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Canada through new eyes |
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Written by Sherri Gallant LETHBRIDGE HERALD
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Wednesday, July 01 2009, 9:48 PM |
His grandparents and parents were all born in Bhutan, yet the kingdom’s “One Nation, One People” campaign of ethnic cleansing refuses to recognize his family as Bhutanese.
So, after 18 years of living in horrendous conditions at a Nepalese refugee camp, Purnananda Adhikari (called Purna) and his wife Kamala were moved to Lethbridge this spring, to embark upon a new life in Canada. With them, over the past few months, have come others — nearly 30, with 30 more scheduled to arrive soon — all relatives and friends who hailed from two nearby villages in Bhutan before being forced out of the country.
Bhutanese refugees first entered Nepal in 1990 and by 1992, they were pouring in at the rate of 1,000 a day. Now there are seven camps housing as many as 200,000 people - people whose ancestors came to Bhutan in the 19th and early 20th centuries to work as labourers.
Gathered together for a photo at Fort Whoop-Up, where the group of 29 new immigrants began to experience their first Canada Day festivities, they looked like the poster for Canada Day itself.
“When we were at the camp,” said Purna, “we had to live with a lot of difficulties. First of all we were in tents, and after a year or so the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission for Refugees) started giving us materials like bamboo and thatch, to make our homes. So we started making temporary houses. Slowly, we started getting adjusted to the minimum of food that was supplied. We had a lot of difficulties with drinking water and getting vegetables - we had a poor supply and it was not sufficient. Many people had diarrhea and dysentery, the flu. We would see 13, 14 people day every day because they were not provided with proper medicine.
“It was a very tough time for the refugees, especially for those who arrived in the middle of the hot days of summer. Many of the children here were born in the camps, but some of them came from Bhutan as one, two-year-old children and lived there since.”
Finally a year ago, seven countries swung open their doors and the immigration process began. Purna’s group came to Lethbridge because they had a connection here - Hemlal Timsina, who moved to Winnipeg from Nepal 10 years ago with his parents, wife and two children. Hemlal moved to Lethbridge in December, where the winters are milder than in the ‘Peg. He put out the word to his relatives and friends in Nepal that they should come, too.
One group came in December, but were settled in Quebec, where they’ve experienced great difficulty assimilating in the french community where they live. They speak English, but can’t use it there, and the bitter winter led to depression for some, especially the elders.
“In our group, the one that we have got here - the first group came in March,” Purna said. “Still some more are coming in the next month, 30-plus coming.”
After a decade in Winnipeg, Hemlal wanted a warmer place for his parents, who are in their 80s. Housing has been easier to obtain in Lethbridge as well, but is more expensive than in Winnipeg.
“At the end of this year, there will be about 70 people,” said Hemlal, who is a heavy-duty mechanic and a millwright. “I told the people in Nepal, I am here and if you want, you can follow me. And they are coming. But I am happy, because at the end of 20 years, we have been all over the place and it’s a happy feeling, and we’re so happy to be in Canada. It’s such an amazing country.”
Most people in the group speak English well and while many have earned degrees while in the camp, they had virtually no job experience while they were there.
“Actually we do not have any skills,” said Purna. “We only have academic knowledge, but not physical skills as such. We have started looking at training, and we have been to the university. All we have been doing in the camps is teaching and learning. But you can’t do that here. I come from the humanities group, I’ve got my Masters in English literature.”
The Bhutanese group hoped to be able to get to all the Canada Day sites — by bus — so they could see for themselves “what Canadians do on this day,” and were especially eager to take in the fireworks.
Teresa Lawrence is a settlement worker with Lethbridge Family Services Immigrant Services, and said large groups like the Bhutanese contingent are becoming more commonplace.
“The government likes to keep family groups together as much as possible,” said Lawrence, a social worker. “Right now this is our trend, we’re getting large groups. The last one was 15 people - there were more, but sadly some were left behind. In 2007 we had a big wave of Karen refugees, from Burma. They’re stuck in this nowhere land where no one really wants them.”
When refugees come to Canada from different cultures, they have numerous mountains to climb during the one year they receive government assistance.
“Housing used to be a huge challenge, now not so difficult except for cost - I would say the biggest problem is money,” she said.
“They get assistance from the government for a year, and it’s based on our welfare system - so they get no more than our welfare recipients get. So an average couple, without kids, are getting $900 to $1,100 a month to pay for everything they need - food, rent, utilities, bus passes. And it’s not quite enough. I don’t know how anyone could live on it.
“When they’re illiterate in their own country, it makes it that much more difficult for them to get by. Mostly I see that in the older couples. But literacy is being pushed really hard by a lot of cultures, and the U.N. in these camps are really pushing language skills. So most of the kids who are coming in, even if they’re 12 years old, we see them with about five years of education under their belts.”
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