'Every immigrant parent wants to do best, but what is best?'
Parenting Expo 2017 was intended for parents of various ethnic backgrounds

Yorkregion.com
June 25, 2017
By Lisa Queen

A couple of weeks after Ayesha Singh and her husband Bikram arrived in Canada from India about a year ago, their young son Sumair developed a mild fever.

She gave him medicine prescribed that had been prescribed by pediatrician in India but the fever kept recurring every couple of hours.

It was the weekend and their new doctor in Canada was unavailable.

Not knowing where to turn, Singh was becoming more concerned.

“I didn’t know who to turn to for help as I didn’t know many people here. Back home, one has a support network of friends and family to turn to. I just needed to speak to an expert on what I could do to manage the situation till I could go see a doctor the next day,” Singh said.

“Knowing that it was not an emergency, I was not sure if I could take him to a hospital. But since I was hesitant to continuously repeat the medication, I searched on the Internet for any possible advice I could get to deal with the situation and I was lucky to find a medical advice service, otherwise I would be panicking. There are many such incidents new immigrants face due to lack of proper information and resources or support.”

Fortunately, Sumair, now 7, is doing well and thriving in his new home, as are his parents.

Singh shared her experiences as a newcomer parent at Markham’s the Price of Canada Carousel in downtown Markham June 22 at Parenting Expo 2017, Canada’s first-of-its-kind forum for immigrant parents and parents of various ethnic backgrounds.

The forum was organized by the Parent Connect, a platform offering newcomer parents a collaborative hub to access information and links to service providers.

Leaving their comfort zones in their homelands where it’s second nature to turn to family and friends to come to a new country where it’s difficult to navigate a new language and customs, is a challenge faced by thousands of immigrants every year, Parent Connect and expo founder Loretta Lam said.

Canada welcomed more than 300,000 immigrants in 2016.

In York Region, 55 per cent of residents will be immigrants and 62 per cent will be visible minorities by 2031.

Not only do newcomers often struggle with unfamiliar experiences, there can also be tensions within families as children adapt more easily to Canadian customs than their parents and grandparents, Lam said.

She came to Canada from Hong Kong in the early 1990s. She married and has a 20-year-old daughter.

Lam said she knows what it’s like to flounder trying to access information and resources.

“Every parent and every immigrant wants to give the best to their children. But how do you know what’s the best? When I look back, I told myself I wish I knew that. I missed some opportunities,” she said.

“I talk to a lot of parents. They told me they wish there was a centralized hub they can turn to for networking, experience- and knowledge-sharing.”

For more information, visit parentconnect.ca.