Finding community, fighting loneliness a challenge for newcomers | CBC News

Halfway to Home: Immigration Stories, a five-part series, launched Monday, April 24, on Windsor Morning. Tune in on our CBC Listen app, or live at 97.5 FM. We’ll also be at the Budimir branch of the Windsor Public Library on Saturday for the event Creating Space. 

Jing Zhu arrived in Windsor in 2021 — during the height of COVID-19 restrictions. She came from China as an international student, and due to the pandemic, her husband would not join her for more than three years. 

Everything seemed new, and so confusing, — she’d never even seen a stop sign before. It was difficult to talk to people in person, let alone make a friend. 

“It was … the loneliest winter of my life,” she said. 

Home alone that Chinese New Year, she put on makeup, picked up her cat and “as a souvenir,” she took a selfie. “I thought … I’m going to show this photo to my [future] children and tell them what their mother’s story was.”

In episode two of CBC Windsor’s Halfway to Home series, Zhu and Angelica Belano, a Filipina who came to Canada from Brunei as a teenager, both shared their stories with creator of the series, Aman Ghawanmeh.

Halfway to Home highlights the experiences of newcomers in Windsor-Essex. About one in five people living in the region are immigrants, which means Windsor-Essex has the 11th largest immigrant population in the country, according to Statistics Canada.

WATCH: Jing Zhu, Angelica Belano and Aman Ghawanmeh on making friends as an immigrant 

It’s not easy, but making friends helps a new country become home

Angelica Belano describes her experience coming to Canada at a younger age while Jing Zhu shares her experience as an international student making connections in Windsor.

During the conversation at Windsor Public Library’s Riverside Branch, Ghawanmeh, Zhu and Belano shared stories about how they craved friendships as new immigrants and how forming lasting relationships helped them integrate in Windsor. 

Belano said she had been feeling “so lost,” when she started school in Windsor, before she met her first friend, Bianca, who took her under her wing.

“School in Brunei was totally different,” she said. “I didn’t know where to go [here]. Bianca literally showed me everywhere.” 

“Feeling like I belong to an actual friend group made me feel like … I actually have potential to make friends here and I’m starting to get comfortable with life in Canada,” she added.

‘More activities and opportunities to integrate into society … would be great’

Compared to the general population, immigrants have higher rates of loneliness, which can lead to stress, anxiety and physical health issues, according to a 2021 Statistics Canada report.

The study found forming relationships early can make all the difference in the world. 

Asked what she would like listeners to take away from this conversation, Zhu had a request for local agencies and immigrant-serving organizations: more oppourtunites to meet friends. 

“If some local relevant institutions can have more activities or offer more opportunities to integrate [into] the society easier, that would be great,” she said. “We are willing to contribute our strength to our community, to the city and the country. 

“We are experienced, we are skillful. So once we have the opportunity, we will do our best.” 

Local settlement worker Zakieh Zarabi echoed that statement. 

Zarabi, who works with the YMCA’s community connections program for newcomers, said settlement agencies believe social connections and friendships are “a necessity to increase newcomers’ sense of belonging.” She said most communities offer programs dedicated to building connections between newcomers.

“Refugees and immigrants have a shared story. We are new to the country and we need to know the norms and the systems — even starting with the names of the streets,” said Zarabi. 

“Whether we come alone or with our families, we need friends in this new place to help become established, build our own status and find community,” she added.