On Wednesday morning, the Michael family finally became official Canadians.
Since moving to Canada from South Africa in 2013, the Collingwood family has gone through an eight-year-long immigration process, which finally came to an end this week when they participated in a Zoom citizenship ceremony and signed their citizenship documents. To celebrate their achievement, members of All Saints Anglican Church who have helped the family along their journey congregated in the Michaels’ driveway, flying Canadian flags.
Rev. Douglas Michael has been a reverend at All Saints Anglican Church in Collingwood since coming to the country in 2013. His posting to the church was the reason for the family’s move, as his wife Vanessa said it offered opportunity not only for Douglas, but for their children Rebecca and Jason, who were eight and six years old at the time.
“I think you hit a time in your life where you make decisions for your family. We came to that point. We considered, do we stay where we are, or do we have an adventure?” said Vanessa.
“We decided to have an adventure.”
“We were very excited,” said Douglas. “There was six feet of snow when we arrived.”
The immigration process over the past eight years has been long. Douglas said when the family arrived, there was one immigration system in place that had a special category for clergy. However, as the years passed and governments changed, the system changed with it.
“After we were here a year, the plan was to apply for permanent residence, but the system changed to a points-based system. Under the new system, half the points were based on having a job, but I already had a job,” said Douglas. “There was all kinds of paperwork we couldn’t get retroactively. The old stream ended and under the new stream, we couldn’t get all the points required.”
However, the family never gave up hope, and worked diligently to find their way to citizenship.
“We spent a few years in limbo as temporary residents. It was crazy,” said Douglas.
While it might be daunting for some to move halfway across the world and start a new life, Douglas and Vanessa say they were welcomed with open arms by their church community, who helped them at every step along the way.
“Right from the beginning, there were people who worked to help us settle, and really stepped up to be proxy grandparents to our kids,” said Douglas. “We did come in to community, which made a difference.”
“They were so intentional about welcoming us,” said Vanessa.
Douglas agreed. He said when he first arrived, he had no idea what a Canadian winter would be like. He remembered walking into the Collingwood Mark’s Work Warehouse and being helped by a friendly salesperson.
“I didn’t know what I needed. I sort of stood there looking lost,” recalled Douglas. “This very sweet shop assistant asked if she could help me.”
“I told her I was new in town and I needed a winter wardrobe,” he said, with a laugh, noting she took him around to help him find everything he needed.
Vanessa noted one aspect of immigration people don’t consider is that newcomers have no existing credit, which can make it difficult to buy a car or rent/buy a home, even if they have the funds.
When the family arrived in Collingwood, however, a kind parishioner offered to co-sign with Douglas for a car.
“It’s a little thing, but it made such a big difference,” said Vanessa.
“It helped us make a start,” said Douglas.
The family was overwhelmed at times on Wednesday, after thinking about everything they had been through to get to this point.
“I feel excited more than anything else,” said Douglas. “This has been our home for a really long time, but now it’s really home.”
“I was a bit of an emotional wreck during the ceremony. I don’t think I’ve cried that much in a while,” said Rebecca. “It’s a release of tension. It took eight years to get here, and now it’s done.”
“I’m just happy we can finally say we’re Canadians,” said Jason.
When speaking about how she felt on Wednesday, Vanessa’s voice breaks with emotion.
“This was a promise of a future with choices. I love South Africa and I miss her everyday. But the future for our beautiful children is here and they can now go and do anything,” she said. “They can be some of the wisest, quirkiest, frustrating people I know. And I love them.”
“For both Doug and I, we both worked in places of deep brokenness and incredible hardship,” said Vanessa. “As rewarding as that work was, it’s not a legacy that I wanted to pass on. South Africa is a wonderful and gorgeous place, but it’s so broken. I felt my children needed something different.”
Now, Rebecca and Jason both attend Collingwood Collegiate Institute. Rebecca is in Grade 11, and has plans to attend post-secondary school for criminology and psychology.
“I’d like to go into penitentiaries and work with inmates. In my opinion, everyone deserves some kind of sympathy. People deserve the help they need to get better,” she said.
Jason, who is in Grade 9, would like to pursue a career in coding, robotics or game design.
Now that the family are Canadian citizens, they have some other milestones they’re looking forward to participating in.
“I’m really looking forward to casting a vote,” said Douglas. “Coming from South Africa, the right to vote is really important to us. We fought so hard for that right in South Africa.”
“I also can’t wait to be on a jury. There’s no jury system in South Africa,” he adds.
Vanessa said she’d like to get more involved in reconciliation work locally.
The family is also planning to see the north of Canada, as a perk of new citizenship is a free pass to all Canadian parks, art galleries and museums for one year.
Looking to the more distant future, Vanessa said she looks forward to having future generations of their family call Canada home.
“I hope to be surrounded by a couple of grandchildren, some very intelligent conversation, lots and lots of good wine – South African, preferably,” she said.
“It’s nice that generations to come, will be here,” said Douglas. “One day, they’ll tell the story of how this family came to Canada and this little town of Collingwood is where it all started.”
