{"id":271,"date":"2016-04-16T16:34:35","date_gmt":"2016-04-16T20:34:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/?p=271"},"modified":"2018-07-13T13:40:59","modified_gmt":"2018-07-13T17:40:59","slug":"porter-painful-stories-shed-light-downside-canadian-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/?p=271","title":{"rendered":"Porter: Painful stories shed light on downside of \u2018Canadian experience\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

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TORONTO STAR \/ ANDREW WALLACE
Judy Cong came to Canada a decade ago, hoping to sponsor her parents to join her. She was working on a factory line when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. Now she is unable to sponsor her father to immigrate to Canada, because she and her husband have only one income. She is part of a speaker series at City Hall this week.<\/p><\/div>\n

Catherine Porter<\/span><\/h4>\n

Apr 26 2011<\/span><\/p>\n

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When Judy Cong immigrated to Canada a decade ago, she promised her parents she\u2019d sponsor them soon.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She was an electronic engineer with 11 year\u2019s experience at a Chinese steel company. She figured she\u2019d find a job quickly.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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She had never heard the term \u201cCanadian experience.\u201d A year later, she was assembling smoke detectors on a factory line when her doctor found an apple-sized tumour on the back of her brain.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Her mother has since died. Her father, now 80, is losing hope of ever being reunited with his only child.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBecause only my husband is working, we still don\u2019t qualify to sponsor him,\u201d she says, with a slight slur, the right side of her face still paralyzed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Cong\u2019s is just one of 16 painful newcomer stories you can hear Wednesday night at City Hall. They are delivering their graduation speeches from the Mennonite New Life Centre\u2019s new speaker series for immigrants and refugees.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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They come from Cuba, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Albania, Colombia. Most have never told their stories before \u2014 out of fear, pride, demoralization, language barriers, exhaustion.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Their timing is impeccable. With so much talk of the \u201cvery ethnic vote\u201d this election, it\u2019s about time we heard from someone \u201cvery ethnic.\u201d Their voices are small, bright flowers in a carpet of green, prepackaged, on-message stump speeches. What they have to say is so raw and real, it might change your opinion on Canada\u2019s immigration and settlement policies.<\/p>\n

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\u201cTwo words became a nightmare: Canadian experience,\u201d says Endrit Mullisi, an aid worker who left a comfortable life in Albania a year and a half ago to resettle in Toronto with his young family. \u201cDo I need Canadian experience to make photocopies or clean toilets?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mullisi is young and experienced: he left a good job at World Vision to come to Canada. He speaks great English. That should have made him a good candidate for many jobs he applied for. But, soon into his job hunt, he stumbled over a hidden truth of many job postings in Canada. They are cosmetic; the boss already has hired internally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThis situation reminded me of the corruption I left behind in my country,\u201d says Mullisi, 37.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Canada is the globe\u2019s kitchen sink, draining the Third World\u2019s best brains, Mullisi argues. But, once those brains are here, we\u2019re only interested in their brawn. \u201cCanadian experience\u201d is our code for this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cIf you don\u2019t have Canadian experience or Canadian education, your fate is security guard or construction,\u201d says Mullisi, who just last week finally landed his first part-time job, facilitating volunteer programs at the Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cSo why bring me here? Why do you create fake hopes? Immigrants to Europe know that they\u2019ll suffer, no one cares about them, they\u2019ll do only odd jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Listening to Mullisi over coffee late last week, I found it hard to imagine him voiceless. His name in Albanian means \u201che shines,\u201d and he does. But when he speaks to his caseworker, he holds his breath in fear, he says. She makes him feel stupid and small and powerless.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Those feelings arise in many of the speeches I read through.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Pat Capponi facilitated the program for the Mennonite Centre. Five years ago, she started Voices From the Street, a speaker series for homeless people. She thought she was branching out with this program.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cBut the agonizing tales are very much the same \u2014 people making assumptions about their worth, people being angry at them just because they are here,\u201d she told me. \u201cThe pressure on them is just enormous.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The group intends to become a formal advocacy body for new Canadians, speaking at conferences and rallies. If you are planning a human rights or justice event, I\u2019d book them now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThese guys are going to be powerful speakers,\u201d Capponi says. \u201cThey are going to change hearts and minds.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Credit: Toronto Star<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Catherine Porter Apr 26 2011 When Judy Cong immigrated to Canada a decade ago, she promised her parents she\u2019d sponsor them soon. She was an electronic engineer with 11 year\u2019s experience at a Chinese steel company. She figured she\u2019d find… Continue Reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[62],"tags":[60,29,65,17,34,15,23],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":899,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271\/revisions\/899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/voicesfromthestreet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}