Departure... Displacement...Migration... Immigration

Are there lessons we can learn from Sophia’s story?

Sophia had to come to Canada. When she first moved here she lived in Ontario with other Bahamian immigrants. It was hard for her to leave her family and friends behind but at least she was with other people from her country. After meeting her lover they decided to move to Granby in a French community even if she had never spoken French.  She went from an English community with people from her country to a French community with nobody from the Bahamas. It must have been really hard for her to integrate in a society that doesn’t share her culture or language.  At least her good education must have helped her when she arrived because she only had to do a course to have her diploma approved here in order to get a job. Her story shows that we have to be persistent to get what we want. She had to do a course to get her diploma approved to get a job, she had to learn our language, she had to make new friends and she had to find a place to live. It must be really hard to know what to do when you move to a place you have never been before. Another lesson we can learn from them is that anything is possible. Immigrants arrive here with nothing but they can become successful.

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHgow can we participate in our community to help immigrants and refugees integrate and to help them avoid poverty?

I believe each immigrant has to get French courses when they immigrate in Quebec. The best way to integrate to a community is to at least be able to speak their language. When an immigrant doesn’t have the language of the country it is harder to find a job for them because every job requires the ability to speak to other people. Another way to help immigrants integrate to our community is to encourage them to study and help them receive loans and bursaries for school. They also need some professionals to help them find jobs they are going to like. I believe the best two ways to have immigrants integrate is to have them interact with the population of the country they immigrate in. To be able to do this they need to be able to speak the language everybody speaks. Too many immigrants arrive in Canada and go live in ethnic communities.  They never speak our language or interact with the rest of our community. Another good way to have them interact with us is to help them get a job. When they work they have to speak and work with Canadian people. Having a job also helps people make friends and when people arrive here they don’t have many friends. Friends will also help them and encourage them to integrate better in our society and share our culture with them.

Should we participate/get involved in helping immigrants integrate or should we leave it up to the professionals?

I believe that immigrants need friends in order to integrate to a community. The only way for them to have friends is for us to be opened minded and to accept them in our society. Too many immigrants go live in ethnic groups because they feel different and don’t know what to do to get accepted by the society. The professionals need to be there to guide them during their immigrating process. For example to have them do French or English courses or help them find a program at school or even to help them get a job. Once an immigrant knows our language and has a job, it is up to us to accept them in our community and interact with them. They need to be with people from the country they immigrate to and not only people with their culture. It is people from their societies that have to show them our culture and not teachers.

If I would arrive to a new country and not know anybody I would like it if there would be professionals to help me at first to get a job, learn the language and help me find a place to live in. After that I would like some resources to be in place if I have any problems or questions but I think professional help should only be there at first to help the immigrants when they arrive. Then for the next few years someone should be there only if people need more help. In other word help should be there at first but then only when needed.