Refugees hoping to become citizens face high bar to achieve language benchmarks
SURREY, B.C. — Fatum Ibrahim is pointing to her nose and smiling ear-to-ear.
“Nose,” she proudly pronounces, eager to demonstrate her expanding English vocabulary.
Three years ago, a day shy of Valentine’s Day, 36-year old Ibrahim and seven family members landed in Surrey, B.C., as part of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s signature Syrian Refugee Initiative. She didn’t know a word of English, nor could she read or write in her native Arabic.
Despite taking language classes four days a week, she has a long way to go to meet the English-language requirement for Canadian citizenship. While her mom, dad, grandmother and two school-age brothers are eligible to become citizens this year, she and two other adult siblings, who also never learned to read or write, will not be. Without a passport, they are stuck in Canada, unable to visit the six siblings they left behind in Turkey.