Being Selected to Come to Canada - Madan Kumar Giri

They didn’t tell us the exact reason why our family was selected and how. I even didn’t ask how our family was selected. They simply called us in their office and said, Madan, your family is selected for the settlement, as a pilot project group. And the settlement will be in Canada. The Canadian government has agreed to settle the pilot project group. So, that was only the enquiry they did with us. And I didn’t ask them further why our family was selected. Why not the other family? I didn’t ask like that. It was because we were already living there in the refugee camp for almost eleven years at the time. So it was a long time in the refugee camp. We were living with nothing else, you know. Simply a certain amount of food, simply getting a certain amount of food for a day was in our life. And we were still looking to do something more to build up our life. We were still looking to be a citizen of some other country. We were still looking to do everything by ourselves. We didn’t want to depend on the government or any settlement agency for food and clothing and, you know, living. So yeah, when I got the news about the settlement, I was very happy. And I said, yes, we will be happy to go anywhere, wherever UNHCR wants to settle us. So that’s how the process started.

Oral History 14.05.08MKG with Madan Kumar Giri
Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21