City Centre Helps Immigrants Adjust

CARING MATTERS

Published Thursday November 29th, 2007
Appeared on page B8

Welcome to Canada!
These were the first words Ivana Vukic-Lepir, her husband, Dragan Lepir, and Djordje, their 15-month-old son, heard as they stepped off the plane in Fredericton on Dec 5, 1997.
The warm welcome was given by a rep of the Multicultural Association of Fredericton.
Vukic-Lepir's family is from the former Yugoslavia, she from Serbia, her husband from Bosnia. Both are trained electrical engineers who found themselves trying to recover from a devastating war in their country in the early 90s.
At the time, says Vukic-Lepir, Canada had a very good program for refugees. Seeing little hope of their former country offering them a bright future, they applied to come to Canada and were accepted. Canada's immigration officials assigned them to Fredericton where they met the wonderful work of the multicultural association.
Being in a new country and not knowing the culture, customs and traditions can be overwhelming.
But Vukic-Lepir says the association really helped make easier their re-location to a new country. It all began with that airport meeting with the rep who helped them find a hotel for the first few nights.
Without that help, Vukic-Lepir said she is not sure how she would have fared. Vukic-Lepir spoke English but her husband did not. The association offers English language classes for newcomers from the very basic to more advanced levels.
When newcomers don't speak the language, coping is even more difficult. It's hard even to get basic needs met. In the last year, the association has helped more than 300 settlement clients with the top countries for immigrants being Korea, Dominican Republic, Congo, Iran, Colombia, China, Burundi and Liberia.
They also found help at the association with child care for their young son, happily under the same roof as the language training. That also gave him a chance to meet playmates.
Once the language classes were underway, they began to search for jobs. Vukic-Lepir says they moved here for opportunity and wanted to find rewarding careers in their field.
The association helped them with employment resources and how to write a resume, network and interview in the Canadian work world, invaluable skills once the job hunt began in earnest.
But jobs didn't come easily, and they toyed with the notion of moving to a larger centre such as Toronto or Montreal. They even visited cities where there are a variety of immigrant communities to network with people of similar experiences and cultural backgrounds.
But Vukic-Lepir grew up in a smaller town and wanted to stay in Fredericton, despite the pull of big-city opportunities. With the help of the association, Vukic-Lepir and her husband kept looking for work and after several months of searching found careers they are still working at.
The multicultural association helps many newcomers to Canada. As well as the big-ticket items such as accommodation, language and employment, the association assigns a settlement worker who can explain some of the more basic aspects of a new culture: how to open a bank account, how to find a doctor, how to apply for a social insurance number and a driver's licence.
The centre often pairs new families with a volunteer family who can introduce them to activities in the city as well as help them develop a network.
Vukic-Lepir is so grateful for the association's help in settling into her new home, that she now volunteers there and helps other newcomers adjust to a new country.
For more information on the Multicultural Association of Fredericton, visit their website at www.mcaf.nb.ca.