Christina and her son Alexander moved with her husband Alex from Brazil. Adrian St.Onge/CHAT News

By Adrian St.Onge

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As Hatters are set to watch the Canada Day celebrations, new Canadians are feeling right at home in the community.

In Canada on a work visa and working towards permanent residency, Alex and Cristiane Almeida moved from Brazil late last year with their son, Alexander.

The family said that everyone in Medicine Hat, both Canadian-born and immigrants, have been welcoming and accepting with open arms.

“The way that our family is it’s been quite easy to us to to be to be friends with the people born Canadians,” Alex said.

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“People from other countries too. She [Cristiane] just got a friend from Korea and the other Brazilians here as well. I met a lot of people from other other countries and people are being very well receptive here,”

Cristiane said that part of the appeal of Canada was the amount of safety for her son.

She said that back in Brazil, she would not let her son out of her sight because of the risks and now, he takes the bus to school himself and is allowed to walk to the park by himself.

Now, the plan is to stay in Medicine Hat.

“My family lives with me in Canada, so this is what I consider home now. It’s been a short period, but this is definitely the plan. I plan to retire here, to stay here,” Alex said.

Alex and Cristiane both emphasized the importance of newcomers to adapt to a Canadian way of life, being open-minded and accepting of all cultures and religions.

Cristiane said that moving to Canada has given her and her family to start over, but with the life experience they already have.

“Like it’s an opportunity to start over, but with the experience that you already have. That thought that people have, ‘Oh if I was 18 with the knowledge that I have today’,” Christina said.

“So we’re kind of starting again and it’s hard, a new life from kind of from scratch here because we didn’t know anything, but now we have the opportunity like to check everything and to do things better and to learn new things.”

Cristiane said that Canada is a very accepting place and that typically, everyone has been very warm and receptive.

“I think that it would not be hard to sell because everybody knows that you have a great place here. You have great country and the quality of life and the people that you have here,” Cristiane said.

“So we’re here like to add and not to take something from the country, You know, many newcomers want to give you something back,” she said.

“I would ask people to look the person that is coming with good eyes and give them opportunity to show what they’re here for because not all of immigrants just want to take something from the country.”