Immigration journey stories and immigration experiences explored through interviews with immigrants and stakeholders involved in the immigration process. We chat about everything from raising kids in a new culture, cultural adaptation, integration, identity, and everything in-between.
E150: David Campbell understands why our immigration policy can't work for Atlantic Canada
Thursday, March 26, 2026 • Duration 01:11:15
In the 150th episode (whew), I am speaking with David Campbell, formerly Chief Economist with the New Brunswick Jobs Board Secretariat and President of Jupia Consultants Inc, an industry research and economic development consulting firm.
The big question for me as I was planning this episode was if population growth could be a bottleneck or an economic tool, and what that meant for Canada's productivity and Atlantic Canada.
The question I think we ended up answering was if one immigration policy can work for a country with wildly different demographic realities.
We also talk about a lot of other interesting things, such as:
How international students contribute $12,000 to $15,000 in indirect taxes per year
Why firms facing labour shortages in Atlantic Canada moved to Brampton instead of investing in automation
Why immigration targets should be set based on provincial and local need, not applied nationally
How immigrants tend to be more entrepreneurial than average, and how that's helped the startup community in Atlantic Canada
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
The gap between what different regions need is enormous, and our immigration policy seems to treat them as the same. In Peel County, Ontario, there are 169 births for every 100 deaths. In Queens County, New Brunswick, there are 41. The recently released Public Policy Forum publication authored by David adds another dimension to the newcomer conversation, which is: by 2035, 175 communities across Atlantic Canada will have at least a third of their population over 65, up from 12 in 2011. A national immigration policy that applies the same cuts everywhere ignores the fact that some of these communities are literally running out of people while others are congested.
When you bring in 1.5 million students but only have space to grant permanent residency to a fraction of them, you've built a system that manufactures disappointment. The people caught in that gap made life decisions based on what they were told. Now many of them, including people David says are in career jobs, are being sent home because their work permits aren't being renewed.
The yearning for a 1950s world, as David puts it, is a yearning for something that never existed. Even in New Brunswick's history, Catholics and Protestants fought like cats and dogs. There was never a time when everyone shared the same background and culture. David says Canada works because you don't have to agree with your neighbor's religion or views, you just have to tolerate that they can hold different ones. Cultural diversity is the foundation Canada was built on. When people push for restricting immigration to return to some imagined cultural homogeneity, they're chasing a past that was always fictional. And they're willing to sacrifice the economic and demographic future of their communities to get there. That's a Canadian identity question every citizen, newcomer and multi-generational alike, will have to answer.
If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
E149: Mo Altaqatqa on the skill that separates the newcomer entrepreneurs who win from those who don't
Thursday, March 19, 2026 • Duration 43:04
In today's episode, I'm speaking to Mo Altaqatqa, Senior Business Development Manager at Futurpreneur.
Mo grew up in Jordan, left in 2011, lived in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Ukraine before moving to Canada. He's been working with entrepreneurs for over a decade, starting in banking, then running his own fundraising business working with startups, and now supporting young entrepreneurs through Futurpreneur.
I kinda already sensed this, but the point Mo makes about how the immigration process itself is preparation for building a business is such a great one. Because mahn, if you get through all the paperwork, the financial planning, the risk, and the uncertainty, I don't see why you can't go ahead and build a business.
But there are other things that separates those who launch from those who stall.
Mo and I chat about that difference, we also talk about:
How to tailor a business idea from home for the Canadian market
What 15 years away from home teaches you about adaptability and identity
How Futurpreneur's newcomer initiative bridges the credit score gap
Why Mo spent months saying no to jobs in Canada
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
A lot of newcomer entrepreneurs who fail do so because they don't understand their customer. You bring a product from home and you assume people here will want it the same way. But the customer here is different because their habits and tastes are different. As Mo says, when a customer says no, they're not rejecting your identity. They're telling you the product needs to meet them where they are.
Mo spent six or seven months without a steady income, saying no to jobs that didn't align with what he wanted to do. That wait was expensive but it's also what landed him at Futurpreneur, where his values matched the mission. Not everyone can afford to wait. But for those who can, Mo's story is proof that the wait can pay off. The wrong job at the right time is still the wrong job.
E148: Bontu Galataa on the biggest mistake loads of newcomer entrepreneurs make
Thursday, March 12, 2026 • Duration 46:14
In today's episode, I am chatting with Bontu Galataa, an entrepreneurship ecosystem strategist and Founder of Sayyoo Consulting, a social impact business consultancy about the mistakes immigrant entrepreneurs make and more.
Bontu has met and still meets newcomer entrepreneurs at every stage of their immigration journey; from folks who just landed and are looking to run with an idea to those who have been on the grind for a few years and are looking to figure out why the business can't seem to grow beyond their little circle of friends.
And the common thread is these people mostly skip the research phase. They assume that business works the way back home with some little changes. They don't spend time understanding all the million nuances that could put you in trouble or crater your business.
Bontu and I chat about how to solve that, we also talk about:
How personal credit determines your business lending options till a certain stage
Why banks can't help with everything
The fantasy of being your own boss
Why crowdfunding, pitch competitions, and micro-grants might be better starting points than bank loans
When you should take your first loan
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
The best market research sometimes is a job. Getting a job in the industry you're hoping to launch a business in means you have a front-row seat to everything. You'll learn the regulations, find the gaps, and even build the relationships that could lead to your first clients or your first mentors.
Starting a business as a newcomer can be hard. Not to be a downer here but people (myself included) often fantasize about how starting our own business can mean some form of freedom. But you get in and discover that if you can't fund the business, the business won't fund itself. Capital is scarce. Grants for for startups are hard to come by. Lending requires personal credit you might not have yet. So you end up running the business on top of a survival job, funding it from your nine-to-five, and testing your product on weekends. Know this and plan for it.
E147: Emmanuel Ahiafor says Ghana is still home. He just doesn't fit there anymore.
Friday, March 6, 2026 • Duration 46:43
In this episode, I'm speaking with Emmanuel Ahiafor, who started travelling solo to Russia in his first year of university, visited over 15 countries, moved to Budapest because of a song, and now lives in New Brunswick with his family.
When I asked him if he feels fully Ghanaian when he goes back, his answer was no. Things he once accepted as normal, he now questions. And yet, no place feels like home as much as Ghana for him.
He thinks he'll go back eventually.
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Emmanuel and I chat about:
How a song, a spontaneous trip, and a failed credit card led to four and a half years in Budapest
The gap between what the algorithm sells you about Canada and what you actually find
Why parenting far from home forces you to become your own village
The lessons he'd share with anyone thinking about moving
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
Every country you live in installs something in you that you can't uninstall. Emmanuel picked up a European habit in Hungary, which is mind your own business even in the elevator. Then he moved to Canada and found people who wanted to chat as "too friendly." Every country you make home, even for a little bit reshapes your sense of what's normal, what you tolerate, and how much control you expect over daily life.
Home doesn't require you to fit perfectly inside it. Emmanuel is probably never gonna fit in fully into Ghana again. And I think one lesson I took from reflecting on this point he made is that home isn't the place you currently agree with on everything. You can question it, outgrow parts of it, or feel frustrated by it. But deep in your bones, you just know it's home.
Immigration will reveal all your biases. For Emmanuel, things that were fine in Ghana aren't fine to him anymore. Things that were normal in Hungary feel strange in Canada. Each move peels back another layer. And if you're not willing to do that work, you'll struggle, because the country you moved to doesn't care about preserving the version of yourself you arrived with.
E146: Busayo Disu thinks the society has to meet the immigrants halfway
Friday, February 27, 2026 • Duration 01:08:56
In today's episode, I'm speaking with Busayo Disu, a pharmacist turned intercultural communication advocate who moved from Nigeria to Sherwood Park, Alberta in 2019.
Since that time, she's launched the African Society of Strathcona County, written a children's book called Our Story, Our Voice, produced a documentary of the same name, and is organizing community dialogues between policymakers and immigrant families.
This was one of those conversations where we got into it, albeit productively and respectfully.
So here's the gist. Busayo's position on integration is the environment, its leadership, and its organizations have to create the conditions for integration. Without that, she says, any individual effort by the immigrants just generates unnecessary conflict.
While I agree that society plays a part, I also think the immigrant needs to do the work of nudging society along to create those conditions.
Healthy conflict is the way the world changes. This was a fun one.
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Busayo and I also chat about:
How she's building community dialogues between policymakers and immigrant families
How her children's struggles pushed her into community building
What Canadians can do to welcome newcomers
Why she thinks immigrant parents need to get involved in building the society their kids are going to grow up in
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
The gap between policy and practice is where immigrants get lost in the workplace. Organizations will say they have a diversity and inclusion policy. But what are the actual steps? How is feedback received across cultural lines? Are there strategies for intercultural communication, or just a document filed away somewhere?
E145: Abdullah Sharief thinks Canada's risk aversion could be costly in the long-term
Thursday, February 19, 2026 • Duration 47:49
In today's episode, I'm speaking with Abdullah Sharief, Co-Founder and CMO of Panda Hub, North America's leading mobile car detailing platform.
Abdullah studied medicine in Turkey, came to Canada in 2018, and has gone on to build arguably Canada's biggest car care platform.
Abdullah is a straight-shooter, and I do appreciate folks like him. Launching Panda Hub with his co-founder, Reza Ahmadi, means they've dealt with Canadian VCs firsthand.
His assessment? A lot of them are slow, small-minded, and are always looking for safe bets. And if we stay the same way we are, we're going to be left behind eventually.
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Abdullah and I also chat about:
Giving up his medical degree
The door-to-door sales experience that changed everything for him
Starting a business during COVID
Why you shouldn't celebrate your wins too early
What he's hoping Panda Hub looks like by year 10
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
Being honest in business is a practical and moral position. In the early years of building a business, when everything is messy and relationships are fragile, honesty and consistency is worth more than any short-term advantage a lie could give you.
"Extract as much as you can from the opportunity in front of you" seems to be a better framework than goal-setting. Goals are useful, but they also create a scorekeeping mentality where you either hit the number or you didn't. Abdullah approaches it differently. He looks at whatever opportunity exists right now and asks: what's the maximum value I can pull from this? That mindset kept him from stalling when COVID killed his agency and when door-to-door sales hit a ceiling It's forward-looking without being rigid because there's always more value to extract.
E144: Maria Kamila González knows the real reason you can't save money
Friday, February 13, 2026 • Duration 53:15
In today's episode, I'm speaking with Maria Kamila González, the co-founder of Finanzo, a non-profit organization in Toronto that believes in making newcomers financially aware and has impacted the lives of 100,000 immigrants in the US and Canada.
Maria is a psychologist by training, which means that when she talks about money, she doesn't start with budgeting or spreadsheets. She starts with your childhood, your parents, and the patterns you inherited from them, as well as the patterns your culture or society drilled into you about money.
In her words, "How you treat money is how you treat everything else." Worth pausing on that for a bit, people.
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Maria and I chat about:
The baseline assessment every newcomer should do before anything else
How banks profit from immigrants' ignorance about how credit works
How to handle "black tax" and family remittances
Why financial planning is best done progressively
The Finanzo origin story
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
With money, we're often struggling with the money habits we inherited from our parents and our culture's relationship with worthiness. To solve bad money patterns, one needs to tackle these two layers; the family and cultural layer. The family layer, which is what your parents modeled for you as a child, consciously or not. And the cultural layer, which is what colonisation embedded in entire populations about who deserves wealth and who doesn't. Money is tied closely to our identity.
Most people know the right financial move. Where it falls apart is actioning it. Most of us already know that high-interest credit card debt isn't great. But we keep collecting those credit cards like the souvenirs we buy at the duty-free shops. This behaviour is why Maria treats financial literacy as therapy.
E143: Mustafa Ansari thinks the public image problem of skilled trades is costing Canada
Friday, February 6, 2026 • Duration 32:41
In today's episode, I'm chatting with Mustafa Ansari, Director of Marketing of Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC), who's made it a personal mission to get more immigrants into trucking and the skilled trades.
Mustafa moved from Pakistan to Canada in 2018. After completing his master's degree at Smith School of Business, Queens University, he couldn't find a job in his preferred industry; economic development. So he bounced around a few temporary and contract jobs, and eventually took a junior social media position at TBDC just to get his foot in the door.
They then handed him two industries that had zero creative marketing and no public appeal (trucking and skilled trades) and told him to go figure it out.
And Mustafa went on a roll.
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Mustafa and I chat about:
Why some of the most overlooked careers in Canada might be the smartest career choices for immigrants
The myths that pervade the skilled trades sector
Why he disagrees with the perception that skilled trades are for people who couldn't make it elsewhere
Using video game design principles on the TBDC career website
His advice to his younger self if he were to make the immigration journey again
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
Women are often told these industries aren't for them. The women inside say otherwise. Mustafa and his team at TBDC now run women-focused programs where they invite other women practitioners to come share their stories and possible pathways to joining the industry.
Field trips have done wonders for getting people interested. Mustafa got tired of watching people fall asleep or look glazed during bootcamps. Now he gets them talking directly to people in the industry, riding along in the truck, joining "show-me-how-you-do-it" workshops.
E142: Diana Palmerín Velasco on resetting the Canadian immigration conversation
Friday, January 30, 2026 • Duration 56:33
In today's episode, I'm talking with Diana Palmerín Velasco of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce about how we go about rebuilding trust in Canada's immigration system.
Diana moved to Canada in 2011 with all the credentials you'd think would make settling into the country easy. She had a PhD and five years of UK work experience. It still took her two years to land her first job. And she only got it because someone she knew referred her.
That was almost 15 years ago, and not much has changed. We are still underutilising talent. And now we have a public trust crisis on top of it.
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Diana and I chat about:
The communities across Canada that are desperate for people and can't get them
How the Chamber network is advocating for regional immigration strategies
The global war for talent and why Canada risks being left behind
Why she believes immigrants are being blamed for problems they didn't create
The paradox of selecting for PhDs when most job vacancies require a high school diploma
What the business community can do to bring Canadians back on side
Why immigration success happens at the local community level
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
We need to recover public trust before anything else can work. Diana frames this as the foundation. If immigrants land in communities and don't feel welcomed and valued, everything else falls apart. We all just end up retreating into ethnic enclaves which ends up causing more damage to an already fractured society. The work now is about showing Canadians that immigration benefits everyone, not a few regions or employers , but everyone.
When Diana spent two years unemployed, she lost. But Canada lost too. Those were two years where she wasn't paying taxes or contributing to the economy. We talk about immigrant resilience like it's a badge of honour. But the question we should be asking is: should it be this hard? And what does it cost us all when talented people are stuck on the sidelines?
E141: Ruairi Spillane wants you to stop treating job hunting like Bingo
Episode 141
Friday, January 23, 2026 • Duration 01:25:37
In today's episode, I'm talking to the brilliant and straight-shooting Ruairi Spillane, who runs Moving2Canada and Outpost Recruitment.
Ruairi is one of the OGs when it comes to helping newcomers move to Canada, find jobs, and settle in nicely. So he was a must-have on The Newcomers Podcast.
As someone who's been recruiting local and global talent for Canada for over a decade, he's seen what works, what doesn't, and he's not afraid to tell you the difference.
And he dished out dollops of that tough love on this episode.
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Ruairi and I chat about:
The red flags that tell him an immigrant is likely to struggle in the job search
The three risks employers are evaluating you on during the interview process
Why Canadianizing your resume is about the content, not the format
How to proactively address your immigration pathway in an interview
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Dozie's Notes
A few things that struck me as I listened through this week's conversation:
"I can do anything" is a red flag, not a selling point. It screams you haven't done the research. Pick one or two job titles that match your skills in Canada and build your resume around those. Spraying and praying something sticks is exhausting.
Canadian employers are evaluating three risks you probably aren't addressing. Settlement risk: Will you stay? Immigration risk: Can you stay? Local experience risk: Can you adapt? Ruairi says employers in professional roles aren't hiring for six months. They're investing in training you for three to four years. If your answer to "How long will you be in Canada?" is "I have a two-year work permit, we'll see if we like it," you've just told them you're a flight risk.
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If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
Immigrants sometimes come from economies that have solved problems the Canadian market hasn't even identified yet. The challenge is knowing how to position that expertise in a market that doesn't know it needs it yet. Bontu thinks one way to do that in Canada is to pair that knowledge with local understanding. And execute fast.
Network outside your community. It's natural to stay within your diaspora community when you arrive. But if you want to build a business that reaches beyond that community, you need relationships outside of it. Especially because in Canada, your network is a big part of far you go.
If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
"Passionate" can be a compliment or a code word, and the difference depends entirely on who's saying it. Busayo went to multiple job interviews where interviewers told her she was "so passionate." She later found out that it was polite Canadian for "you're too much." In Nigeria, it's okay to be passionate and direct. In a Canadian professional setting, it can be seen as aggression. This is one of those invisible cultural translation problems that no settlement guide covers. I think the fix is for both sides to understand that communication styles are culturally coded, and different doesn't mean wrong.
Integration requires infrastructure that most communities don't have yet. And we immigrants need to do the work of building that connective tissue. Don't wait, stretch out your hand and kick off the conversation. Sometimes you'll get a handshake, sometimes you won't. And that's okay.
The most effective immigrant advocates I've spoken to on this podcast don't wait for permission. Busayo got county funding for her book. She got the mayor to write the foreword. She got it into schools by aligning it with the Alberta curriculum. She's organizing a community dialogue in the council chambers with policymakers, MLAs, school principals, and religious leaders. She's the first Black member of the library board. All these happened because she showed up and made the case. That's how societies change.
If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
Survival jobs can be more than placeholders. Abdullah's door-to-door sales job was some experience; commission only, no base salary, and dealing with constant rejection. However, it taught him to connect with strangers, handle "no" without crumbling, and figure out quickly what language makes people trust you enough to buy. Those are skills that have come in handy today as he works on Panda Hub.
If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
The first step in taking control of your finances is understanding your baseline. Before any financial tool works, you need to understand where you stand, not just financially but psychologically. How much debt do you carry? How much are you sending home? But also: are you afraid of money? Do you feel you deserve wealth? Do you repeat the same financial mistakes every few years?
If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
We need to find a way to make these jobs cool. The public image is costing everyone. People don't realize that their are companies in these industries that are properly organized, have well-run HR departments, and growth paths to executive roles. The perception is stuck in an older era. And until that changes, the talent gap keeps widening.
A three to five week course can change everything. You don't need a four-year degree or have tens of thousands of dollars stashed away for tuition. A few weeks of training, pass the test, and you're earning. As an apprentice, you also make money while you learn.
If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
We've allowed immigrants to be blamed for systemic failures. Diana says the silence from government on this hasn't been helpful. Housing, healthcare, education—Canadians keep pointing to immigrants as the cause. But that isn't exactly true. The youth unemployment piece, for example, is far more complicated than "immigrants took the jobs." AI is eliminating entry-level roles. Trade uncertainty has businesses freezing hiring. None of these issues deserve simple answers, but simple answers are all we keep getting.
Immigrants are not a monolith but the Canadian immigration system tends to treat them like they are. It's frustrating to see people assume all immigrants are the same: desperate, penniless, struggling with English. The reality is wildly different. Canada attracts some of the most talented and experienced people. Folks with advanced degrees, global networks, and multinational work experience. The settlement sector, the policy system, the public conversation just seems to collapse all this diversity into one box. And then we wonder why nothing works.
If you found this story helpful, please consider sharing it with one immigrant you know.
Refusing to adapt your resume can mean you might struggle to adapt to the role. Ruairi says it's a pattern he's seen over the last 12 years. When he suggests improvements and a candidate says "my resume is fine the way it is" or "I paid someone to edit this so I'm not changing it," he steps away. Time and time again, that response has usually meant the individual might not be exactly willing to adapt to a new way of doing things in a new country. Brutal? Right?
