It is with mixed feelings as I share my journey from the time I started this program to this day. It has been a painful but most fulfilling journey I ever made in my entire academic life. I have heard many people refer to me as a brave woman and today I look back with pride for this great achievement. I start this with my status as an international student in Canada as well as an immigrant. As an international student, I was expected to pay a visa differential fee which makes the tuition fee twice the amount paid by Canadian students even though we are taught the same academic content. I was very much aware of this before starting the program but I came to realize that you never know how a thing feels like until you experience it. Having had to pay double the amount my other school mates paid was a real challenge and frustrating. Through this, I also came to realize how policies made in the context of welfare can also be a way of social injustice. This made my school life very frustrating. More-so, to my surprise and amazement, I also learnt that the term ‘immigrant” is socially constructed in Canada. An immigrant to Canada is someone granted permanent residence status and thus become eligible for eligible for certain settlementl services. As an international student, I was granted a temporary residence status making me ineligible for these services basic for human survival. This was a real shock to me. According to Statistics Canada 2010, an immigrant (s) are Persons residing in Canada who were born outside of Canada, excluding temporary foreign workers, Canadian citizens born outside Canada and those with student or working visas. ……….
I also suffered near homelessness. As a student with two little children, it was extremely difficult to find accommodation based on the fact that I did not have Canadian credit history which is a key component in renting by some landlords, not to mention the fact that most landlords do not take tenants with children.
Despite these difficulties, I made it through these two years with good grades. This has been the most fulfilling academic pursuit ever. It has been fulfilling not only because I was able to complete the program successfully but more so as I was able to find my voice at a point in time in all some of the problems highlighted above. On a personal note, I come from a family background where girls and women are not expected to talk back or speak their mind on issues even if those issues oppress them in any way. More-so the Ghanaian culture in which I was born and raised has patriarchy as a dominant discourse where the female voice is often silent. In the educational system, one is expected not to challenge a teacher not even at the basic level, let alone at the tertiary. I had grown to accept anything that come my way and so found it extremely difficult to talk about the many oppressive practices I faced when I moved to Canada, including some inappropriate fellow students’ attitude towards the minority group in our cohort. I am happy to say during the course of taking SOWK 632 and SOWK I found my voice. Through this challenged the oppression I faced and still challenge those that come my way every-day as a newcomer to Canada, as a black female in a male dominant white society.
My family, most especially my two little kids, friends especially members of Uchurch have been amazing and very supportive me of during these past two years. A special thank you to Joanne and Charles for linking me up with these wonderful people in Uchurch and elsewhere without whom I would not have been able to complete this program.They offered to help and support in varied forms when I needed it most and I say God bless you all
I also suffered near homelessness. As a student with two little children, it was extremely difficult to find accommodation based on the fact that I did not have Canadian credit history which is a key component in renting by some landlords, not to mention the fact that most landlords do not take tenants with children.
Despite these difficulties, I made it through these two years with good grades. This has been the most fulfilling academic pursuit ever. It has been fulfilling not only because I was able to complete the program successfully but more so as I was able to find my voice at a point in time in all some of the problems highlighted above. On a personal note, I come from a family background where girls and women are not expected to talk back or speak their mind on issues even if those issues oppress them in any way. More-so the Ghanaian culture in which I was born and raised has patriarchy as a dominant discourse where the female voice is often silent. In the educational system, one is expected not to challenge a teacher not even at the basic level, let alone at the tertiary. I had grown to accept anything that come my way and so found it extremely difficult to talk about the many oppressive practices I faced when I moved to Canada, including some inappropriate fellow students’ attitude towards the minority group in our cohort. I am happy to say during the course of taking SOWK 632 and SOWK I found my voice. Through this challenged the oppression I faced and still challenge those that come my way every-day as a newcomer to Canada, as a black female in a male dominant white society.
My family, most especially my two little kids, friends especially members of Uchurch have been amazing and very supportive me of during these past two years. A special thank you to Joanne and Charles for linking me up with these wonderful people in Uchurch and elsewhere without whom I would not have been able to complete this program.They offered to help and support in varied forms when I needed it most and I say God bless you all