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First Day of School: The Story of Iman's Son's First Day of School in Canada
Exploring Multiculturalism as a way of life
This portrait follows the story of Marwa Ali, a German teacher in London, Ontario. She was born in Egypt, where she spent her childhood, and had the opportunity to attend a German school. In this video she talks about what her experience has been coming to Canada and how growing up with the Egyptian and German cultures has affected her mindset. After a break, she is now living again in Canada and will explain how her multiculturalism has been an asset and how open-mindedness is important in our modern life.
(Re)building a Career in Canada: A Story of Determination, Resilience and Success
Salah (Sal) Al-Jajah is an architect who specializes in 3D rendering. After a successful career in Lebanon designing buildings in Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Erbil, Iraq, Egypt, England and France, Sal and his family immigrated to Canada in 2014. Sal recognized that his talent in rendering was “missing from the market” in Canada and was determined to seek out a job in London, Ontario. After knocking on many unopened doors, Sal ‘s unrelenting determination provided him with a chance to prove himself. In this video, Sal shares his success in “rebuilding” his career in Canada from start to finish. This video explores the challenges of finding employment in Canada as an immigrant. Sal’s story nuances themes of perseverance, dedication and familial love as he attempts to support his wife and three children. Sal’s success adds to the discourse surrounding immigration in Canada, by challenging stereotypes and prejudices related to immigrants in the Canadian workforce.
Journey of an Arabic Migration with Loay
Loay’s immigration story is a unique one in that he came from another multicultural region in Dubai, U.A.E. Once an 8-year-old boy when he immigrated, he is now a 20 year old student in the field of computer engineering. He explains that integration in Canada was also made easier by his parents as he was enrolled in Islamic elementary and secondary schools. However, he emphasizes how his life and experiences have changed since leaving the Islamic school system and attending Western University and Fanshawe College now.
Creating Bridges: An Interview with Ziyad Ali
Al Bilad newspaper is an Arabic-English newspaper distributed in London, Mississauga and Hamilton. It was started by two business partners: Laith Al Hamadani and Ziad Ali. In this video, I interview Ziad Ali, who is also the editor in chief of the English section of Al Bilad newspaper. Al Bilad relays news from the Middle East and also contains news from Canada. You can see how Al Bilad provides bridges to people who are and would like to know about the Middle East, so that they are still intact, while also keeping up with Canadian news. In this interview I ask Ziad Ali questions about why he decided to found Al Bilad and how he deals with bias concerning choice of topics. I also ask him about his role and duty as an imam/khateeb at al Hayyat mosque (shown on the video). He likes to teach and he believes he can provide bridges by relaying knowledge and news.