10/30/2026
Have you ever packed your life into 2 suitcases?
Have you ever packed your bag, uprooted your entire family, kissed your mother goodbye not knowing when you will see her again, and boarded a plane to start life ALL OVER in a new country?
That's not just a decision. That's the most RISKY decision any human being will ever make.
For most of us who landed in Canada — precisely Alberta — the results have been brutally varied.
Some gave up. They returned home. Not because they failed, but because it is easier to return to the comfort of the familiar than to rebuild from ZERO in a place that tells you to start over after you have already built a life.
Some stayed, but settled for less. Brilliant doctors driving Ubers. Engineers working survival jobs. Professors stocking shelves. They accepted mediocrity, not for themselves, but betting everything on their children — because history says second generations do better than the first.
And some — against ALL odds — broke through. They built careers, businesses, organizations, festivals, and movements that now feed the economy of this province.
Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, friends, supporters, fans — wherever you are on this newcomer journey, hear me loud and clear:
YOU ARE NOT ALONE!
It's a tough journey. And the most important tool you need is not money. It's INFORMATION.
Yes, the journey starts beautifully. Newcomer centres welcome you. Community members help you find a home. Family shows you where to buy groceries, where to find a barber, where to pray or gather with other community members.
But then comes the CLIFF.
There is a MASSIVE GAP between settlement and actually living your professional life. And that gap is where dreams go to die.
Programs to get back into your career of choice? Certification? Recognition of your 10, 15, 20 years of experience? Help finding a job in your field? They are as rare as finding water in the desert.
Some changed careers successfully. Some fought and made it back into their foreign-trained careers. But most are still fighting that battle in silence.
Let's be honest about what we are really dealing with here.
Most newcomers arrive in Alberta in their prime: 25 to 40 years old.
That means you are 25 years LATE to a race that others started running 25 years before you arrived. And you are expected to catch up. To fit in. To overtake them. With no shoes on.
Someone had to say it. Someone has to put it in perspective so you understand the UPHILL battle you are fighting every single day.
This is the blind spot that those born here cannot understand. Because experience is not taught in a textbook. Experience is earned. And you cannot earn it by staying in the same place.
Newcomers don't come empty-handed. We come with a WEALTH of knowledge, global expertise, resilience, and hunger that Alberta desperately needs. We just need more support to unleash it back into the Edmonton, Calgary, or Alberta economies.
And this is where your political leaders come in.
They can't understand your journey because they have NEVER taken it. How can you legislate a storm you have never stood in?
But you have two powers: You can EDUCATE them so your reality reflects in their decisions. Or better still — you can ELECT people who HAVE lived this journey to influence things from the INSIDE.
And when newcomers decide to STAY — what makes them stay?
It's not just a job. It's feeling at HOME. It's hearing your drums. Tasting your food. Seeing your culture celebrated. Dancing at your festival. Finding your community.
For all my years in Alberta, about two decades, I have spent my life building that social resources for newcomers to feel at home. That is my life's work. And I am happy to share more with you any day, anytime at ArtSphere, Africanival, AC Awards in Edmonton or Calgary, Afro Caribbean Festival YYC in Calgary or Diversity Awards in municipalities across Alberta.
In this difficult period, with new anti-newcomer and anti-inclusion legislation making its way through the Alberta Legislature — legislation that questions our belonging, that challenges inclusion, that taxes the vulnerable in our communities — I just want to use my platform to look you in the eye and say:
You are already here and you belong here.
Your story matters.
You are not alone.
Be Strong for yourself, your future and your family.
You’ll overcome…!
~ Yours Frankline
