Prince Albert sees surge in immigrants, refugees

More immigrants and refugees are making their home in Prince Albert than ever before.

Prince Albert YWCA Immigration Services has helped settle 118 clients to date with another 60 set to arrive over the next four weeks.

“I think there’s lots of pressure. A lot of the big cities are becoming overwhelmed because that seems to be a key destination of a lot of people,” said settlement services manager Carolyn Hobden.

“So they are trying to send more people to smaller communities.”

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Hobden says last year they only had about 100 immigrants for the entire year, and they already surpassed that number in the first three months of 2022.

Most new refugees in Prince Albert are from Syria, Eritrea, Burma, Vietnam, Sudan and South Sudan, Congo and Somalia.

The YWCA recently hired three new support staff and one additional settlement counsellor to accommodate the additional workload brought on by more arrivals.

Hobden says about 400 clients currently access YWCA’s settlement services.

Newcomers are required to isolate for 14 days. The YWCA picks them up at the airport and gets them into temporary accommodations at a hotel. During that time they work to find permanent housing, says Hobden.

Settlement counsellors help newcomers with registering their children for school, applying for documentation such as health cards and driver’s licenses, making appointments to go to doctors and getting bank accounts. The YWCA also provides various English language classes.

Hobden says some refugees have seen war and are coping with traumatic experiences. The YWCA sets up support groups and helps connect people with mental health support.

“It’s not always the easiest, especially when we have language barriers that come into play,” said Hobden. “We try our best to just support them and then get as many community resources as we can table to in order to help them.”

Najib Sorosh came to Canada from Afghanistan last August and was hired in May by the Prince Albert YWCA as a settlement counsellor.

In Afghanistan, he was the co-founder of two high schools in Kabul, Marefat High School and Pegah High School. He worked there as a teacher, principal and manager for more than 20 years. The schools were groundbreaking and hired women and girls. The school also ran an adult literacy program.

He says he enjoys living in Prince Albert and is putting his skills to work to help others settle in the community.

“Canadians are very friendly people and I received lots of support from the YWCA and the neighbours and because of this, I am very happy here. Now I don’t feel like I’m in some new country."

Sorosh works primarily with Arabic-speaking people but says he also has one family from Vietnam as clients.

The Government of Canada says it’s working to resettle at least 40,000 Afghan nationals as quickly and safely as possible.

To date, Canada has taken in over 16,000 Afghan refugees, including 313 Afghans who supported Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.

Hobden says new Ukrainian immigrants displaced by war are being assisted by the Ukrainian Canadian Congress of Saskatchewan but are eligible to access their services such as language classes.