COVER STORY
EMERGING FROM COVID-19
Canadian immigrants share their experiences during these pandemic times By Baisakhi Roy
A
s the world continues to learn to deal with the COVID-19 Kandiller acknowledges that she is luckier than most in finding pandemic, the newcomer and immigrant communities in employment in the field of her choice and that both she and her Canada are facing unique challenges of their own and finding husband, Yigit, have had the benefit of government support. ways to cope. COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on employment in While more recent arrivals to Canada are learning to deal with new Canada, with over one million jobs lost in March alone. In response, jobs, paying rent, income insecurity and building a social network in this in April, the federal government created the Canada Emergency environment of social distancing, some more established immigrants Response Benefit (CERB), providing $2,000 every four weeks to are working hard to keep their businesses going. The challenges created those have stopped working for reasons related to COVID-19. If the by the pandemic have led to new government assistance programs, situation continues, those who are eligible can re-apply for CERB a focus on mental health and innovative offerings from settlement every four weeks, for up to a total of 24 weeks till October 2020. agencies serving immigrants. Yigit is also able to access the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB), also launched in April, which provides financial support to Working through a lockdown post-secondary students and recent post-secondary and high school Like many parents, Ukranian-born Oksana Kandiller has found it hard to respond to her three-year-old asking when she’d be able to meet her friends at daycare again. Kandiller, her husband and daughter moved to Canada in October 2019 and were just about settling down into their new lives when the lockdown happened. “The hardest part of this entire experience so far has been that my husband and I haven’t been able to give our child the attention she craves and deserves at this age,” says Kandiller. With daycares shut, the couple is struggling to keep up with office work, studies and household chores, not to mention keeping their child in good spirits. “She’s a very sociable kid and fits in very well at her daycare. She misses her friends and when she asks us tearfully when all this will end, we have no answers for her. It’s hard,” she says. Kandiller recently found a job as a finance manager with a Toronto non-profit, Aangen, while her husband started an online course in logistics and supply chain management at Seneca College. Finding the job through the Chance for Change Program at Aangen, a program which supports marginalized members of the community by providing them with job opportunities, was a godsend for her. 8
CANADIAN IMMIGRANT Volume 17 Issue 3 | 2020
Oksana Kandiller with her husband Yigit
