News

Welcome to the Spooky Season, Canadian Newcomers! If this is your first October in Canada, you might be wondering why your neighbours are decorating their homes with skulls, ghosts and giant spider webs. This is for one of Canada’s favourite holidays: Halloween, celebrated on October 31st every year. And what does “Spooky” mean? It is a playful slang word for “scary” which suggests that it really is not scary at all.

As October unfolds in Canada, you will see pots of colourful asters and pumpkins of all sizes decorating front porches, cafe’s, stores and even workplaces. These represent the last harvest before winter arrives as we prepare for Thanksgiving and Halloween. Many newcomers are familiar with pumpkins as vegetables in savoury dishes, but not as decor, let alone a flavour in lattes and an ingredient in sweet foods like muffins and pie! But as an immigrant’s daughter, I assure you, Thanksgiving is an easy holiday to adapt to, and you don’t have to drink pumpkin spice lattes or decorate with pumpkins to celebrate, but your kids will likely beg you to. 

This week, Centre for Skills celebrates Welcoming Week by hosting an online event on Friday, September 15th at 10:00 am. 

Welcoming Week is an annual opportunity to recognize and celebrate the people, places and values that help everyone feel welcome and give them a sense of belonging in their local community, no matter where they come from. 

I came to Canada 10 years ago as an immigrant from Pakistan. I know first-hand the kind of struggles and challenges newcomers face such as learning the local language, and how to adapt to all the little things that are so different in Canada, such as writing a Canadian styled resume! If you are a newcomer looking for some tips, I will give you some from my personal experience.

Imagine you’ve researched and practiced all week for an interview for a job in your field and you felt your interview went very well! However, you discover that the other candidate got the job. Why? Because your educational credentials had not been assessed. The employer thereby, did not know if your educational background matched the requirements of the company. I’ve heard of this happening over the years from so many newcomers and it’s very unfortunate. My goal is to see all clients succeed and not miss out on any opportunities, so get your credentials assessed!

When I first came to Canada, everyone was talking about volunteering. Mostly all my friends recommended me to volunteer. But why? I didn’t understand what was so important about it. I used to do a lot of volunteering back home before coming to Canada, however, it was not as emphasized as much as here.  

What is so important about volunteering?  

For newcomers to Canada the first few days often go by with a flurry of emotions; confusion, excitement, fear, relief, worry, happiness, sadness. Jet lag wears off in a day or so, and before you know it you might be ready to start exploring your options, learning about your new environment and figuring out what are the next steps you should be taking to start building your new life in Canada. Settling in and beginning a new life in a new country is never an easy task, but having a plan or a to do list is always helpful to achieving your goals and this is no different.

Newcomers arrive in Canada every day. Canada aims to welcome 421,000 new permanent residents in 2023. Some are fleeing for their lives, some are re-uniting with their families, some come temporarily to work and some immigrate for business. No matter where they are from or how and why they came to Canada, newcomers all share a somewhat universal immigrant experience.  

Here’s a story about Katarzyna and her family's journey to calling Canada home. 

Join us in celebrating and welcoming newcomers to Halton Region!