Nick Noorani Website

“Where to?” asked the smartly dressed cab driver. It was 5.00 am and I was heading back to Vancouver from Toronto after a series of meetings the day before. Groggy with sleep, I mumbled ‘Airport please’ and we sped off. ‘Where are you going? Do you live in Vancouver?’ Like cabbies the world over this one too wanted to chat. And so it was that I started half listening to Haroon Usman from Pakistan. And soon I discovered that he had been in Canada for eight years. Same as myself I mused sleepily. Before migrating to Canada he had a business in Lahore and then he said to me, ‘I drive the taxi for three hours a day only, the rest of the time I am studying’ I looked at him, he looked to be in his late thirties or early forties. My sleep vanished.

‘So what do you study?’ I asked. ‘I am in my final year of a Bachelor in Computer Science and am also doing my CGA’. WOW! I sat up awake. IN the next half hour, he told me how he had taken odd jobs since coming to Canada and he ended with ‘I came to the conclusion that only I can change my life and future. I saved my earning to get an education and by next year I will be out looking for a job. Driving a cab a couple of hours a day is useful for me – it shows me that this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life! I see so many drivers who have been driving for years and they get stuck in the rut! Now, they are so used to this life they put all their ambitions away. I am single and want to have a good career before I get married and settle down.’
Haroon is that breed of immigrant who not only refuses to give up, they keep nurturing their dream in that quiet corner in their heart knowing some day they will get there. Since this magazine was launched, it has become apparent that education is important to immigrants. That is seen clearly by the numerous education institutes advertising in this magazine. We constantly get feedback from our advertisers who say they get huge responses from our readers.
Education has emerged as the single most important factor for immigrants who wish to succeed in their new home. Children from immigrant families who are part of a visible minority have higher educational goals than their Canadian-born peers, says new research from the University of Alberta. That’s probably because their parents don’t want their children to struggle as they did, the study suggests.
It found that 78% of visible-minority immigrant youths hope to complete at least one university degree compared to 59% of non-visible minority youth who were born in Canada. “We were surprised just how big the difference is,” said Harvey Krahn, a sociologist whose research is published in the Journal of International Migration and Integration. “They are aiming incredibly high.”
This issue also features the 2006 winners of the Lilian To Scholarship for immigrants. I would like to express my thanks to the Late Lilian To’s family and to Ashton college for its continued support for immigrants.
Finally, this month’s column is dedicated to Haroon Usman and several more immigrants like him who keep the dream alive!