Meet Daniele,a Brazilian of dutch heritage who loved the idea of travelling and learning new languages and ended up in Switzerland on an internship. After meeting and falling in love in Switzerland, Daniele and her husband returned home to Brazil, but several years later, they made the decision to move to Canada, where they began the arduous work of obtaining post-graduate degrees and completing their Canadian immigration applications. The couple arrived to Canada during the height of the pandemic in March 2020; learn about their trial and tribulations of finding employment and settling.

On this episode Amin, a former Information and Referral Specialist at the Newcomer Information Centre at the Y, talks to Daniele about her dream to live in Canada, her immigration experience, and how she ended up in Ottawa.

“[…]the language, not being able to speak the language. You feel that you don't fit, you don't feel part of that community. […] So as much as you can prepare in terms of the language, in terms of knowing what you are going to face […] And in that sense, I've encouraged every newcomer to really look for newcomer centers or for employment centers, to really have to use those services that are offered for free by the government, especially to integrate […] into the society.”- Daniele

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Newcomer Information Centre (NIC) website

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Language Assessment and Referral Centre website

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Meet Irene, a mother of two who never gave up on her dream to move to Canada. After years of planning, hard work and dedication, she received an offer for employment in Canada but almost didn’t take it. After she was reminded about how opportunities can be fleeting by her husband, she decided to follow her dream. Shortly after, Irene, her husband and children settled in Edmundston, New Brunswick.

On this episode, Fereshteh, an Employment Consultant for the YMCA talks to Irene about her dream to live in Canada, her immigration experience, and how she ended up in Ottawa.

“the limits of your dreams are in your mind”- Irene

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Newcomer Information Centre (NIC) website

NIC Facebook

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Meet Marshall, a lover of soccer, food, cooking and a civil engineer who moved from his home country, India, to Dubai the hub of civil engineering and finally settled in Canada.

On this episode, Yalda, an outreach worker for the YMCA talks to Marshal about his immigration experience to Canada, his reasons for moving from the hub of civil engineering to Canada and his experience using YMCA-YWCA post arrival services to land his first job within his first month of living in Canada.

This is an insightful episode on career transition.

“For people applying for Canada, I would say you are not going to regret it. I have definitely not been regretting it. I've been thankful for every minute that I've been here, and I'm enjoying it.”- Marshel

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