Refugee family leaving Lewisporte
Second Syrian family off to Ontario in search of work, larger Arabic community
Like so many other Canadians, Stephanie Mcclellan felt called to act when she saw the image of three-year-old Syrian refugee Alan Kurdi’s body wash ashore in Turkey in 2015.
Through Facebook posts and word of mouth, Mcclellan connected with other likeminded people in the little town of Lewisporte to form the Lewisporte Refugee Outreach Committee. The town of 3,400 fundraised and got organized to sponsor one family from Iraq and one from Syria through the blended visa office-referred program.
Last month, the committee officially disbanded as the town said goodbye to the second of the two families who had become part of the community over the last few years.
Both families have moved to Windsor, Ont., in search of better job security, proximity to family and friends, and a larger community of Arabic speakers.
Mcclellan says she’s happy for her friends’ next chapter, but will miss having them downstairs in her home’s basement apartment.
“It will be different,” said Mcclellan. “I’ll miss just being able to go have a coffee and visit, and have the kids come up and play games for an evening, or go out to the park, things like that. Just regular stuff that an aunt might do.
“It’s bittersweet because we will definitely miss them, but we completely understand that they need to go to a place where they can feel more involved in their life.”
Community efforts in central Newfoundland’s small towns have brought several refugees families to the area since 2015, with the town of Gander bringing in five families so far. But the province has the lowest refugee retention rate in the country at 36 per cent.
Kerri Neil, a graduate student at Memorial University in St. John’s co-authored a recent report that assessed refugee retention in the province.
Neil says that while social isolation and a virtually non-existent Arabic-speaking community have a significant impact on newcomers’ decision to stay in the towns that sponsored them, refugees moving out of small communities are likely motivated by many of the same economic factors as other Newfoundlanders.
“In rural areas, we’re seeing general out-migration,” said Neil. “The reason that refugees are leaving is basically the same reason that Newfoundlanders are leaving — they’re just looking for some better employment opportunities elsewhere.”
That applies to the latest family to leave Lewisporte for Ontario.
Mohamad Moufleh arrived in Lewisporte last March. He was able to land a seasonal painter’s job, but it was unreliable in the snowy winter months.
For Talika Morjan, Moufleh’s mother, the language barrier in Lewisporte was a big shock. An issue with the family’s paperwork meant that the Morjan arrived in Canada almost a year before her son, daughterin-law and grandchildren, making her the only Arabic speaker in the town.
Despite the language barrier, Morjan came out to community events and became “Arabic Nan” to her new neighbours.
“We did our best with gestures, talking slow, and trying to help teach the basics, using Google translate as best we could,” said Mcclellan.
“There wasn’t always great amounts of communication, but we had a lot of fun.”
Still, Mcclellan says Morjan was lonely without her family. She recalls when Morjan adopted a kitten as she waited for her family to arrive. She called him ‘Cat,’ the English name she knew.
“She needed something to cuddle and talk to,” Mcclellan recalls. “She convinced us that Cat spoke Arabic, because he understood everything she said.”
Morjan’s months in the community helped the town get closer to the family waiting in a Lebanese refugee camp, meeting them through Skype and phone calls.
Once the kids arrived, they jumped right into school. Rayane and Moussa had been in refugee camps since they were young, attending school for the first time in Lewisporte.
Carolyn Parsons, another committee member who
stepped in as an occasional English tutor for the children, says there were some challenges making sure the kids had proper language support in the schools. But she’s been impressed by their enthusiasm to catch up to other students.
“They were a lot older to be starting school, but they did. They’re very bright, and they’ve come so far,” said Parsons.
“I think Windsor will be closer to the Canada that they’ve imagined. Because you know, we’re kinda unique and different here, and rural...here in Newfoundland, for them even trying to get the food that they’re used to - and I will miss the cooking - that, you know, will be a lot easier in a place like Windsor.”
Talal Ibrahim, a Syrian refugee living in the nearby in the town of Gander, arrived with his family in 2015.
He says he’s been happy with the friendliness of Canadians and the safe community for his children, but finds the long winter and smaller town a difficult adjustment after a life in cities.
Ibrahim isn’t sure if he’ll stay in Gander, but a move across a large country will be another big adjustment for his family, who have already moved so much.
“Canada is not only a country — it’s almost a continent. It’s very huge. So, moving from Gander to Toronto, for example, it will be a big challenge, almost as if you are moving to a new country,” said Ibrahim.
So far, all five of the families sponsored by the town of Gander have stayed.
The provincial government is working towards providing more support to newcomers in small communities, with the Association for New Canadians opening four new satellite resettlement offices in rural areas over the past year.
Ken Walsh of the ANC’S new Corner Brook office, which offers language training and job search help, says refugee families in rural communities are responding positively to the services.
“We have one of the slowest growing populations, we have a declining birth rate, we have a rapidly aging population, so in order to kind of meet the demand that our province has, we will have to look to outside sources of people to come here,” said Walsh.
“We do expect to see numbers rise in terms of newcomers in the region and we’re going be here to support them when they do come.”