In 2018, I landed in Toronto, alone for the first time, as a 27-year-old single Palestinian woman. Armed only with my engineering degrees, I started the journey with nothing but a suitcase (and lots of hope). I was ready to start from scratch in every sense of the word: finding an apartment with no credit score, looking for work and new friends with no connections, exploring my new culture, and grieving for my old self.
Moving alone, without ties to the new country, requires a lot of creativity. Add the COVID-19 pandemic to the mix; with confusion around tests, vaccines and is a prescription for isolation. Not to mention, finding a job without social capital had its own challenges.
Contrary to Doug Ford’s comment Monday that immigrants must be “hardworking” and “go somewhere else” if we come here to “collect the subsidy and sit down,” new immigrants face massive challenges. That includes unemployment and multiple financial, cultural and linguistic stressors. And while some work with their heads down, facing exploitative wages and poor working conditions, we must remember our agency. That we bring skill, culture and understanding to this country.
Leveraging all of our identities, especially as women and minorities with diverse backgrounds and histories, is the best we can do for both ourselves and Canada.
As new immigrants, we come with a full inventory of beautifully nuanced experiences, and when we have an opportunity, we must not hide it. Imagine the person who first marketed hummus in Canada. Without it, we would be living in a less delicious world. On my own journey, I wanted to think about looking for something similar. Something that I could share about myself and the culture while remaining true to my roots. Growing, collectively, with the opportunities in this country.
So, I took everything I had to start my own business, Vrokhi: a fine jewelry brand that represented and honored my being without sacrificing anything minor. Remember that I am an engineer, a language and culture enthusiast, a mental health advocate, who is also passionate about social justice and the good things in life.
As the daughter of refugees who grew up in Dubai, I know enough about marginalization and enough about luxury. That’s why I made sure that whatever I pursued, I could give back to the community. That is why 5 percent of the proceeds from each purchase goes to mental health and women’s support organizations, as a show of support for other people to achieve their opportunities. As a new immigrant, and with the rise of telecommuting, I have also found connection with communities outside the country that can greatly benefit from working from Canada, another opportunity created.
I have also spent a good chunk of time in the Mediterranean as a volunteer with Syrian refugees in Greece, studying new languages in Spain and France. These experiences taught me a lot about the world, something that I felt was important to include in my work. My time immersed in other cultures was not only an enriching experience for me, but it also led me to have the language skills to work as an interpreter with the Together Project, an organization that unites refugees from the Arab world and Latin America with cultural ambassadors. , to have important information interpreted in real time.
What I realized as an immigrant is that we don’t have to start from scratch at all. We don’t have to duck our heads and fit into a trope. We just have to build on all the intersectional identities that we already embody to create opportunities for ourselves and others.
Of course that sounds easier said than done, because we live in a world where opportunities and privileges are not equally distributed, where bureaucracy and financial constraints are a reality, and where creative expression is not always rewarded. However, the journey of unraveling all that we are, by making us all see and hear, is the act of rebellion in which we must all participate.
Anything interesting that is worth doing or learning is much more enjoyable when shared with the world. I hope that as new immigrants, we always remember that all of our complex avenues deserve to be shared, seen and appreciated.
Reference-www.thestar.com