Syrian Refugees In Canada Are Panicking On Losing Their Government Support After One Year

One year ago this week, 163 Syrian refugees were greeted at the airport by Justin Trudeau. Photograph: Mark Blinch/Reuters

The Guardian: Syrian refugees in Canada lose support one year on: 'How are we going to live?'

Families must find work or enroll in social assistance programs when monthly allowance ends, as Canada responds to transition: ‘We can’t abandon them’.

Minutes after her 25-hour flight touched down in Toronto, Shoruk Alsakni burst into tears.

Some four years earlier, she – along with her husband, mother-in-law and six children – had fled the growing violence and terror of Aleppo, ending up in Turkey. Now the family was again starting over – this time in a country she knew almost nothing about.

“I was afraid of everything,” Alsakni said. “I was scared for my children. I didn’t know anyone in Canada.”

Her family was among the 35,745 Syrian refugees brought into Canada in the past year, in what now ranks as one of the largest refugee resettlement movements in Canadian history.

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WNU Editor: My blood boils when I read stories like this one. I am an immigrant to Canada .... and the support that I received from both the federal and Provincial governments when I applied was zero. Granted .... I already knew both official languages in Canada (English and French), I do not come from a war zone, I already had a job working for the UN (ICAO in Montreal), and I had money in the bank. So I know that I cannot be compared to these Syrian refugees. But over the years I have taken care of immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, China, and South Korea .... where in many cases they were not fluent in English and French, they had little if any money, no employment, and in the case of Ukraine .... some of those that I have helped were fleeing from a war-zone and who had experienced trauma from what they had saw. In every case .... within months .... these immigrants were already hard at work in learning the language .... had jobs (albeit mainly service jobs .... but jobs was what they had), were saving and building their bank accounts for a better apartment/car/education/etc., and were throwing everything they had to get away from government support and help .... which within a year all of these immigrants were successful at doing. I also taught English to immigrants in the late nineties (primarily from China and South Korea) .... at no cost .... and in my free time. Within a year they were speaking English .... albeit poorly .... but they were speaking it and understanding it and able to seek jobs and network their capabilities. The fact that most of these Syrian refugees (the adults) cannot AFTER ONE YEAR speak the language, are still dependent on government assistance, and are still (at least most of them ) unemployed and who are now panicking that their government assistance is going to be cut .... just boggles my mind.