New immigrants are looking forward to Canada Day weekend.
Maria Zhosan and Itrat Anwar have both recently immigrated to Canada with their families and work at Eastman Immigrant Services.
Zhosan and her family came from Ukraine and arrived in March of 2023, while Anwar and his family are from Bangladesh, moved to Slovakia, and then moved to Canada in 2023.
Zhosan says what surprised her since moving to Canada is that everyone is always smiling and saying sorry.
“My husband asked me, because he didn't know English very good at that time, why they said sorry every time to me, I said 'I don't know'. But now I understand this thing, it's a good thing to know that everyone says sorry, says hi, asks you how are you? Because it's culture. In our country, it's not like that. So it was surprising, but now I'm good with this.”
She says it is a very welcome change.
“I spoke with many Canadians and when I told them this story, they're like, ‘yeah we're smiling every time we say how are you?’ It's like in the store, in the bank, everyone will say 'how are you?' but in our country, it's not this way. But yeah, I like when people are smiling, this is my country, I love it.”
Anwar says what surprised him was how friendly people are.
“People are very friendly here, they're all very helpful to newcomers, help us to settle down our life here.”
He notes it was difficult getting used to a different transportation system.
“Here people are used to driving their own car, so when we moved here with a little baby, it was a bit hard for us. Now we have our own vehicle, we settled down our life, and everything is good.”
Zhosan says since she was a teenager it was always a dream of hers to move somewhere with English speakers.
When the war started, Zhosan and her family knew they wanted to move.
“Me and my family, we want to go somewhere where it is safe. And where our kids, they can grow up and they don't be afraid to be what they want to be, to say what they wanna say,” she says. “My family, my kids, I have three boys, actually and they say this is the best school they ever had. I'm just happy that we are here, and I want to thank everyone that helped us and they help every immigrant.”
Anwar explains why his family chose to move to Canada.
“It's generally considered a good place to live due to its high quality of life, excellent education system, the healthcare, and we have a diverse and inclusive society here, so we chose Canada to raise our family in a safer place.”
It will be his family’s first time celebrating Canada Day, and they are very excited.
“Canada has a fascinating history. We really want to celebrate this year because last year we just came in and we had no time to learn about it, and we were busy about settling down. So this year we have a preparation for Canada.”
They are looking forward to celebrating in Vita for Canada Day.
As for Zhosan and her family, their first Canada Day was last year. However, her mom and her brother came to Canada less than half a year ago.
“It will be their first Canada Day and we will wear everything Canada, T-shirts, dresses, everything in Canada.”
They are excited to celebrate Canada Day in Steinbach as they had fun watching the fireworks last year.
With files from Kenton Dyck
Tue, Jul 2, 4:45 PM
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