Finding my new Comfortland

Everyone has a comfort zone, and people often don’t like to move out of it. Familiar tastes and smells, sights and sounds, recognizable roads and routes are assurances to people like me — sticklers for routine.

For me, the Middle East was always the centre of the universe. Although I travelled to explore the world, home never changed its address.

Yet a few months ago, I immigrated to Canada, to provide my children with a passport that might make life just a little bit easier for them. And suddenly, the “right way of doing things” was different.

I scrambled to convince myself that this move is just an expansion of my comfort zone rather than a monumental change, and it quickly became clear that Canada had its own silver linings — different from those in Dubai, my home for much of my life, but perhaps better — if only I was willing to let go of those “superiority-tinted” glasses. I’ve been struck by how Canada is a melting pot of diverse cultural currents, diasporas differentiated by multiple creeds, languages and dialects.

However, Canada is not unique in this. The scale of human displacements, due to civil strife or international conflicts, has changed the face of contemporary migration, as economic stability is replaced by a desperate need for safety and security. The movement of people across boundaries has only increased.

But here’s how Canada is different.

Canada values and respects the life experiences that immigrants bring with them. We are embraced impartially, with open arms and a greeting of “welcome to Canada.” We are “allowed” to stand at par with everyone else here. And here’s the best part: As Canadian immigrants, equal opportunity is presented to us as a right; one that cannot be taken away from us on the whim of the head honcho. I can’t help but quote the American comedian Hassan Minhaj, who explains this immigrant-specific phenomenon so brilliantly: “we have the audacity of equality.”

I have had my own jaw-dropping moments as an immigrant here; as I filled forms and applications, or visited government offices to set up my home. I realized that there are no secondclass citizens/ residents in Canada. Regardless of whether the person on the other side of the desk didn’t like having me here, they would always treat me with respect, dignity and a genuine resolve to assist me.

As an immigrant who landed here without securing a job first, or learning any French, I have a long way to go before I can consider myself settled. Yet, I can live here with the mental security that nobody will kick me out. There is no limit on the number of days that I can stay on, and my children never have to stop going to school because I cannot afford it.

My home is where my heart is, and it remains with the family and friends I have left behind.

Here, I am still trying to figure out how one makes new friends once they are past kindergarten, where it was so easy to approach someone you liked and ask them, “will you be my friend?”

Yet, taking stock as 2017 draws to a close, I think I might acclimatize to this graciously courteous country called Canada soon enough. I might have just found my new Comfortland.