In this episode of My Great Canada, we chat with Paula Calderon, CEO of the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association. Paula, who is originally from Colombia, arrived in Canada in 2001. She has over 15 years of experience working towards the successful integration of Internationally Trained Professionals into the Canadian labour market. Now serving as CEO of the Calgary Immigrant Women’s Association, Paula leads initiatives aimed at recognizing and responding to the unique concerns and needs of immigrant and refugee women, girls, and their families. CIWA offers over 50 programs and services, such as employment support, language training, and housing assistance, making them a provincial and national leader in settlement services.

What initially attracted you to Canada?

Many things. My husband was looking for education and to do his master’s degree in Canada. I was looking for a different environment. I mean, although I love my country, safety, stability, and security were things that always troubled me – especially once I had children and I was looking for a peaceful place to grow a family. Canada just ticked a lot of the boxes of things we were looking for.

What were some of your initial challenges in Canada?

I faced many of the challenges that all newcomers face. As internationally trained professionals coming into the country – the normal challenges of getting your education recognized and getting your first employment. We went through survival jobs, getting into the labour market, and doing everything we had to do. And we did it all at a time when there wasn’t as much support or information available as there is today.

The isolation of not having a network is difficult as well. Not having a support system while also having a young child. Those are challenges that pile up and make it a difficult transition.

We went through it. Not having childcare, not having any family around, the challenge of getting into the labour market. It was the most traditional, regular immigration journey.

Where did you find support when you arrived?

I mean, many friends, and thankfully, we had some family. I had an uncle here that was extremely supportive. It’s the time when you need family the most. We were not living very close to each other, but he was still very supportive.

I know I had a great advantage. That’s what got me into the field of work that I’m in.

There’s also the fact that I could speak the language fluently. That is the advantage I see when I look back at my journey — versus people who came without the language or with lower levels of fluency. The journey is a lot more complicated, and it takes a lot longer to adapt and integrate. To me, language was a big piece.

What would you say are the unique challenges to women and girls as newcomers?

I guess everyone questions like why only serve women, right — why the gender focus? And there are many reasons why it’s important to have that gender focus.

Women face some unique barriers and challenges when coming into a new country. Women are usually the nucleus of the family, but they’re also often the ones that are left behind because they’re the caregivers. Families focus on the male, the men getting back into their profession.

It’s also often not enough to have a one-income family, so they need to become two-income families. And then comes the challenges of how to balance the family and bring in a household income.

In other areas, I mean, of course, we focus a lot on different cultural aspects of things. Sometimes, culturally, it’s difficult to settle as a couple in a new country, as a family, because parenting is different. So children are now exposed to a different culture, different sets of values, and different beliefs. The family struggles with that. And it’s usually the woman who ends up handling things with schools, the father, and children. So women require a lot of additional support.

What’s something that pleasantly surprised you about Canada? 

To me, it is the sense of community here. That is not very prevalent in many other countries. And I think that makes a big, big, big difference when we’re all working towards a common goal.

If we want our systems to work well, we all need to support each other, and everyone has to have opportunities. Everyone has to be able to fulfill their goals, but also reach their full capacity.

I know that when we talk about immigrants, there’s a lot of criticism around immigrants not being able to reach their full capacity. But that’s why lots of us are working towards trying to improve those issues. Once we find these social issues, we try to work towards solutions.

So, the civic engagement and community mindset. I think it’s something that I identified very early on, even when my daughter started school here in junior kindergarten. I saw what they were teaching her in terms of community. More than academics, building community was the focus at those early stages. It made me think a lot and I didn’t quite understand it at the beginning, but now I do. I understand the value.

This interview has been edited for this article. You can find the full podcast episode here.