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Old Refugee's take on the new rtefugee movement

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Old Refugee, Nov 25, 2015.

  1. Old Refugee

    Old Refugee Guest

    There is so much talk about welcoming the new refugees. The government is tripping over itself to showcase the kindheartedness of itself and it's citizens in taking in the refugees. Oh Canada cares so much...we are the greatest...

    Okay, maybe we are.

    I just want to share my arriving in Canada as a refugee story. It was underwhelming.

    I arrived at the tail end of Pierre Trudeau's term. Mulroney was about to sweep the nation under his care.

    I arrived with a group of refugees early AM. At the airport, they took the relevant information and sent us to a nearby hotel. Armed military and RCMP members guarded our wing. They gave us McDonald's food for breakfast and lunch. By the evening, they released us. They gave us a date 3 months away to appear for a hearing. No one cared we didn't speak a word of English. We had not a dollar in our pockets. We did not know a soul in Canada. We had no food. We had no shelter. We, at least some of us suffered form PTSD immensely. No one cared. No one asked. They released us into the society and disappeared.

    No problem for the rest of the group. They were rich spoiled kids that had no reason to be refugees. They just were using the excuse to flee the country and join their rich relatives in USA. I doubt any of them attended the hearing. They were in USA long before the hearing date.

    That left me, barely 18, a true refugee, jailed and prosecuted in my home country and by a pure miracle now in Canada. Like I said, no language, no support, no money, no relatives. One of the airport immigration officers took notice of me and took it upon herself to call Amnesty International. The director of the group at the time, herself picked me up and housed me for a few days while she tried to find me some place to live. After 3 days, she found a temporary household where I spent about a month. After that, another family was found and I moved in with them.

    So far it sounds not so bad. After only a few days living with the new family, I encountered 2 facts. They were highly religious and there was not much food to eat. I got bombarded with religious speeches every night and I was so starved. I fled a country ruled by religious fanatics and in my country of refuge I ended up having to live with a family that aggressively tried to convert me to their brand of religion. All the while I was trying hard to learn English and to adapt to this new society I was living in.

    There was no government sponsored living arrangements, no English language classes, no community support and no one cared about my PTSD and all that is that is talked about nowadays.

    Well, for better or worse, that religious family threw me out after they raided my room and found a tape from Pink Floyd in my belongings. Apparently they had devoted all their time with prayers to ward off the devil from their house and I had invited the devil himself by bringing in Pink Floyd. So I was out still having nothing after 6 months. I have to admit, I owe them one. They housed me for 6 or 7 months and kept me from dying by starvation anyways even though I was near starvation most of the time. They helped me enroll at a high school nearby too and they took me to the hospital to take a ' physical' which was a requirement by the government for filing a refugee claim. As much as I suffered in their care in the first few months, I acknowledge that they helped me and I am beholden to them. Without them I think I would have died.

    After being kicked out, I lived with a schoolmate for about a month. He encouraged me to apply to an ad for a housekeeping job in exchange for a bedroom. I did. The couple at the house said they were looking for a girl but I begged them and promised them that I would do better than any girl. They accepted me and I moved in. For the next year, while washing dishes, vacuuming, cleaning and ironing their clothes and cleaning their yard, I attended regular grade 11 and 12 classes and nearly graduated too. After about a year, they missed their privacy and I moved out. I took me 2 and a half years to land my first job and that thanks to a government program that was there for everyone, not only refugees to learn to prepare resumes and get through interviews.

    I never really had the chance to continue my education. It has been over 30 years and it has been all about work work work and survival. I am really not complaining. It beats dying in the old country under the rule of religious fanatics but my point is, these new refugees, given the red carpet treatment really have it much better than I ever had. 1.2 billion is the cost. Housing? Welfare? Medical coverage? English language classes? Wow. I wonder what was the cost of me? They bought us McDonald burgers for a day and a half, put us up in a hotel for those few hours and then it was about survival in a new country. I don't know..... I guess I can take pride now that I was one of the cheapest refugees in Canada and I stood on my own feet without taxing my new country too much. Canadian people; I am glad I didn't burden you too much and didn't drain your tax dollars.

    Thanks Canada. I love Canada and I die for Canada in a heart beat. :) Thanks Canada, I love Canada i love Canada...
     
    the mechanic likes this.
  2. the mechanic

    the mechanic Active Member

    ... hey, that's a fantastic post! thanks for sharing your story with us ...

    ... the current refugee situation seems to be all about PR and media. they're sure yelling about it on the news. it doesn't need to be as big an issue as they're making it ...

    ... glad everything worked out well for you in the end ...
     
  3. flutterby

    flutterby Active Member

    You want to talk unfairness? I was made mentally ill all of my life by a childhood medical procedure at age 3 that was torture basically. I went years in my late 20's when I was working and too broke to afford private trauma counselling and the system counselling I did receive was woefully inadequate and not trauma informed at all. Now I hear that the refugees are gonna get all this trauma counselling right away, both in groups and individually and the kind and quality of this therapy sounds years ahead of what I have had to work very hard to find and pay for privately here in Vancouver. So yes, this is a huge injustice to me and people like me, Canadians, who have had to live with child abuse/neglect issues well into adulthood and waste years of precious time and unnecessary suffering.
     
  4. Vivek Golikeri

    Vivek Golikeri Active Member

    You have every right to feel this bitterness and sense of being left out. But let me ask you, just how old are you? If you are in your fifties or sixties, perhaps Canada was run differently in those days and that counseling was just not provided back then. I totally agree that Canada needs to take care of Canadians before refugees. But were you denied something at age three that you had a legal right to?
     

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