What does it mean to be Canadian?

For those who spend years earning their citizenship, it means the world: having a chance at a new life, new opportunities or the chance to reunite with family. For some, it can even mean the difference between life and death.

On July 1, more than 1,800 people will take their oath of citizenship in 42 Canada Day ceremonies across the country.

We asked new Canadians from coast to coast what becoming a citizen means to them.

Emil Cezar Onias — New Glasgow, N.S.

Exactly a week after becoming Canadian, Emil Cezar Onias will be taking in his first Canada Day as a citizen alongside his family as fireworks light up the night sky in rural Nova Scotia.

Onias, originally from the Philippines, has been living in New Glasgow, N.S., since the fall of 2012. He joined his wife, Chik, who came to the town about an hour and a half north of Halifax in 2011 to take a management job at a local McDonald’s restaurant. As a McDonald’s manager in the Philippines, Chik was told about an opening in the New Glasgow location, applied, and was eventually hired.

Onias said before that, their family had never even thought about living in Canada, let alone Nova Scotia. All he knew about Canada was that it was north of the United States, which meant it was cold.

“At first I felt like ‘are we going to be seeing penguins?’ ” he laughed.

Onias remembers a few “culture shock” moments in his first year, including assuming that everyone who greeted him with a “Hi, how are you?” wanted to have a long chat. In the Philippines, Onias said, you don’t really greet people you don’t know, so he wasn’t sure how to respond.

“The first time, I talked to this guy for five minutes. I was saying ‘Oh, I just got here in Canada’ — I thought he wants like a conversation,” Onias recalled, adding he did that “a lot” before realizing the passing hello was just a gesture.

Then came winter.

“First week was just amazing, I was amazed. And then after that I was just sick of it,” Onias laughed.

He said he loves living in Nova Scotia where he and his family have felt welcomed “with open arms,” but winter is the one time of year when he often longs for the warmth of the Philippines.

Onias said it was hard on him and Chik as they waited for their two children, Mikaela, 14, and Jamil, 12, to be able to join them, but the family has been together since 2014. They stood united on Monday, June 24, during their official citizenship ceremony in Halifax when they became Canadians.

At first, Onias said it didn’t really “sink in” that he was a citizen, since he’s been in Canada and a permanent resident for years. But that changed once he posted photos of the ceremony on social media, and hundreds of likes and excited comments came rolling in.

Also, having a Canadian passport is a big deal. Onias can now comfortably travel back and forth to the U.S. to visit relatives, which he hasn’t been able to do because he said the Philippine passport isn’t as strong as Canada’s.

Onias works in corrections at a nearby jail, and has a second job in a nursing home. This Canada Day, he’ll be working until the early evening, but he saysthe family will still have lots of time to head to the nearby community of Westville to watch the fireworks.

And this year, he’s sure the celebrations will feel a little different.

“Now I could celebrate with my fellow Canadians — not as a Filipino celebrating with Canadians, you know what I mean? I’m part of something big,” he said.

“Especially this year, the Toronto Raptors won. Oh my goodness! We the North!”

Related: ‘No other country in the world’ like Canada, new citizens say as 200 swear their oaths in Halifax

Iyesha Khan — Toronto

Iyesha Khan hadn’t even sworn allegiance to her new country yet and she was already encouraging her fellow new Canadians to volunteer and rally behind charitable causes.

“Don’t just think about taking from the country, but giving back to the country as well,” she said to rapturous applause from the crowd at a citizenship ceremony last week at the Bentway, near Toronto’s historic Fort York site.

The mother of three was chosen to speak on behalf of other immigrants during a gathering before the ceremony where she and 73 others from 23 different countries took the oath of citizenship.

“I encourage people to volunteer as much as you can and be a part of charitable events,” said the Pakistani native, who relishes volunteering at her children’s Brampton-area school and assisting with fundraising events for school-related activities.

“I’m very happy that I’m now a Canadian citizen, because my husband and children are already citizens,” she said while holding a mini Canadian flag and her certificate of citizenship, validation of her official welcome to her adopted homeland. “It has been a long journey.”

Khan, who relocated to Canada in 2013, attended the ceremony alone because her husband was busy managing his bustling employment agency business, and her children were at school.

While Khan said she wished her family could have been there to enjoy the moment with her, she felt right at home standing next to her fellow Canadians.

“Everyone is so friendly and welcoming that it doesn’t make a big difference if you’re alone or not.”

Though her Canadian household is steeped in South Asian culture, Khan, 33, said there are certain Canadian values, including kindness, loyalty and patriotism, that she has instilled in her three children. Two of her kids, twins, were born here.

“I encourage them to come together and make a difference in their community,” she said.

Not a bad lesson, coming from a woman who holds a masters in public administration and was used to being top of her class at the University of Kotli Azad Jammu & Kashmir in her native land, the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan.

“I was at the top of my program at my university, so I got to serve as a lecturer,” she said of her brief stint teaching before making the bold jump to relocate.

She was also in the running for an assistant commissioner post, a senior public service role in her territory.

“The day I got the letter from the public service commission is the same day I got my visa from Canada,” she said. “But I decided to sacrifice my future for my husband and my family.”

So Khan bid farewell to her parents and a promising career before packing up her belongings and moving more than 10,300 kilometres to the country her husband called home.

“Now, I’m happy that I moved here to live with my husband and children,” she said, adding that she hopes to revive her career in public administration.

“I will try to do something for the public, because I love to help my community,” she said.

Related: Canadians share most favourable view of immigrants, global study finds

Marei Alfrajani — Edmonton

Sitting at a citizenship ceremony in Edmonton on Thursday, surrounded by 73 others swearing the oath — the last step in becoming a Canadian — Marei Alfrajani’s eyes welled with tears.

“It’s tears of happiness mixed with sadness,” he said.

Reflecting on the two decades of struggle that led to this moment, for him, the ceremony felt almost anti-climactic.

“It has been 20 years waiting for this day,” he said. “I never gave up.”

Alfrajani was a young man when he fled Libya in March 1999, his political activism having made him an enemy of a powerful dictatorship.

“Had I not made this choice, I would have been dead,” Alfrajani said.

As the secret police threatened his family, Alfrajani hid out in a safe house for six months as he worked out an escape plan. Alfrajani says he bought a passport off a man on the street and grew out his beard to conceal his identity.

Alfrajani first fled to Jordan then took a boat to Malta, all the time afraid the secret police would catch him. He then travelled to Italy where he boarded a plane to Canada, a country he chose because he never saw it in international headlines.

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“Wasn’t in the news means it is a peaceful country,” Alfrajani said.

In July 1999, Alfrajani arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport. He only spoke two words of English, ‘me refugee,’ but it was enough to get him temporary asylum.

“It was a great feeling, for a couple of years,” he said.

It took months to obtain his real documents from Libya and prove his identity, but it would take 20 years for him to be able to call himself a Canadian.

After a few years in Canada, Alfrajani said he received a deportation letter. Alfrajani said his lawyer had missed an application deadline, putting his entire future — and even his life — in jeopardy. Alfrajani made a successful appeal to stay on humanitarian grounds, but his legal status in Canada remained in limbo.

He met and married his wife, Christine Alfrajani, in 2004, and she began working to sponsor him so he could gain full citizenship.

Together they built their Canadian dream. Alfrajani started his own moving business to support his growing family — he’s now a parent to four Canadian-born children — all the while knowing at his life in Canada could end with the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen.

“That’s the most mentally taxing thing, not knowing,” said Christine.

For 20 years, Alfrajani couldn’t leave the country, unsure of whether he would be allowed back. When his father and brother died in Libya, Alfrajani couldn’t mourn with his family. He and his wife spent thousands of dollars and countless hours fighting “tooth and nail” to make Canada his permanent home.

“I never regretted this, even though it took a long journey,” Alfrajani said.

Now, two decades after he took his first exhausted steps on Canadian soil, Alfrajani is proud to call himself a Canadian citizen.

“I’ve been living the dream for 20 years,” he said, clutching a paper Canadian flag. “I just officially now am Canadian.”

Related: Canadians get their geek on at a citizenship ceremony that was out of this world

Nellie Evangelista — Calgary

As a nearly two-decade-long journey across the world culminated on Friday with Nellie Evangelista and her family at their citizenship ceremony, Evangelista was thinking about her friends who were still working toward that goal.

Before coming to Calgary in 2015, Evangelista and her husband, Ariel Arzadon, had lived in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia since leaving their home in the Philippines almost 20 years ago. As the couple sat with their children and Arzadon’s mother Friday, patiently waiting for their citizenship ceremony to begin, Evangelista said she was thinking of some of their friends in the UAE who are unable to emigrate to Canada just yet because of health issues.

“We feel partly blessed because some of our friends are still there, and they haven’t finished the whole process of migrating. We feel like we’re lucky to be here,” Evangelista said.

But their journey to Canada was a long and difficult one. Evangelista is a physiotherapist and her husband is a nurse, and they kept working toward better job opportunities in new countries, trying to make enough to support their family.

The process of applying to come to Canada took three years, and Evangelista arrived here having to prove herself in her profession all over again.

“I started from scratch. The process of the examination to become licensed here took me at least a year and a half and then back to zero. If I don’t have the licence, I can’t work,” Evangelista said.

“It feels like you’re going through a needle, there’s so many factors. At least now, this is the final step and we’ll feel more at peace after that.”

After graduating from De La Salle University in Manila, she worked at hospitals in Saudi Arabia and the UAE for 13 years. Now, working as a physiotherapist in southwest Calgary, she says she sees a bright future for her family.

All along, Evangelista and Arzadon had been looking for a place they felt was safe and would provide opportunities for their three children, Ariene, Ella and Cedric. Arzadon’s mother, Dina, who has a Canadian super visa — a long-term temporary resident permit for parents and grandparents of other permanent residents or of Canadian citizens — joined the family as they took their oaths.

“After this ceremony, we’ll feel like we’re at home, like we belong here in Canada,” Arzadon said.

“We feel safe here and we know that this country will create a better future for our children, and the multiculturalism of this country that we are well accepted. We feel that we belong here.”

Related: Alberta pilot project aims to help newcomers rein in power bills

Bantugon family — Vancouver

For 18-year-old Giani Aeronn Bantugon, getting his Canadian citizenship with his family is one more assurance that he’ll never have to live apart from his parents again.

From ages eight to 13, he reunited with his mom, Generose, just once in the Philippines. She visited their homeland from Canada where she worked as a caregiver. Giani Aeronn’s father, Arnold, was also often away. He worked as a marine engineer on ships. Even though Giani Aeronn had a large extended family who looked after him and his two younger brothers, the “emptiness” of life without his parents was crushing.

“There’s always that fear (of whether) we’re going to see each other again,” said the new high school graduate, who is hoping to study business and finance during his post-secondary education. At the time, all they wanted was to be reunited and live in Canada.

Generose has worked in Canada as a caregiver since 2008. She left when her third child was just 10 months old and recalled the six years she was away from her children as very difficult.

“It killed me. I cried all the time. But at least they’re all here, they’re all doing well at school … I have two boxes of phone cards,” she said, adding there wasn’t a single day that she didn’t call her kids.

In 2014, Generose’s family finally arrived in Canada. They live together in the basement rental suite of a home owned by Generose’s boss.

After 11 years of waiting to become a citizen, Arnold was relieved and “happy” to finally take the oath of citizenship at a ceremony held June 27 in downtown Vancouver, where he and his family were among 72 new Canadians from 19 countries.

“I sacrificed my career. I worked on the ship around 14 years and then my wife sent the (immigration) papers and I stopped working on the ship to take care of my kids,” Arnold said.

Upon his arrival in B.C., Arnold worked as a delivery driver, then switched to his current job as a custodian. Both Generose and Arnold dream of owning their own home.

In the meantime, Generose takes comfort in knowing that her children have a positive outlook on life. When she joked with her children recently about “getting old” and not being able to move out of their rental suite, her second son said, “Don’t worry mom, we’re going to study and look after you.”

Related: He recently got his Canadian citizenship after a decade of trying. Now he is proving young people aren’t apathetic about voting

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