He thought his wife, daughter would join him in Canada in 6 months. 5 years later, they remain in Jordan
When Islam Meghari left his wife and daughter in Jordan to pave the way for a better life in Canada in 2018, he assumed they'd be joining him within six months — a year at tops.
But five years later and now living in London, Ont., Meghari is still waiting for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to process their refugee application.
"When I moved here, I was 38," said Meghari, an emergency room physician for 12 years in a number of different hospitals in Jordan and most recently in Saudi Arabia.
Meghari's wife, Faten Alshawahneh, is Jordanian, and she and the couple's daughter, seven-year-old Aila, live in Jordan today.
"I did not spend the best years of my daughter's life with her," Meghari said from the small house in London he had been renting, but has since left because his lease ran out.
Meghari now lives in a rooming house.
When he moved to Canada, Aila was two. He hasn't seen her in person since.
I have a lot of dreams and I thought I could do them, but maybe the time did not come yet.
- Islam Meghari
According to the IRCC website, the department is currently processing more than two million applications — for refugee status, permanent residency and citizenship.
Nearly 900,000 of those applications are part of a massive backlog and have fallen outside of service standards.
"There are so so so many people in similar situations," said Toronto-based immigration lawyer Barbara Jackman. "It is cruel — there is no triaging of applications for humanitarian reasons.
"Economic migrants get processed first and fast; everyone else waits, for years sometimes," she said.
CBC News asked IRCC for an update on the Meghari family's request and received this response: "Please note that IRCC media relations services are impacted by the current labour disruption. We invite you to visit the IRCC website, where you may find the information you are looking for." As of Friday afternoon, there was still no further IRCC response.
More than 155,000 federal workers, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, began strike action on April 19 over demands for a new contract.
A hard time finding meaningful work
Meghari is Palestinian and attended Omdurman Islamic University, Medical College in Sudan on a scholarship. He graduated in 2006 with a degree that is not recognized by the World Directory of Medical Schools, and therefore the Ontario government doesn't either.
Because of that, becoming a doctor in Canada was always going to be a long road, said Meghari.
So instead, Meghari had hoped to lean on his MBA in international health-care management from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management to find meaningful work. (That degree also included an on-site module at John Hopkins Carey Business School that he completed in 2017.)
But so far, no luck.
"I have a lot of dreams and I thought I could do them, but maybe the time did not come yet," said Meghari.
He also said part of the reason he came to Canada was because he had been having difficulty finding a suitable hospital for his dad in Saudi Arabia, and he didn't want his daughter to be put in the same position of finding proper health care for an ailing parent.
Jackman said Meghari's experiences in getting his family to join him in Canada aren't unique.
"The aspirations of so many are dashed once they get here and face unnecessary obstacles," she said.
"The settlement network is not consistent, funding is not secure for agencies trying to help with resettlement and it's so tied up with the racism and xenophobia that makes it more difficult for new immigrants and refugees to successfully resettle."
Immigrants also have to contend with an unstable labour market and economy, she added.
Meghari worked for The Victorian Order of Nurses (VON) as a personal support worker (PSW) during the pandemic. At the time, the federal government was fast tracking permanent resident applications for refugees who provided direct patient health care.
Meghari became a permanent resident in February 2022.
For now, to make ends meet, Meghari is working as an Uber and Skip the Dishes driver. He also cleans houses and apartment buildings, and continues to pad his resumé, while also taking a clinical assistant course.
Long-distance parenthood
The toughest part is being separated from his wife and daughter.
Meghari video chats with them multiple times a day — they're even growing some seedlings together. Meghari waters them while his daughter watches from behind the screen.
"I did not want her to disconnect from me. I love her so much," he said.
"I keep the lines connected between me and her. She doesn't go to bed until she talks to me. When she wakes up, when she comes back from school — four or five times a day since I came here."
