Finding community key for immigrants with Canadian dreams, new Manitobans say

Chidi Ekuma · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 16, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes ago

Rebecca Ruvando utilized to walk her days successful Zimbabwe dreaming of 1 time emigrating to Canada. 

When the 37-year-old spoke to radical astir the country, they described it arsenic the onshore of anticipation and happiness. Listening to them, Ruvando would ideate what beingness connected the different broadside of the satellite was like, fantasizing astir the time she could move.

In summertime 2023, Ruvando decided to permission her 2 tiny children and hubby and migrate to Canada for school. 

It was a hard decision, but she was assured her prime would pb to a brighter aboriginal for her and her family.

And due to the fact that of the country's divers population, Ruvando expected Canadians to beryllium unfastened to newcomers.

Now surviving successful Winnipeg, the world of beingness successful Canada is acold from the beingness she erstwhile dreamed of.

"Everyone is retired for their ain gain," Ruvando said to CBC. "I did not consciousness welcome. I felt isolated. I felt similar I was connected my own."

Ruvando's communicative echoes the acquisition of different newcomers.

While grateful to beryllium successful Canada, galore Manitoba newcomers accidental they consciousness unwelcome and isolated upon arrival. 

Many besides study favoritism — 3 successful 5 caller Canadians said they've experienced favoritism successful a caller survey conducted by marketplace probe steadfast Pollara Strategic and commissioned by CBC.

It surveyed a tiny illustration size from Manitoba, but Winnipegger Zarreen Barlas said observations of favoritism and feelings of isolation are what she hears connected the ground.    

Barlas, who's portion of the Coalition of Manitoba Cultural Communities for Families, a Winnipeg-based enactment that creates spaces for Manitobans to advocator for the needs of their communities, often hears radical accidental they consciousness similar "second-class citizens."

"When we look astatine radical that person been calved and raised present each the mode to the ones that are newcomers, it's the aforesaid benignant of feeling that you have, that you bash not belong," Barlas said.

"There is simply a precocious level of ignorance that has been carried connected from procreation to procreation and unfortunately, taste communities are affected by this successful their regular lives."

Newcomers often study experiences of xenophobia, racism and feeling unsafe to the non-profit, Barlas said.

The experiences shared with her scope from microaggressive comments astir contention and migration presumption made astatine enactment to acts of carnal violence, she said. 

Not lone bash these experiences exacerbate a feeling of exclusion, but they tin besides beryllium traumatic, she said. 

"This is an ongoing trauma-filled cycle, which truly leads to a much challenged mode of living, erstwhile you don't consciousness a consciousness of belonging successful your ain existence," Barlas told CBC. 

University of Manitoba sociologist Lori Wilkinson researches migration and has been tracking rates of xenophobia successful the country. 

In the past 9 months, she's noticed a crisp summation successful acts of xenophobia, thing that, though alarming, doesn't astonishment her.

She believes the summation tin beryllium attributed to aggregate factors, with large contributors being authorities and the economy. 

"When unemployment goes up, radical thin to go a spot much fearful. But immoderate of our politicians person been contributing to this too," she said. 

"Since immigrants can't vote, it's not politically excessively unsafe for politicians to conscionable simply blasted immigrants for things that person been neglected successful our nine for a agelong time."

Brandon nonmigratory Sofia Frolova, 21, immigrated to Canada from Ukraine 2 years ago. Before moving, she had concerns astir whether she would beryllium accepted.

Community essential

When speaking with newcomers who were already successful Canada, she often heard stories astir mistreatment and isolation.  

"When moving to different country, you someway fearfulness that you're not going to beryllium invited and you're not going to acceptable successful the caller nine that you're coming into," said Frolova, who lived successful antithetic European countries earlier coming to Canada.

For Frolova, the propulsion to travel to Manitoba specifically was due to the fact that she already knew radical surviving here, which has shielded her from a batch of societal struggles different newcomers face, she said.
 
She believes having a consciousness of assemblage is indispensable to having a bully migration experience.

Ruvando agrees.

Some of the moments she felt the astir unsocial were erstwhile she was connected nationalist transit, she said.

For her, it was an aboriginal motion that it would beryllium harder to physique assemblage successful Manitoba than backmost location successful Zimbabwe. 

The archetypal clip she took the bus, she was excited to talk with the radical adjacent to her, thing that is communal successful Zimbabwe. To her surprise, radical either had headphones connected oregon avoided oculus contact. 

Just implicit 1 twelvemonth aft immigrating, Ruvando is yet uncovering her footing, she said. 

In the fall, her children and hubby near Zimbabwe, and joined her successful Canada. 

When she immigrated, she lone knew 1 idiosyncratic successful Winnipeg, but since moving, she's made an effort to turn her community.

Now, erstwhile she walks the streets of her caller home, she feels little alone.