HOW WE IMMIGRANTS REINVENT OURSELVES

By DR VICKI BISMILLA

Throughout my non-childhood life, I have worked. As a teenager I worked in a sari shop in Durban. Immediately after university my husband and I married and came to Canada where we took whatever jobs we could find.

For the first two years my husband sold shoes for Dr. Scholl’s and I worked as a Bell telephone operator. After the first year I switched shifts, working to midnight or 2:00 am, and my husband took the flexible shifts at the shoe shop so we could attend Teacher’s College. We were very fortunate to be hired as teachers in 1972 at a time when the first teacher surplus hit Ontario. Becoming teachers was the best professional decision we made.

My first few years I taught English as a second language (ESL) in a senior public school in Scarborough. I had absolutely amazing students who were dedicated, hard working and determined to succeed. I remember them even now fifty years later.

The young Talar from Turkey who mastered spoken English in just three months, written English in just a year and was awarded the top prize in grade 8 – an astonishing achievement.

The identical twins Sharon and Irmgaard from Suriname who, when they were not playing tricks on us with their identities, showed outstanding skills as poets and writers.

Other students achieved brilliance in math, sciences and all-round academics. One student came from the war-torn Middle East and was haunted by the sounds of bombs blasting all around his house; another from Sri Lanka was shell-shocked at having lost so many family members to war. It took all our skills as teachers and human beings to nurture these kids with compassion, to tap into their potential and to provide them the academic skills to succeed here in Canada.

But then I noticed something else that was heartbreaking.  As I got to know the parents of my terrific students, my heart sank when I learned that many of the parents were trained doctors, engineers, teachers and a whole range of educated professionals who were now employed as factory workers, security guards or domestics – taking up whatever work they could find to put food on the table.

Canada did not recognize their credentials and qualifications, nor did Canada have recertification opportunities for them.

When Canadians travelled overseas they were treated by foreign doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc., but when those same professionals crossed the oceans and arrived in Canada it was as if their qualifications and credentials fell into the sea.

Over my decades as teacher, principal and superintendent, whenever we tried to traverse the convoluted government policies and figureheads to try to open doors for foreign-trained professionals we found them to be frustrating and anger-inducing. Meanwhile, those professionally trained immigrants swallowed their pride and quietly continued working as taxi drivers, security guards, factory workers and domestics, determined to support their children.

They were reinventing their professional lives.

When I became the vice-president of a college we finally started to see college programs first for foreign trained nurses to achieve their Canadian credentials, and then, slowly, for other professions like engineering and the skilled trades. Colleges are hope-giving places.

Today, there are websites that profess to offer credential validation services. But from instances of foreign-trained doctors driving taxis, it’s evident that frustration abounds for foreign-trained immigrants. See here and here.

Today, there are so -called immigration advisors but before engaging any of these people or giving over any money at all it is critically important to research their legitimacy. Like so many offers of “expertise” some of these immigration advisors are not legitimate and innocent immigrants can lose large amounts of hard-earned money. It’s best to follow trusted sites and publications like CanadaBound Immigrant magazine or to get advice from colleges, universities and government offices.

For many of us who were fortunate to have arrived a long time ago we were able to find jobs in our fields. Now as senior citizens many of us are reinventing ourselves, often for happy reasons. My husband and I are no longer professional educators but nonetheless still educators. We delight in telling stories to our grandchildren about our childhoods growing up in Africa. I have made an unwavering commitment to my children and grandchildren to help with my grandchildren. I have become my mother, my grandmother, my mother-in-law, my sisters and all the Indian mothers who raised me. I cook, I clean, I change diapers. I feel the heartbeat of my littlest one as he naps on my chest and listens to my heartbeat. I cherish the warm hugs of my toddler and older grandchildren. I tell stories to my precious ones as they snuggle up on my lap. I sing to their enraptured attention, I read picture books, I tell them about my childhood growing up climbing trees and meeting snakes much to their wide-eyed wonder! That’s who I am. My life my gifts. The little writing pieces I do are my added pleasures and the once-in-a-while volunteer academic projects are serendipitous delights.

My wish for Desi News readers who have come to Canada to seek careers, better lives for their children or to escape the turmoil of strife or war, may this country offer you peace, joy and friendship and may your children have the best opportunities that this democracy has to offer.