Are you free on Tuesday for coffee? –   Jennifer” 

Within minutes, Khaled messaged me and we arranged to meet.

On the patio of my hotel we ordered Fanta and coffee and Khaled told me his story. He told me of the violence his family has experienced, showed me photos of war-decimated buildings where friends and family members once lived. He talked about struggling to support himself after leaving Syria, first fleeing to Sudan and then on to Ethiopia. 

With great difficulty, he’s found work in his area of expertise, travel and tourism, but his situation in Ethiopia is precarious. There’s no guarantee day to day of how long he will be able to continue to work and live there. Khaled's wife and daughter are still in Syria, eagerly awaiting the time when their family can be reunited

Khaled continues to await a date for his interview and the opportunity to finally move from a temporary existence to being able to build a new home in Canada.

We ended our visit with the shared hope that the next time we see each other will be in Pearson Airport as Khaled arrives in Toronto to start his new life.

By Dr. Jennifer Bryan

The benefits of private refugee sponsorship

Canada is unique in the world in having a program, the Privately Sponsored Refugee (PSR) program, wherein private citizens can form groups to sponsor and help settle refugees.  In 1986, this program won the UN’s Nansen Medal, the only time a whole country has been recognized by this refugee-focused award.  

Based on Canadian immigration department studies, refugees settled through the PSR model have much better long term outcomes than those who are settled by Government agencies.  For example, when compared to Government Assisted Refugees (GARs) after a year or two, PSRs have higher levels of English proficiency, are more likely to be working and at higher wage levels, are less likely to be relying on government agencies or financial support, report greater connection to their community and to the country and are less likely to return to their previous home country. 

There are a number of other very important direct and indirect benefits of the PSR model for settling refugees versus the more common Government-agency settlement model.  To begin with, since PSR’s are largely or wholly paid for out of private donations, this refugee settlement program is much more cost effective, from a Canadian taxpayer point of view.  Furthermore, for the private citizens who are involved, it is a real participatory, community-building experience which helps foster neighborhood relationships, enable cross-cultural understanding, build grass-roots support for refugee issues, increase appreciation for our communities and our country, and enhance citizens’ awareness of the challenges faced by the lower-income segments in our society.

Despite its many documented benefits versus the GAR model for settling refugees, government support for the PSR model has been modest, to say the least, over the last 40 years and it remains an under-promoted and underfunded program.   The general public’s interest and participation in the program has undergone enormous volatility over the years.  There was a major peak in 1979 / 1980 as a response to the so-called Vietnamese Boat-People crisis.   Then, after a long period of relatively low volumes with the exception of a spike during the Bosnian war, interest in the program has once again dramatically risen during the last 12 months as a result of the Syrian Crisis.  Outside of these 3 peak periods, participation in this program has been narrowly focused in faith communities or ethnic organizations rather than having a broader involvement from Canadian society as a whole.

It is also important to note that although PSR groups are executing on an important, sensitive, and complex project, that of settling and integrating into our communities vulnerable and, in some cases, traumatized people from widely different backgrounds, the Canadians who undertake these projects do so with little or no support, training, experience or qualifications.  The lack of advocates or centralized comprehensive resource supports for PSR groups leads them to feel like they are ‘going it alone’, ‘making it up as they go along’ and ‘reinventing the wheel’ in their efforts to settle refugees. 

By Andrew FitzGerald. This post has also been published on the Canada4Refugees blog. 

Refugees should not pay the price for cowardly terrorist attacks

It only took a few hours after last week’s horrific attacks in Paris before a backlash against migrants and refugees started. Right-wing European politicians who had already claimed that incoming refugees present a security risk immediately asked that the continent should shut its doors. In the United States, more than half the nation's governors say they oppose letting Syrian refugees into their states. 

The Canadian government has thankfully remained level-headed and reaffirmed its election pledge to bring in 25,000 Syrian refugees by the end of this year, while Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has also confirmed the province's commitment to bring in Syrian refugees fleeing civil war. Some conservative politicians such as Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, however, have asked PM Trudeau to scrap his plan, and online petitions are making the rounds asking for the same. 

While most Canadians remain positive about bringing in more refugees to Canada, many online comments connected to articles about migrants and refugees are outright vitriolic, and there have even been a couple of attacks on Muslims in Canada. A Muslim woman was attacked by two men while picking up her children from a Toronto public school on Monday who called her a “terrorist”. Earlier, a mosque in Peterborough was badly damaged by a fire that appears to have been deliberately set. 

Let’s get the facts straight. Many Syrian refugees are fleeing the same people that committed the heinous attacks in France. They are victims of the war in their country, not perpetrators. Terrorists don’t risk their and their children’s lives on rickety boats on the Mediterranean, or walk for thousands of kilometers through increasingly hostile countries in Europe in the hope of finding a better, safer life, far away from their homes. Terrorists don’t spend months and even years living in deplorable conditions in refugee camps in Jordan, Turkey, Iraq or Lebanon.

Syrian refugees living in makeshift shelters in Lebanon's Bekaa valley (@MSF)

Most refugees are just as shocked about last week’s attack as people in Europe or North America. “They are devastated by what happened in Paris,” Paul Yon, the head of mission for Doctors Without Borders in Lebanon, where more than one million Syrian refugees live, told Le Journal de Montreal . "People have Internet access and the backlash is very hard on them. People here aspire only to have a better life, and we close the doors.” 

Now, more than ever, is the time to show solidarity and compassion towards refugees, not mistrust or even hatred. We should bring in more, not fewer refugees. Otherwise, we will let the terrorists win. 

(By Claudia Blume)

"The roadblock is the Canadian government"

The shocking photo of 3-year old Syrian Aylan Kurdi, found lifeless on a Turkish beach a few days ago, appears to have generated more empathy for the plight of refugees, and more media interest, than any other report about migrants in previous months. Canadians are increasingly holding their government accountable for not bringing in more refugees, especially Syrian refugees, and for letting Europe deal with the growing migrant crisis on its own. The government is far from reaching its already modest goal of bringing in 10,000 Syrians over 3 years, with only about 700 arriving in Canada last year. The CBC's The Current talked to our group member Raghu about some of the frustrations sponsorship groups such as ours are facing. Following the great, in-depth interview, Raghu was bombarded with other media requests. Hopefully the attention the migrant issue is finally getting will push the Canadian government to bring in more Syrian and other refugees as soon as possible, and to make it easier for people like us to sponsor them.

Listen to Raghu's interview: http://bit.ly/1L7nEz4

 

Where are the Syrian refugees?

The CBC's Ontario Today aired an interesting show today about what it takes to sponsor refugees, featuring the efforts of Lifeline Syria, a group that is trying to get 1000 Syrian refugees into the GTA, and others. Our very own Raghu called in and voiced some of the frustrations our group is facing:

Where are the Syrians on the sponsorship list? Why are there  bottlenecks to find sponsorship agreement holders? Why does the Canadian government make it so difficult for a motivated group such as ours to sponsor refugees?

Listen to Ontario Today: What it takes to sponsor refugees

Who should we sponsor?

We started of our second meeting with a pot-luck dinner at Pegi and Phil’s house.
Rebecca, a registered nurse with extensive mental health experience, joined us to become our newest member. There are now 14 people in the sponsorship group – plus 15-year old Kieran, who has decided to accompany his uncle Raghu to the meetings. Will this large size make things unwieldy and complicated? Some group members suggested splitting the group in two, each with their own sponsorship agreement. After some discussions we agreed to stay together, as it would put less pressure on us inexperienced ‘first time sponsors’ and allow for more flexibility, as many of us have a busy schedule and are often traveling. We all agreed that given our large size, we need functioning sub-committees with clear expectations.

Several of us volunteered to be the lead for the various tasks required by the sponsorship agreement, such as housing, employment and health. 

One of the most important questions we asked ourselves was: Who should we sponsor? A woman at risk, someone from the LGBT community, a family? Some thought that sponsoring a bigger group of people might be too ambitious financially. We would need to raise at least $17,000 for a group of four – probably a lot more given how expensive Toronto is. Others felt strongly about sponsoring a mother,or parents, with children and felt that our group is big and connected enough to raise sufficient funds. Some members pointed out the potential difficulty of settling in teenagers into Canadian society. 

Given the strong medical expertise in our group, with two physicians and two registered nurses, and the availability of excellent medical and mental health resources in Toronto, we agreed that we should be open to sponsoring refugees with medical conditions. Several of us have been especially moved by the plight of Syrian refugees. We recognized that our choices are dependent on the profiles we will receive from Citizen and Immigration Canada, via the sponsorship agreement holder. Once we choose a profile we can put a place holder for three days to make further inquiries.

Our next important step will be to find a sponsor agreement holder (SAH). We discussed which one would be the most suitable for us. Andrew will first contact the United Church to see if a congregation is willing to support us. This lead to an interesting discussion of why SAHs seem to be mostly faith-based. None of us has any affiliation to a church or other religious group. Why are there not more secular groups involved in sponsoring refugees?
By Claudia Blume

How it all started

I went to high-school in downtown Toronto in the late 1970s with an extremely diverse group of students.  A large number of the kids were ”‘new Canadians” who, along with their families, had in one way or another ended up here in Canada.

And I remember thinking at the time that if a person wanted to get a sense of the world’s troubled spots over the last 40 years, that you wouldn’t have to do any research. All you would need to do is go around my classroom and ask the students where their families were originally from.  Eastern Europe, Korea, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Columbia, the Congo, Somalia etc. etc.  - they were all represented in my class. 

At that time, back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, Toronto still seemed like a very Anglo-Saxon kind of place.  But that’s completely changed now.  Over ½ of the population of Toronto was born in a different country.  There is no single ethnic group making up the majority of citizens – we are all minorities here.  And if you ask Torontonians what makes their city special, what they love most about the place, I am sure most people would talk about its ethnic and cultural diversity and its over-riding sense of tolerance.

Over the past few months my wife and I have been watching with alarm the reports regarding the massive refugee crises that has exploded in connection with the Syrian war and with the people fleeing in boats in the Mediterranean Sea.  Current global events, in Syria and other countries, have created what the UN has described as the worst humanitarian crisis since WWII.  

In past crises we would get involved by firing off a cheque to a relief agency, signing a petition or possibly highlighting our concern to our local MP.  But in this case, given the scale of the crisis, it doesn’t seem like enough. 

In 1979 / 80, in what many people consider one of Canada’s “finest hours”, private citizens from all walks of life responded to the Vietnamese “Boat People” crisis by privately sponsoring 34,000 refugees to resettle in this country over an 18 month period. 

Unlike most European countries, a central tenet of the Canada refugee policy is to rely on, and in many cases require, the involvement of private citizens in the sponsorship and settlement process.  For example, the Canadian government has offered to resettle an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next 3 years, however 6000 of these spots will only be filled if private citizens step forward in order to sponsor and help settle them.

With this in mind, my wife and I sent out invitations in May inviting people we know over to our house for a “Refugee Awareness” meeting.

Andrew FitzGerald