You are now in the main content area

From refugee to master’s degree

Through a long ordeal, Immigration and Settlement Studies graduate focused on the positive
By: Will Sloan
June 03, 2016
Nadjib Alamyar

Photo: Nadjib Alamyar could barely speak English when he arrived in Canada in 2008. He now works as a settlement counsellor for Canadian newcomers. Photo by Clifton Li.

Nadjib Alamyar was 10 years old when the Taliban took over in Afghanistan in 1996. Through underground channels, his parents arranged for him to be smuggled into Europe to live a better life. But in the Netherlands, he faced an ordeal in the human-trafficking black market that lasted nine years.

On June 7, eight years after arriving in Canada as a refugee, he’ll graduate from Ryerson’s Immigration and Settlement Studies program. Earlier this year he received a Dennis Mock Student Leadership Award for outstanding voluntary extracurricular contributions. “I was hurt by people, and I always wanted to prove to them that what they did was wrong, and people can succeed in strenuous circumstances,” said Alamyar. “I always focused on the positive side—I never focused on the negative.”

As a child in the Netherlands, Alamyar found himself forced into illegal child labour. “I finished high school there, and then trouble started again,” he remembered. “They came back to me and said, ‘Your dad never paid me, you owe us money.’ I was naïve—at the beginning, I believed everything they told me. They told me, ‘Oh, if you tell the government, they’ll send you back.’”

With the help of a teacher, Alamyar fled to Canada in 2008, where he applied for refugee status. His grasp of English was so weak that he was not immediately accepted into the University of Toronto’s Transitional Year Program. Even so, he was determined, and within a year was fluent enough to be accepted at the school as a full-time undergrad. Between classes, he supported himself working at a shawarma counter.

"Throughout my university career, and in general, I do not disclose to everyone that I am a refugee because of the stigma attached to the status," said Alamyar. "I often told people who I didn't know well that I was an international student, or just a Canadian student."

After graduating with distinction, his experience as a refugee led him to Ryerson’s Immigration and Settlement Studies graduate program. “Going through the process of immigration and interviewing, every step is a challenge, and exciting. When you go for your interview to be accepted as a refugee, that’s a stressful moment of your life. But once you get that acceptance message, it’s an ‘aha!’ moment. You’ve made it.”

Alamyar now works at WoodGreen Community Services as a settlement counsellor—a job he landed shortly after finishing his graduate thesis in January. He works directly with Syrian newcomers, applying the knowledge he learned through his own struggles. “I know all the services,” he laughed. “There are senior people who work forever in this field, but I’ll tell them something and they’ll say, ‘How are you aware of this?’ ‘Because I went through it!’

“There are funds and bursaries, and if someone is really eager to be what they want to be, there are opportunities in Canada. That’s one of the greatest aspects of being in Canada: we have so many opportunities, but often those opportunities are not accessed.”

When asked how he persevered, Alamyar is philosophical. “Of course, it’s always with me,” he added. “I will always carry it in the future. I have scars on my body, and I don’t think I can delete those scars. … Some of my friends ask me, ‘How did you do so well at school when you’ve had to deal with so many other issues?’ The way I got through it was really thinking about the positive aspects, and not thinking about the negative.

Ryerson Convocation ceremonies run June 7 to 17, with 6,300 students approved to graduate. For more information, go to ryerson.ca/convocation.

More News