As he arrives at his new office at a high-tech firm in Kitchener on Friday, Mohammed Hakmi is wowed by the lofty and playful space in the old tannery where each room is named after rappers.

The warm smiles from his new Canadian colleagues at Bonfire Interactive stand in stark contrast to the hostile stares he faced in Beirut, where every day on his way to work he passed a billboard warning Syrian refugees they’re not welcome to work and shouldn’t take jobs away from Lebanese.

“I feel like I’m living in a wonderful dream now and I don’t want anyone to wake me up,” said Hakmi, 26, who last week packed up his life as a refugee and landed in Kitchener as the first skilled immigrant admitted to Canada through Talent Beyond Boundaries, a Washington-based NGO that matches refugees with employers desperate to fill skill shortages.

“I started following the weather conditions in Kitchener-Waterloo on a daily basis since Jan. 31 when Canada asked for my passport to stamp my immigrant visa,” he chuckles. “My luggage was filled with winter clothes.”

Since its 2016 inception, Talent Beyond Boundaries has vetted and developed skill profiles for more than 10,000 refugees now in Lebanon and Jordan — 30 per cent of them with an undergraduate degree or above, and half with intermediate to full English proficiency. The talent pool includes people from 200 professions, the majority with a background in engineering, health care, IT, teaching, accounting and university education.

To date, seven refugees have received job offers in Canada, with Hakmi newly arrived and the rest at different stages of their immigration applications.

When war broke out in Syria in 2011, Hakmi fled Homs with his parents, three sisters and brother, ending up in Beirut, where for eight years they shared a tiny two-bedroom apartment. With a bachelor’s degree in information technology, Hakmi worked illegally as a web developer and in computer networking to support his parents and siblings.

Last summer, he was vetted by Talent Beyond Boundaries, whose staff helped build his resumé and prepare him for job interviews. In September, he submitted his permanent residence application as a skilled immigrant to Canada with pro bono help from Toronto’s Segal Immigration Law after he was offered a job as a web developer by Bonfire.

“I’m very optimistic for my new life,” said Hakmi. “I can have a secure life rather than living in daily fear of how I was going to stay alive and support my family. From now, I can start building my future and achieve my ambitions and goals to enhance my skills and to become a productive person in Canadian society.”

Bruce Cohen, co-founder of Talent Beyond Boundaries, said Hakmi’s “landmark arrival” showcases a pioneering new solution for refugees that highlights displaced people as assets, with skills and knowledge to offer, rather than as liabilities.

“Mohammed is a talented developer who will make an enormous contribution to his new employer and community,” said Cohen. “There are many thousands of refugees like him who can excel if afforded the opportunity.”

Skilled worker and economic immigration policies are not designed with refugees in mind and requirements such as recent work experience and a ready amount of cash make it impossible for many to qualify. It limits their migration options to humanitarian consideration only.

However, with collaboration from Canadian immigration officials, Talent Beyond Boundaries is able to help refugee applicants overcome some of the barriers they face.

Currently, fewer than 1 per cent of the 20 million UN-registered refugees around the world are resettled from a temporary host country in the developing world to the West.

With help, Hakmi was able to overcome hurdles along the way. His flight from Lebanon to Toronto, at about $1,000, was a financial burden, but Talent Beyond Boundaries staff reached out to another non-profit organization, Miles4Migrants, to find someone to donate air miles for his trip.

Since 2016, Miles4Migrants has received donor pledges of more than 46 million miles and reunited 700 refugees with their loved ones. One of those donors was Maryland native Meredith Yeager, who responded to the charity’s call and donated the 50,000 air miles Hakmi needed.

“It was very exciting and humbling that my air miles could help someone to be safe. It’s a privilege to help him,” said the geneticist, who got a thank-you letter from Hakmi earlier detailing his challenges in Lebanon. “He arrived in Canada on my birthday. It’s completely coincidental. I couldn’t be happier. It’s the best gift ever.”

Hakmi said Talent Beyond Boundaries has already connected him with a local immigrant agency to help him get his identification and find housing. Although he officially starts his job at Bonfire in April, he couldn’t wait to meet his colleagues, visit his office and familiarize himself with the Mac computer he’ll soon will be working on.

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“I know I’m very fortunate to be here and can build a future when thousands of skilled, talented and educated refugees see their skills and education go to waste,” he said.

And like many newcomers, Hakmi was eager to fully immerse himself in Canadian culture: On his second day in the country, he headed to Tim Hortons, indulging in his first Iced Capp.

“Canada is a dreamland,” he said.

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