Canadian Immigrant - November 2023

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LIVING‘YOU START TO BELIEVE IN HUMANITY AGAIN’Through its unique programs, Canada has provided awarm welcome to refugees and displaced people likeAnastasiia Seitaj and her familyBy Vivien FellegiUkrainian Anastasiia Seitaj had never intended to leave her belovedhomeland. When war broke out, she and her husband were visitingAlbania. 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 acountry neither knew anything about – Canada.The duo and their daughter arrived in Ottawa in September 2022. Therelocation was challenging.“It was a completely new, unique experience for us,” says Seitaj. Mostof all, she missed her family back home. “It breaks my heart,” she says. The24CANADIAN IMMIGRANT Volume 20 Issue 5 | 2023pressure of finding work in the expensive new country was also stressful.Canada’s spontaneously emerging host program, developed throughFacebook, proved to be a godsend. Seitaj’s hosts invited them into theirhomes indefinitely. Their hosts also helped them navigate everythingfrom obtaining a document to finding a doctor. The locals also becamethe Ukrainians’ cheerleaders as they tackled other challenges. “‘Guys, youcan do it,’” they told the couple.Two weeks following the family’s arrival in Canada, a deadly attack onSeitaj’s hometown of Kiev killed several of her friends. Her hosts rallied
LIVINGaround the shocked family, staying close and listening. “My feelings werevalued,” 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. Evenafter the newcomers moved out on their own, they’ve still been keeping inclose touch. “We consider each other family,” says Seitaj.Today Seitaj has fully integrated into her adopted country. She’sa settlement worker at the YMCA and is expecting the arrival of herCanadian baby.Seitaj credits her successful adjustment not only to her host family, butalso to the larger Canadian society who welcomed the couple so warmly.“I’ve never ever seen this kind of generosity,” says Seitaj. “You start tobelieve in humanity again.”Senior resettlement officer at UNHCR Canada, Michael Casasola, is notsurprised 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 twomain channels of assimilation: government-assistant refugees (GARs) andprivate sponsorship of refugees (PSRs). In the PSR program, humanitarianand religious organizations or a private group of Canadians pool theirresources to support a refugee family financially and logistically for at leastone year. The sponsors help their dependents find housing, furniture andclothing, locate language courses and enroll refugee children into schools.Sponsors are also good sources of social capital, connecting refugees withpotential employers. Because of their personalized contacts, refugeeswho enter the PSR stream have better integration outcomes short termcompared to GARs, says Casasola. In the long run, both streams of refugeesintegrate successfully, with levels of homeownership and educationultimately 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. Refugeesfrom Vietnam, who were admitted to Canada in the late 1970s, were the firstto benefit from the program. The Syrians fleeing civil war in their countrywere the last large group of refugees admitted into the PSR program in 2015-2016. Today several countries around the world have adopted Canada’s PSRprogram, including Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK.But the Ukrainians’ situation was very different from that of most otherrefugees to Canada. In an effort to fast-track large numbers of people fleeingwar, Canada processed the Ukrainians under the category of emergency travel.Without the refugee designation, these de facto refugees were not entitled toprograms like the government assisted refugees or the private sponsorship ofrefugees. In response to their overwhelming needs, private Canadian citizensstepped up to the plate, hosting Ukrainians for free in their homes, orientingthem to Canadian programs, and served as emotional supports.The hosting program’s benefits overlap with those of the privatelysponsored refugees program, says Casasola. Both sponsors and hosts guiderefugees through the Canadian landscape, practice English with them, andbefriend them. These personalized interactions propel refugees forwardwith more assurance in their new lives.For the Alshamalys, a refugee family from Syria, Canada’s PSR programhelped them kickstart their shattered lives. The Alshamalys had neverdreamed of uprooting their perfect lives in Syria — Ahmad Alshamalyhad a lucrative career as an IT engineer, they had a comfortable home, andfamily just minutes away. But when the war broke out in 2011 and theirabove Anastasiia Seitaj and her familythen two-year-old daughter, Shahd, saw blood on the streets, Ahmad andhis 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 feelcomfortable. One of them picked up the Alshamalys at the Toronto airport.The sponsors helped them open a bank account, located a good school forthe children, and found language training for the adults. Another onehelped Alshamaly connect to several companies, helping him secure a jobin IT just a month and a half after landing in Toronto.The sponsors were also nurturing. Shortly after their arrival, theAlshamalys were invited to their first Thanksgiving dinner, followed bysupper on Halloween. Over many meals, the Alshamalys bonded with theirsponsors 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 bothsides, says Alshamaly, who recently launched his own startup, HyphonicsEdugames, which teaches children a fun way to learn Arabic. Meanwhile,Nour opened a catering business, Jasmine Kitchen sharing her culturethrough her cooking.The couple’s two daughters, Sedra and Shahd, are telling the world aboutSyrian children in refugee camps. The sisters paint scenes of refugee lifeonto postcards that are filled with wildflower seeds, ready to bloom.. Thisenterprise 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 widerCanadian public who greeted them with open arms. “Most of Canadians arewelcoming,” says Alshamaly. “We feel lucky.”CANADIANIMMIGRANT.CA | 25
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Canadian Immigrant - November 2023

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