Author: Claire Porter Robbins

It took Aliu Yulah over a month to open the link that his friend sent him, but when he finally did, his life changed forever.

Originally from North-West Cameroon, Aliu fled home due to political unrest and violence. He had been targeted for speaking out against the government and was forced to quickly flee to Nigeria after he was identified, in order to protect his family. The experience was extremely emotional and difficult, forcing him to say goodbye to his family and leave without being able to pack much more than a couple of pieces of clothing. Painfully, Aliu was also forced to abandon the small business he had built over many years of hard work, installing fire prevention equipment and alarm systems.

In Nigeria, Aliu settled into Lagos and began looking for work as a refugee. He had no friends or family in Lagos but was able to connect with fellow refugees to support one another. For three years, he found jobs with his training from Cameroon in electrical systems and fire alarm installation. But the work wasn’t reliable or challenging enough for his advanced skill-set and education, and the cost of living in Lagos was prohibitively expensive.

That’s when Aliu’s friend recommended looking at TalentLift: the link that took him over a month to open. “My friend knew I had a hard time starting over in Nigeria, but he said I should look into more options for working abroad, and I should talk with the people at TalentLift,” Aliu says.

When he first logged into the TalentLift platform, Aliu says he was surprised by how many employers in Canada were looking for people with his fire alarm systems skillset. The shortage of skilled tradespeople in Canada has attracted employers to look outside the country for their labour needs, specifically for industry-specific skills – Aliu fit the exact needs the fire prevention and safety industry was needing. Ultimately, he connected with Everguard, a pan-Canadian fire and life safety sales and service company in 2023.

Everguard’s Kamloops team was looking for a technician at just the same time Aliu was looking to start anew. Connecting in interviews, Aliu says he was drawn to the company’s culture. Googling the city helped to seal his interest. “I love taking long walks in nature after a long day’s work – something that’s hard to do in Lagos. The mountain and forest areas of Kamloops look beautiful,” he says.

After leaving behind his business in Cameroon, he’s looking forward to building his career again in Canada. “It will be a learning process for me, but I will also be contributing what I’ve learned in the past years,” he says, referencing the broad types of work he did in Nigeria while stringing together odd jobs.

Aliu is particularly grateful he decided to finally look into TalentLift that day: “They really give people hope, a spectrum of light. They set you up for success.”

TalentLift is a step in a journey opened by the Everguard team. Facing a shortage of available trained and skilled fire protection technicians in Canada, they had the vision to find a new team member in Aliu. Someone with talent, resilience, and the energy to build himself a new community – and hike around it too. 

Candidates living in refugee circumstances and seeking a job in Canada can join TalentLift. Employers seeking global talent while engaging their team in something transformative can start hiring.

When Lucie arrived at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on a cold day in February 2024, she felt as though a weight had been lifted off of her. Passing through customs, immigration and baggage, she says she felt close to crying: the process was so straightforward, and the fact that she was treated with respect by the immigration authorities was so unfamiliar to her.

After living most of her life in South Africa as a refugee from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lucie had become used to facing constant hurdles and challenges to secure papers, employment and even a bank account and credit card. “In South Africa, jobs are pretty much only available for citizens, and my refugee papers were an obstacle – employers there are not comfortable hiring or promoting someone from another country.”

Her journey to Canada serves as stark contrast from her experience there. After losing her customer service job in South Africa during the pandemic, and struggling to find full-time, adequately compensated work, she finally began to explore the idea of moving to a country where she would be embraced.

For years, she says, she’d dreamt of Toronto, hearing about the vibrancy of the city and the openness of Canada. Looking through the Government of Canada’s website, she saw the link to TalentLift and decided to build out a profile for herself, without knowing whether or not it would lead to any opportunities.

But Lucie’s experience in digital marketing and customer service, in addition to her fluency in French and English, immediately intrigued a hiring manager at Round13 Capital. The investment firm, which is headquartered in Toronto and focuses on growing the Canadian technology ecosystem, had identified TalentLift as a partner to build out their team and meet their human resources needs.

After liaising with TalentLift, Round13 was able to offer Lucie a role as a Social Media Coordinator and Office Administrator in the fall of 2023. Despite her excitement, after nearly a lifetime of dealing with the obstacles of being a refugee in South Africa, she wasn’t able to breathe easy until arriving in Toronto. “I just feel like Canada knows how to deal with refugees, and everyone was so friendly, even on the subway when I had questions.”

Since February, Lucie says Toronto has been exactly what she was searching for. She says her colleagues at Round13 have been incredibly supportive of her journey, and are encouraging her to expand her knowledge of finance and venture capital so she can take on more responsibilities for the firm. Outside of her work, she’s found community through church and by enrolling in a gym, and is looking forward to discovering Toronto’s summer festivals.

One of her coworkers at Round13 even helped her find housing, with roommates she says have become fast friends. “I could not have found better people for my new life, from friends to colleagues to housemates,” she says. “Right from my first day in Canada I learned people here are kind and want to help.”

Candidates living in refugee circumstances and seeking a job in Canada can join TalentLift. Employers seeking global talent while engaging their team in something transformative can start hiring.

Kadija always knew she wanted to be a nurse, ever since she was a young girl in Somalia taking care of her grandmother, but she never knew her dream could take her across the ocean.

“We didn’t have family members with medical education, so becoming a nurse was a big aspiration for me,” she says, made even more complicated by the violence of the civil war in Somalia.

In 2008, Kadija and her aunt left their home and claimed refugee status in Ethiopia. Despite the difficult conditions in the camp, Kadija continued to work hard at her dream, excelling at school and earning a scholarship to university to study nursing. Things were not easy – Kadija notes that the university had electricity 24 hours a day, which was a luxury compared to the rest of the camp where she lived.

Despite the difficulties, Kadija stood out among her peers for her passion and hard work. “The professors knew I was a refugee, and they supported and encouraged me even more,” she says. She thrived in her nursing program, ultimately receiving top grades in pediatrics and obstetrics. But her lifelong passion, for providing dignified and expert care for elderly patients, is what made her profile attractive to recruiters in Newfoundland and Labrador.

After being in contact with TalentLift Canada, and facilitated by a UNHCR staff member, Kadija was shortly thereafter connected to the Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services. The province, which has a labour shortage, is in need of talented and passionate medical staff like Kadija to care for their aging population. The partnership between TalentLift and the provincial health authority has been a natural fit – matching educated and skilled people in refugee situations with the hospitals and care homes in the province, and has so far resulted in 46 matches, including Kadija.

Kadija will move to Canada in the coming months, and will begin work as a Personal Care Attendant at a care home in Mount Pearl, a community outside St. John’s. She is also planning on picking up her studies again, to further her medical skillset and knowledge, particularly in the area of gynaecology and women’s health. While she is nervous about leaving her aunt, she says she’s most looking forward to getting to work, to showing her new patients the high level of care she’s passionate about and has developed a knack for over the years. “I like taking patients for walks and helping with their medication and nutrition – it’s their time to receive the love and care our mothers gave us,” she says.

While her working life in Mount Pearl will be a continuation of the high quality of nursing she’s been doing for years, there’s one significant and new experience she’s looking forward to: “I’ve never been to the ocean. I can’t wait to see it.”

Join a community of pioneering hiring teams across Canada. Start hiring with TalentLift.

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Candidates living in refugee circumstances and seeking a job in Canada can join TalentLift. Employers seeking global talent while engaging their team in something transformative can start hiring.

Every day in Canada, Josh Mesa says, is like “heaven.”

After years of coping with uncertainty and struggling to make ends meet for his family as a refugee and labourer in Trinidad and Tobago, Josh, a successful TalentLift candidate now working for Area52 in New Brunswick, says he can’t stop counting his blessings.

Originally from Cuba, Josh and his wife Amy worked for many years as accountants before deciding that the economic crisis in Cuba would never allow their family to thrive, let alone be conducive to a minimum standard of living.

They made the decision to flee Cuba in 2018 and became refugees in Trinidad and Tobago, where they could not find work other than casual labour, stocking shelves, and picking fruit. It took Josh and Amy two years to save enough wages to purchase a laptop, after which he promptly began enrolling in programming and coding courses so that he could apply for better work and possibly immigrate. “I wanted a better life for my family, and especially my daughter,” he says.

However, even with their hard work in Trinidad and Tobago and Josh’s in-demand technology skills, finding a pathway to a better life proved incredibly difficult. The couple tried for many years to seek out different forms of migration. On December 2, 2021, after grueling years of working casual, physical jobs without formal refugee status, they felt they had run out of options and booked plane tickets to Central America, with the intention of walking to the US or Canada and claiming asylum.

Fortunately, fate intervened. The very next day, on December 3 (a date Josh says he’ll never forget), the Canadian government announced another phase of an economic mobility pathway program that Josh and Amy qualified for, despite their lack of official status. In the months after, Josh connected with Area52, an innovative New Brunswick-based company that helps seafood processing companies automate their workflow. After conducting interviews, they were impressed with Josh’s technical and programming expertise, and his bright, warm personality, but unclear on how to facilitate a move to Canada.

After connecting with TalentLift staff, who provided guidance and support on the paperwork, Area52 felt confident enough in the sponsorship process to offer Josh employment and make his move to Canada happen, along with his wife and daughter.

Three years after they first found out Canada could be an option for them, the family is now thriving. At first, Josh was concerned his daughter, who is in grade seven, would struggle to fit in because of her lack of English. But now he says, almost a year after their move, she chats fluently with her new friends and is learning guitar on an instrument given by one of Josh’s coworkers as a ‘Welcome to Canada’ gift. Amy began to study and became licensed in financial planning. She’s working with an insurance company while studying for further qualifications in the field.

When asked to reflect on how much their life has turned around in the past ten months, after years of struggle in Cuba and Trinidad and Tobago, Josh says it’s difficult to express the entirety of his emotions. “TalentLift was a blessing for us; they reached us at the moment when we most needed it.”

He hopes more Canadian employers will connect with TalentLift to learn how they can take on more employees from refugee situations. “When TalentLift takes on a candidate, they will do anything for them. The team is so humble, kind and confident. I feel like they’re family, and they treat us likewise.”

Join a community of pioneering hiring teams across Canada. Start hiring with TalentLift.

“You can’t sit down with me for more than a couple of minutes without me telling you that I’m a nurse,” says Abapi, calling from her home in Abuja, Nigeria. “Because when I let people know I’m a nurse, I’m indirectly letting them know I love, I care, and I have compassion, and whatever needs you have, you can share with me.”

“There’s no human being on earth that doesn’t need a nurse in their lifetime.”

For Abapi, nursing is more than a profession, it’s an intrinsic component of her identity – influencing everything from the way she talks to people on the street to how she derives meaning in her life.

Originally from Cameroon, Abapi fled after civil war and insecurity made it nearly impossible to do the work she loved. Militants took over the hospitals she worked at and harassed medical staff at their homes, and she worried about her future and the safety of her young niece.

So together, they made the long journey to Nigeria, where Abapi had hoped the stability would offer a fresh start for the two of them. Unfortunately, she says, “life in Nigeria is intimidating – it was very difficult to get a license to practice, and coming from Cameroon, I have to work for less pay than other nurses.”

“At some points, I even started selling fruit on the street to make ends meet.”

Despite the challenges, she still volunteered her skills to other people living in refugee situations, travelling around Nigeria to provide free healthcare in internally displaced and refugee camps.

While filing her own refugee status paperwork one day, she was chatting with an administrator in the office who had a runny nose. Offering some advice as a nurse, the administrator asked why she didn’t consider moving to a place like Canada, which needed caring nurses like Abapi.

“I had never thought that I could practice nursing abroad,” she says. “Leaving my refugee situation felt like an impossible task.”

Someone else in the office overheard, and recommended she look at TalentLift. Abapi says she assumed trying to immigrate to Canada would be prohibitively expensive, so she was surprised when she learnt that employers in Canada might be willing to sponsor her journey. She specifically zeroed in on Canada because, as she says, “I know that Canadians are really friendly, and they really respect nurses and appreciate what we do.”

After interviewing and conversations with her niece, who is now 15-years old, Abapi decided to take an offer from Chancellor Park, a long-term care facility in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. Like many healthcare providers, and especially those based in the Maritimes, Chancellor Park had struggled to recruit staff locally.

That shortage of talented healthcare staff had led Chancellor Park to recruit staff multiple times through TalentLift. When Abapi arrives in the coming months, she’ll join several colleagues who have likewise left refugee settings to start a new life in St. John’s.

Through working with all ages and abilities as a general practice nurse, she developed a passion for elder care while caring for her own grandmother at the end of her life. She says the experience reinforced her view that being a nurse is as much about love and compassion as it is about medical care.

She’s looking forward to bringing that same zeal for building connections with Chancellor Park’s elderly residents. “I want to help make it one of the best senior’s homes in St John’s, and have all our patients recommend it.”

“I am so grateful for TalentLift for the inception of this idea to help refugees like me. My hope was lost for a while before TalentLift,” Abapi says.

“Thank you for seeing the potential in me.”

Join a community of pioneering hiring teams across Canada. Start hiring with TalentLift.

With the support of the Scotiabank ScotiaRISE initiative, TalentLift has built a talent platform for displaced job seekers to self-register, develop job-readiness, and connect to transformative job and relocation opportunities to Canada. Learn more.

“For me,” says Sabri, “being a nurse is not just a profession, but it is a calling – filled with countless rewards and fulfilling experiences.”

Speaking from his home in the Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya, Sabri Musa, a healthcare professional and father of two small children is reflecting on the career that he has shaped his life around, and the journey it is about to take him on.

In a couple of months, Sabri and his family will move to Durham, Ontario, so that Sabri can begin working as a Personal Support Worker for SE Health, a national not-for-profit healthcare provider that operates in private homes, community care homes, long-term care homes, and hospitals across Canada.

Sabri first connected with SE Health through TalentLift, which he learnt of while searching for opportunities to use his healthcare skills abroad on LinkedIn. Having fled Sudan years ago, he knew that opportunities for people with refugee status in Kenya could be limited, and was looking to raise his children in Canada, where they could have a better foundation. Authorities created Kakuma camp in 1992 initially to house people who left Sudan for safety, but it persists today, and is home to more than 200,000. 

After interviewing with SE Health, Sabri accepted an offer to join their team as a Personal Support Worker at a care home in Durham, working with elderly people. The role, he says, will align well with his passion for providing support to patients of all ages who have conditions related to mental health, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), autism, Cerebral Palsy and others.

No matter the patient’s needs, Sabri says the most rewarding aspect of his work is being able to provide companionship in what can be difficult moments for his patients. “I always wish to make people feel better with my companionship and interactions. Making meaningful connections with patients on a personal level, understanding their needs, and being there for them is my rejoice,” he says.

While working as a special needs and physical therapy caregiver in Kakuma throughout the past years, Sabri has made it a priority to consistently upgrade his skillset, taking courses in art therapy, counselling skills, and conflict resolution. “Promoting healing by offering emotional support is a crucial role for a caregiver, and I never dreamed of how much it could improve individual well-being.”

Advocating for the inclusion of people with disabilities in Kakuma and in Kenyan society more broadly has also been an important part of Sabri’s journey as a caregiver. Having seen the impacts of ableist discrimination through his patients’ experiences, he worked with others in the camp to hold an awareness campaign about inclusion and disability rights.

He’s planning to take on more learning opportunities when he arrives in Canada. 

“I look forward to advancing my career growth opportunities by joining training and education programs. Being in a workplace with diversity and inclusion at SE Health will help me to grow as an individual,” he said, noting that it’s not just about his own learning and success. “It’s about improving my work and living so that my children will have better access to education and health care.”

Join a community of pioneering hiring teams across Canada. Start hiring with TalentLift.With the support of the Scotiabank ScotiaRISE initiative, TalentLift has built a talent platform for displaced job seekers to self-register, develop job-readiness, and connect to transformative job and relocation opportunities to Canada. Learn more.

For Najeebullah, the long, arduous journey from Afghanistan to Canada has been worth it to see the laughter and smiles on his daughters’ faces as they cruise around the first playground they’ve ever had the chance to play on.

An electrical engineer by training, Najeeb and his wife and daughters were forced to leave Afghanistan when the Taliban took over, seeking refuge in Pakistan. Mid-way through a master’s degree in electrical engineering and involved in several community initiatives in Afghanistan, the transition to life in Pakistan was not easy. Najeeb was not qualified to work as an engineer in the new country, and uncertainty over the future for his wife Shukria, and their daughters hung over him.

In early 2022, at a virtual career fair put on by a humanitarian group looking to support Afghan refugees, Najeeb learnt about TalentLift. For years, he had worked with Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, an NGO that advocates for women’s rights and education in Afghanistan. He knew from his work with the non-profit that Canada would be a better place for his daughters to grow and thrive, and now he had the chance to use his talents and education to get them there.

After careful consideration with Shukria, Najeeb interviewed for, and ultimately accepted an engineering position with Finest Telecommunication, a fibre-optic installation firm in London, Ontario.

A little more than one year later, in April 2023, Najeeb and his family landed in Canada, greeted by the Finest Telecommunication team and TalentLift staff member Zahra’a. 

For Najeeb, it was a relief to be able to use his education and training again with Finest Telecommunication, installing and repairing fibre optic cables at job sites across southern Ontario. “It was a gift for me to be back to work in my field, and to learn new things in the field of fibre in Canada,” he says.

His colleagues have been incredibly welcoming and supportive as he and his family settle in. Najeeb and Shukria have now earned their driver’s licenses, and she is taking English lessons at the local YMCA, which provides childcare for their youngest daughter. As a fashion designer and skilled tailor back in Afghanistan, she is hoping to open up her business again soon.

Their eldest daughter, now seven years old, struggled in her first month of school in London, but now Najeeb says, “she’s coming home from school every day telling me about a new best friend and all the things she learned in gym class.”

These sorts of opportunities for women could not be possible for his family back in Afghanistan, and that fact has motivated Najeeb’s continued involvement in education and women’s rights causes. Back in Afghanistan, he helped to co-found the Dehkada Library, a rural library and education centre which promotes literacy for all genders. The library is supported a variety of donors including Canadian Women for Women in Afghanistan, which Najeeb continues to work for, organizing fundraisers and awareness events, and coordinating a program for virtual learning for Afghans, called Darakht-e Danesh.

Even though the family has only been in Canada for a couple of months, Najeeb and Shukria have begun to take on a leadership role in the community, getting ready to welcome new Afghan families to London this summer.

Their schedule is busy, between Najeeb’s work with Finest Telecommunication, and Shukria’s English lessons. But they still find time to relish the freedom of life in Canada. “Our girls make sure we spend a lot of time at the playground, dancing and playing”.

Join a community of pioneering hiring teams across Canada. Start hiring with TalentLift.

With the support of the Scotiabank ScotiaRISE initiative, TalentLift has built a talent platform for displaced job seekers to self-register, develop job-readiness, and connect to transformative job and relocation opportunities to Canada. Learn more.

For Abdulaziz, an upcoming move to Ontario is about more than a career-related relocation: it’s about creating a fresh start and building a future for his young children.

Originally from Syria, Abdulaziz was once an economics student in Aleppo before the Syrian civil war turned the country upside down, forcing Abdulaziz to seek refugee status in Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

Unable to resume his studies in Iraqi universities due to discrimination against migrants and upheaval due to the encroachment of Daesh in Northern Iraq, Abdulaziz says he was searching for a way to support his wife Ruqaya, and their young family, and to build a sense of normalcy.

Looking to train as a skilled tradesperson, he found he had a knack for programming and carving as a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Machinist and Fabricator. The role, which involves automating the work of machine tools through the use of computer software, is an in-demand skill in industries that manufacture metals, stone, and plastic. At a factory in Erbil, Abdulaziz rose up the ranks to manage a team of seven, and even take on a sales capacity.

But even as he progressed in his career, Abdulaziz was not certain Iraq was where he and Ruqaya wanted to raise their son and daughter. So he sought out opportunities for migration for skilled workers, and ultimately connected with TalentLift through partner organization Talent Beyond Boundaries.

His proficiency with CNC machine work, and his experience running a factory is what made Abdulaziz stand out to a number of employers in the TalentLift network – and particularly Allstone Quarry Products. Based out of Schomberg, Ontario, Allstone produces and sells stone products like tile and brick for builders and landscapers. Shortages of skilled labour, particularly in the trades, has long been a stumbling point for industrial employers in Canada. Allstone in particular was in need of a skilled stone carver, and had likewise connected with TalentLift to seek out qualified CNC Machinists. After interviewing with the Allstone team, Abdulaziz received a job offer, and the chance at a new life in Canada for himself and his family.

For Abdulaziz, the question of uprooting his life once again was not easy. He had intentionally sought out opportunities to move his young family to a more peaceful country, but when the offer came in, it was still an emotionally fraught decision for him and Ruqaya to make. As a father, Abdulaziz knew that life in Iraq for people living under refugee circumstances comes with harsh difficulties, including political instability and discrimination against people with refugee status.

“But moving to a different country, it’s a very difficult thing,” Abdulaziz said, reflecting on how much his life has changed since moving from Aleppo ten years ago. “But I can do difficult things.”

Ultimately, it was Abdulaziz’s young family who inspired him to take the leap and sign on for the move to Schomberg, Ontario to work for Allstone. With a three-year old daughter and five-year old son, Abdulaziz says he and Ruqaya were highly motivated to have their kids experience quality public education. Once he’s settled in, Abdulaziz says he too might explore ways to pick up where he left off in his economics education, a passion he says hasn’t left him since his student years.

He’s also particularly excited that his kids will get to know his brother and his cousin in Ottawa, who like so many in the Syrian diaspora, have been separated for years amidst the war.

Abdulaziz says his relatives offered the greatest encouragement for him to take the job offer, after they spoke so highly about life in Canada for young families. “My children are the most important thing in my life right now, and I wanted them to live in a country that really cares about their futures.”

“Refugees like me are so grateful to the companies that give them a chance, and they will also give their best to Canada and to these companies.”

Join a community of pioneering hiring teams across Canada. Start hiring with TalentLift.

With the support of the Scotiabank ScotiaRISE initiative, TalentLift has built a talent platform for displaced job seekers to self-register, develop job-readiness, and connect to transformative job and relocation opportunities to Canada. Learn more.