‘Peace and safety here’
MUFTAKHER AND LINA
Still barely adjusted to restarting their lives in an adopted city in a new country, Muftakher Al Hayik and his wife Lina Alnatour are quickly turning into empty nesters. With just a few bags and suitcases, the Syrian couple and six of their children fled the civil war in 2015, arriving in Canada ahead of the refugee wave that began to build at the end of that year. One of the reasons only the two youngest of Muftakher and Lina’s children remain in the parental home is because theirs, like that of so many Syrian newcomers, is a family of learning.
Eldest son Mohamed Alhaik, 25, began a three-year engineering program at St. Clair College last fall with plans to eventually transfer to the University of Windsor to complete a degree in that field. Eldest daughter Shahed Alhaik, 22, is enrolled at St. Michael’s Adult Secondary School and Abdul Alhaik, 20, and Omar Alhaik, 18, are in their final year at Westview Freedom Academy Secondary School, with all three expected to graduate from high school in June. Waed, 12, is in Grade 7 and Osama, 11, is in Grade 5 at their neighbourhood Coronation Public School. Even mom and dad are back in school. Lina is enrolled in a course for new Canadians at the Unemployed Help Centre that she hopes will translate into a job in the hospitality sector, while Muftakher, who was a lawyer in Syria, is at triOS College, learning to become a pharmacy assistant. He had been enrolled in a paralegal program, but said he had to drop out because he couldn’t afford a longer fulltime commitment to schooling. “The financials were not good. I have a family. I must go to work,” he said.
No one in the family spoke a word of English upon arrival in Windsor three years ago. Muftakher laughs when asked about his current proficiency level in Windsor’s main language: “Is 5050,” he said. Lina relied to a greater extent on the kids translating for her during a recent Sunday family gathering, but her English is good enough for the Unemployed Help Centre’s Ready to Work program. Brothers Mohamad and Abdul live together on their own so they can focus on their studies. Shahed and Omar similarly share another rental unit. Abdul plans to enrol in architecture at St. Clair College in the fall and then complete a degree at the University of Windsor. Both he and Shahed got head-starts on college last fall by taking courses at St. Clair while still in high school. Abdul’s dream is to one day design and build homes. Meanwhile, he works part time, including stints at a restaurant and in a bakery. Asked what he does in his spare time, Abdul just smiles. “His time is full,” said his dad. “We are not going out. We are just studying,” said Mohamad. In a family where education, employment and advancement in the community seem to be given high priority, Omar appears to be the outlier. The family’s teenager shrugs his shoulders when asked about his post-secondary plans. Then he admits he might be leaning toward a career as a pharmacist. Mufthakher, whose brother in Germany is a pharmacist (a profession also held by their late father in Syria), said perhaps he’ll be able to work for his son someday. Kamal Alamour, a Syrian refugee who started his life in Canada in Toronto, married Shahed in March and joined the family in Windsor.
Alamour, who has university degrees from his time in Damascus and Cairo, is upgrading his English with plans to earn the Canadian equivalent of his master’s degree in chemistry at the University of Windsor.
“To start a new life, it’s best to start in a small place, not a big place,” said Mohamad, speaking for his new brother-in-law.
“In Windsor, they respect newcomers,” added his father. With no end in sight to the war and chaos back in Syria, thinking of the continuing tragedy in their homeland can be debilitating for some of the refugees who have found a peaceful new home.
“If you are going to think about back home, you will just feel bad …. You’ve got to stop thinking about it at times,” said Mohamad. At the earliest opportunity possible — later this year — he intends to apply for his Canadian citizenship. “The Canadian government gave us safety and security and peace and education. They returned the life for us,” said Muftakher. “We feel the safety.”
IBRAHIM AND ZAINEB Ibrahim and Zaineb Tonbari are so filled with hope for the future in their new hometown they enrolled the two oldest of their five young children at Ecole L’Envolee in the public-school system. “When young, they can learn quickly, that is why we put them in French school,” Zaineb, who struggles with basic English more than two years after arriving in Windsor, said through an Arabic interpreter. French aside, everyone in the family is still learning English. “I don’t understand anything,” Zaineb said in broken English as she throws up her arms. Ibrahim, also interviewed through an interpreter, hopes to be fluent enough soon to get a “good job, like a mechanic.” Zaineb was pregnant and the young couple had four children under the age of seven when the family boarded a flight for Toronto on Nov. 29, 2015. The family had been surviving day to day in Lebanon off Ibrahim’s occasional construction jobs and the sale of Zaineb’s family jewelry. Both had lost relatives in the civil war, which also saw their newly built home destroyed by artillery.
“For the kids, there is peace and safety here,” Zaineb said when asked about the best part of living in Windsor. Ibrahim said he loves how diverse the community is with “people from different countries living together — and it is safe here.” Only in Grade 2, eight-year-old Noura — the couple’s oldest child — already knows she wants to become a teacher. Her parents hope at least one of their children will become a surgeon.