Mokhles, Hajir and their three tired children walked out of the airport in Winnipeg, Manitoba, late on Saturday evening. It took two days of travel and months of waiting in the pandemic lockdown for airports to reopen in Jordan. Finally, Canada gained five new permanent residents - including a mechatronics engineer - and the family left their refugee status behind. 

Mokhles and his family are the first TBB candidates to travel to a new home since global border closures began in March. Mokhles earned a Master’s in mechatronics engineering and recently saw his thesis accepted for publication, all while living as a refugee in Jordan.  

Their arrival represents a cautious resumption in travel, and a renewal of opportunities for talented people living displaced. A few months ago, Canada’s Minister of Refugees, Immigration and Citizenship announced the expansion of a pilot project extending skilled visas to 500 refugee principal applicants to Canada. An Australian pilot introduced earlier in the year will support another 100 refugee principal applicants through skilled visas. New mobility pathways are opening, and bit by bit the  pandemic restrictions too are starting to lift

The family’s story was beautifully captured in Canada’s largest daily newspaper the Toronto Star. 

“We can’t wait to start our new life in this country,” Mokhles said, from the family’s quarantine home in the town of Morden, just outside Winnipeg. In Jordan, “life was very hard. We were refugees and could only work illegally. I worked as a mechanical maintenance engineer at an electrical cable factory. I was earning less than half of what I should have been making in that position.”

Their story will reach Canadian employers facing local skill shortages, who can express interest in our program. There are so many like Mokhles in need of opportunities to rebuild. 

It will reach all the people working to open these pathways like our partners Miles4Migrants whose team and donors put this family on a flight and an in-terminal hotel; and the local, provincial and federal government teams whose creativity is permanently expanding solutions for displaced talent.

It will reach the thousands of TBB candidates in Jordan and Lebanon who face extreme daily challenges that are now indescribably worse for those in Beirut. To our candidates, we want you to know these opportunities are opening, and it is your talent that is the biggest driving force behind this global movement.