So my good deed for this week is helping a Lebanese gentleman go through the online forms for applying for residence in New Zealand. Why New Zealand? I have no idea. For some reason the man has his heart set on going there. Could do worse I suppose, New Zealand is supposed to be a beautiful place.
Problem is he's a chef and his wife is a hairdresser. A quick tour through the website indicates that New Zealand is really interested in doctors, lawyers, engineers etc. but not so keen on having a chef and a hairdresser move over with their three children. We're going to spend some more time tonight looking over information to see what the options are. His best bet would be to find a job there first but a quick scan of NZ job listings seems to indicate that employers interested in chefs want them to have a work visa before they apply. Catch-22: No job without a work visa, no work visa because you don't have a job.
What prompted this is simple - Israel bombing the bejeezus out of Lebanon a while back. His wife in kids were living in an apartment in Beirut when it happened, and he could do nothing but watch Al-Jazeera night after night, watching Beirut going up in flames, and praying that his wife & kids don't get hit by a stray bomb. It took nearly three weeks and a good chunk of $$$ to get them to Damascus so that they could catch a flight here. The family is here now and after that harrowing experience his wife does not want to go back to Lebanon. It's just too unstable and potentially unsafe. I don't blame them.
Unfortunately working in Qatar is not the most secure place to be for Lebanese workers. He could be let go for any reason with little recourse. If that happens to him then what? He'd have no choice but to go back to Lebanon. That's why he wants to get somewhere where he won't just be deported on a whim. Somewhere where his kids can grow up safely. To him that's New Zealand.
I'll help him out but I'm not sure about his chances. I'll also push a bit for him to apply to Canada (he's reluctant due to the cold weather in the winter) but he speaks both English and French which is a big plus for applying to Canada.
Times like this I appreciate being Canadian, and not having to deal with things like how I'm going to move away from my bombed-out country.
2 comments:
Montreal has a large Lebanese community as well.
Yeah, I spoke to him and his friends are in Toronto right now. Apparantly his English is better than his French - French is slowly going the way of the dodo in Lebanon in favour of English, but knowing both languages is definately a plus for applying to Canada.
Still has his heart on New Zealand. There's a New Zealand guy in the complex that he's going to talk to to get a feel for the place.
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