PODCAST · society
The Newcomers Podcast
by Dozie Anyaegbunam | Exploring the Canadian Immigrant Experience
Interviews with immigrants and stakeholders involved in the immigration process where we explore the immigration journey, including raising kids in a new culture, integration, identity, and everything in-between.
Episodes
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E187: Ciro Muiruri on the story that brought her daughter home
In this episode, I'm speaking with Ciro Muiruri, who moved to Canada in 2015 to escape an abusive husband, about the magazine article that ended her eight-year wait to find her kidnapped daughter. In February 2023, Toronto Life published Ciro's story. ...
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E186: Shari Graydon on the Alberta referendum and what Quebec lost
In this episode, I'm speaking with Shari Graydon, the CEO of Informed Perspectives, about the Alberta Referendum and the cost of Quebec's referendum to the province, even though both failed. Shari was six when her family moved from Montreal to Vancouve...
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E185: Jackie Pichette on why there's no magic number for Canada's immigration targets
In this episode, I'm speaking with Jackie Pichette, Policy Lead for Skills & Higher Education at RBC Thought Leadership, about Canada's immigration targets and how the categories added to Express Entry got in the way of what the point system was built ...
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E184: Veronica Sepehr on your next move if you're in the Express Entry pool
In the third episode of the collaboration between The Newcomers and Canadian Immigrant, Baisakhi Roy, Editor at Canadian Immigrant, and I chat with Veronica Sepehr, an RCIC and founder of Westdale Immigration Consulting Inc., about your next move if yo...
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E183: David Hornsby thinks international students should still choose Canada
In this episode, I'm speaking with David Hornsby, Vice-Provost (Academic & Global Learning) and Professor in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University, about the polarizing debate over international students, the role o...
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E182: Andrew Pohlod on why it's better to buy in Alberta than Ontario
In this episode, I'm speaking with Andrew Pohlod, the Chief Operating Officer of BRIX Real Estate Group, about buying your first home in Canada, how much you need upfront, and all the little but important information you need to consider before committ...
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E181: George Carothers and his team know how to fix Canada's credentialing problem
In this episode, I'm speaking with George Carothers, the Senior Director, Ideas and Insights, at the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC), about the Ready to Contribute report and how we got to the point where we have 640,000 degree-holding immigra...
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E180: Daniel Bernhard thinks you should still immigrate to Canada. But...
In the second episode of the collaboration between The Newcomers and Canadian Immigrant, Baisakhi Roy, editor of Canadian Immigrant, and I chat with Daniel Bernhard, CEO of the Institute for Canadian Citizenship (ICC) and try to answer the question: Sh...
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E179: Juliette Morard-Duboisset only wanted Canada
In this episode, I'm speaking with Juliette Morard-Duboisset about life in Canada and why she kept choosing Alberta. Juliette had started interviewing with Fairmont when the pandemic stopped the process. Her husband had resigned from his job, and she w...
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E178: Racha El-Dib lost her sister to domestic violence. Now she's fighting it in Calgary.
In this episode, I'm speaking with Racha El-Dib, a Benefits Analyst and the Founder & Executive Director of Nadia's Hope Foundation, about domestic violence and why it can disproportionately affect newcomer and refugee women. After her sister Nadia was...
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E177: Blair Hyslop thinks we need a Canadian compromise on immigration
In this episode, I'm speaking with Blair Hyslop, the Co-CEO and Co-Owner of Mrs. Dunster's Bakery, one of the largest fresh commercial bakeries in Atlantic Canada, headquartered in Sussex, New Brunswick. Over the last twelve years, the business has gro...
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E176: Is Canada still worth immigrating to in 2026? | The Canada Conversation series
In this episode, I'm speaking with Baisakhi Roy, editor of Canadian Immigrant, in the first episode of the collaboration between The Newcomers and Canadian Immigrant, where we look to go beyond the policies and headlines to ask the questions most newco...
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E175: Daniella Jasper-Okumagba knows she has community capital. And she intends to spend it.
In this episode, I'm speaking with Daniella Jasper-Okumagba, Founder and CEO of The BRDGE, a Canadian food platform that connects ethnic chefs with people craving their food. Daniella walked away from a cushy oil and gas job in her early twenties to bu...
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E174: Jonah Chininga on building a fintech startup in Calgary
In this episode, I'm speaking with Jonah Chininga, Co-Founder and CEO of Woveo, a Calgary-based fintech startup that operates on the basis that reputation can work as collateral for Canadian small businesses. Jonah is an example of the well-used cliché...
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E173: Wunmi Adekanmbi on how immigrant networks can grow Canada's economy
In this episode, I'm speaking with Wunmi Adekanmbi, the visionary behind Trade Without Borders, a platform that aims to advance Canada's global trade diversification through diaspora networks, international partnerships, and engagement with emerging ma...
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E172: David Bradshaw on being the only one in the room
In this episode, I am speaking with David Bradshaw, Co-Founder of BradshawBolton and President of Calgary Black Chambers, about what it's like walking into rooms where nobody looks like you. Once you're in there, do you use that privilege to build a br...
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E171: Althea Samuels & Patricia Giankas on credit and raising capital as an immigrant woman
In this episode, the first of our collaboration with Immigrant Women in Business (IWB), I am speaking with Althea Samuels, a life and money mindset coach, and Patricia Giankas, who fondly calls herself a senior female in tech (SFT) and has spent decade...
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E170: Daria Lysenko on what it's like to work in newcomer settlement
In this episode, I'm speaking with Daria Lysenko, who's passionate about helping newcomers settle and find their footing in Canada. Daria spent most of our conversation taking apart a bias I had carried for a bit now. Which is that newcomers/immigrants...
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E169: Abu Hafejee on how newcomers break into the trades in Canada
In this episode, I'm speaking with Abu Hafejee, who runs a carpentry business in Toronto, teaches the carpentry apprenticeship program at George Brown Polytechnic, while supporting the Toronto Business Development Centre's (TBDC) Explore Skilled Trades...
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E168: Hamoudi Saleh Baratta refuses to let torture define him
In this episode, the last of our four-part series with Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSofBC), I'm speaking with Hamoudi Saleh Baratta, who filmed the first footage of the Syrian revolution, was imprisoned and tortured for it, and now tells that st...
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E167: Kumaran Nadesan thinks we need more impolite Canadians
In this episode, I'm speaking with Kumaran Nadesan, who spent 15 years in the Ontario Public Service in different roles, left to co-found 369 Global and just published a book, The Impolite Canadian. Kumaran thinks that the best kind of citizen is the i...
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E166: Ajlin Mehmedi on the immigrant talent Canada doesn't use
In this episode, the third in our four-part series with Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSofBC), I'm speaking with Ajlin Mehmedi, who fled the former Yugoslavia in her early twenties, arrived as a government-assisted refugee with an unfinished degre...
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E165: Ramon Calanza on the career newcomers overlook: trucking
In this episode, I'm speaking with Ramon Calanza, who has worked in trucking for close to twenty years, started out as a recruiter, and now supports Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC) with their work in the Canadian trucking industry. When most...
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E164: Ebrahim Al-Yousefi is giving back to Canada, every day
In this episode, the second in our four-part series with Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSofBC), I'm speaking with Ebrahim Al-Yousefi, who fled Yemen as a child during the 2015 war, moved through Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Egypt, and arrived in Can...
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E164: Musap Abdelhag on why immigrant youth don't need chocolate bars
In this episode, I'm speaking with Musap Abdelhag, known across Calgary as Moose. He's a first-generation Sudanese-Canadian who grew up here as an immigrant kid, fell into the streets, went back to Sudan in his early twenties, and then moved back to Ca...
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E163: Dacious Richardson on the choices he's made after landing in Canada as a refugee
In this episode, the first in our four-part series with Immigrant Services Society of BC (ISSofBC), I'm speaking with Dacious Richardson, who came to Canada from Liberia as a refugee in 2011 and has since become a youth mentor and community leader in B...
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E162: Abhishek Asthana on building a business in Canada as an immigrant entrepreneur
In this episode, I'm speaking with Abhishek Asthana, co-founder of Shivani's Kitchen, who has spent the last decade learning what it takes to put an immigrant food brand on national shelves. When Sobeys came knocking during COVID and offered to carry t...
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E161: Jatin Shory on the choices no immigrant wants to hear
In this episode, I'm speaking with Jatin Shory, Partner- Immigration and Refugee Law at Shory Law LLP, and Table Officer (National Immigration Section), Canadian Bar Association. Hundreds of thousands of people sit in the Express Entry today without fi...
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E160: Carolyn Watson says we'll feel today's cuts in three to five years
In this episode, I'm speaking with Carolyn Watson, who runs CEW Immigration Consulting and spent close to twenty years in the settlement sector before moving into immigration consulting. The work that I think usually has the biggest impact on immigrant...
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E159: Templeton Sawyer on why he created the Belonging Tour
In this episode, I am speaking with Templeton Sawyer, who who started his career helping newcomers find work as an employment support practitioner, and then co-founded Alive House and built its Belonging Tour, which heads to Calgary and PEI over the ne...
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E158: Theresa Evanoff and Tehmina Chaudhry are solving early-stage capital for immigrant founders
In this episode, I sit down with Theresa Evanoff, Executive Director, Global Angel Investor Network (GAIN), and Tehmina Chaudhry, who founded and runs the Canada Startup Association, and is also a member of GAIN's board of directors. The conversation a...
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E157: Leah Mitchell and Lindsay Rubeniuk on the job hunting strategy that works for rural Canada
In this episode, I'm joined by Leah Mitchell and Lindsay Rubeniuk, who've spent years working with newcomers building lives in rural Manitoba and are co-hosts of the Move Rural Canada podcast. If you're thinking of moving to rural Canada, know that the...
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E156: Vaishali Gauba mostly belongs
In this episode, I am speaking with Vaishali Gauba, who moved from India to the US to study journalism, worked her way to CBS News and the Stephen Colbert Show, then watched her plans change. She moved back to India, became an on-air journalist at an i...
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E155: John Hetherington and Caitlin White on why you can't take anything for granted as an immigrant
In this episode, I'm speaking with John Hetherington, who moved from England to Canada 20 years ago, and his niece Caitlin White, who landed a few months ago. I think I've said this before, but immigration is like brute force midlife crisis. You do not...
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E154: Niki Wagh names the pressure immigrants never talk about
In this episode, I am speaking with Niki Wagh, an educator who's done some great work on naming what the immigrant life feels like. Niki and I explore something we immigrants feel but seem to avoid naming, that is the relentless pressure to over-perfor...
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E153: Luki Danukarjanto says the hiring bar has moved. And most Canadian immigrants don't know this yet.
In this episode, I am speaking to Luki Danukarjanto, a soft skills coach who spent over 12 years at Deloitte before leaving to do what he calls the more meaningful work. The rise and rise of AI means the bar for getting hired has gone to the stratosphe...
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E152: Jonathan Oldman believes we need a bigger conversation about Canadian immigration
Note: This conversation was recorded on February 13, 2025. Some policy announcements, including changes to settlement sector funding, have been made since the recording. The themes and principles discussed remain relevant. ---------- In this episode, I...
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E151: Victor Neagu on why we can't normalize underachievement
In this episode, I'm speaking with Victor Neagu, a policy analyst who spent years working in international development across Africa, Asia, and South America before permanently moving to Canada in 2018. This conversation was an opportunity to explore s...
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E150: David Campbell understands why our immigration policy can't work for Atlantic Canada
In the 150th episode (whew), I am speaking with David Campbell, formerly Chief Economist with the New Brunswick Jobs Board Secretariat and President of Jupia Consultants Inc, an industry research and economic development consulting firm. The big questi...
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E149: Mo Altaqatqa on the skill that separates the newcomer entrepreneurs who win from those who don't
In today's episode, I'm speaking to Mo Altaqatqa, Senior Business Development Manager at Futurpreneur. Mo grew up in Jordan, left in 2011, lived in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and Ukraine before moving to Canada. He's been working with entrepreneurs for over ...
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E148: Bontu Galataa on the biggest mistake loads of newcomer entrepreneurs make
In today's episode, I am chatting with Bontu Galataa, an entrepreneurship ecosystem strategist and Founder of Sayyoo Consulting, a social impact business consultancy about the mistakes immigrant entrepreneurs make and more. Bontu has met and still meet...
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E147: Emmanuel Ahiafor says Ghana is still home. He just doesn't fit there anymore.
In this episode, I'm speaking with Emmanuel Ahiafor, who started travelling solo to Russia in his first year of university, visited over 15 countries, moved to Budapest because of a song, and now lives in New Brunswick with his family. When I asked him...
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E146: Busayo Disu thinks the society has to meet the immigrants halfway
In today's episode, I'm speaking with Busayo Disu, a pharmacist turned intercultural communication advocate who moved from Nigeria to Sherwood Park, Alberta in 2019. Since that time, she's launched the African Society of Strathcona County, written a ch...
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E145: Abdullah Sharief thinks Canada's risk aversion could be costly in the long-term
In today's episode, I'm speaking with Abdullah Sharief, Co-Founder and CMO of Panda Hub, North America's leading mobile car detailing platform. Abdullah studied medicine in Turkey, came to Canada in 2018, and has gone on to build arguably Canada's bigg...
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E144: Maria Kamila González knows the real reason you can't save money
In today's episode, I'm speaking with Maria Kamila González, the co-founder of Finanzo, a non-profit organization in Toronto that believes in making newcomers financially aware and has impacted the lives of 100,000 immigrants in the US and Canada. Mari...
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E143: Mustafa Ansari thinks the public image problem of skilled trades is costing Canada
In today's episode, I'm chatting with Mustafa Ansari, Director of Marketing of Toronto Business Development Centre (TBDC), who's made it a personal mission to get more immigrants into trucking and the skilled trades. Mustafa moved from Pakistan to Cana...
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E142: Diana Palmerín Velasco on resetting the Canadian immigration conversation
In today's episode, I'm talking with Diana Palmerín Velasco of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce about how we go about rebuilding trust in Canada's immigration system. Diana moved to Canada in 2011 with all the credentials you'd think would make settlin...
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E141: Ruairi Spillane wants you to stop treating job hunting like Bingo
In today's episode, I'm talking to the brilliant and straight-shooting Ruairi Spillane, who runs Moving2Canada and Outpost Recruitment. Ruairi is one of the OGs when it comes to helping newcomers move to Canada, find jobs, and settle in nicely. So he w...
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E140: Rodrigo Cotrim de Carvalho is trying to understand what's wrong with him
In our first episode of 2026, I'm speaking with Rodrigo Cotrim de Carvalho, a Brazilian food researcher and educator who left Rio de Janeiro for Ottawa, Canada, through the now shuttered Startup Visa program. There's a lot to reflect on here, folks. Bu...
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E139: Deanna Okun-Nachoff knows what's missing from Canada's immigration discourse
In the last episode of 2025, I’m chatting with Deanna Okun-Nachoff, an immigration lawyer and host of the Borderlines Podcast, about where Canada’s immigration system stands six months into the Carney government. Any sense of accountability on the part...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Interviews with immigrants and stakeholders involved in the immigration process where we explore the immigration journey, including raising kids in a new culture, integration, identity, and everything in-between.
HOSTED BY
Dozie Anyaegbunam | Exploring the Canadian Immigrant Experience
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Newcomers Podcast have?
The Newcomers Podcast currently has 188 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Newcomers Podcast about?
Interviews with immigrants and stakeholders involved in the immigration process where we explore the immigration journey, including raising kids in a new culture, integration, identity, and everything in-between.
How often does The Newcomers Podcast release new episodes?
The Newcomers Podcast publishes regularly with 188 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Newcomers Podcast?
You can listen to The Newcomers Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Newcomers Podcast?
The Newcomers Podcast is created and hosted by Dozie Anyaegbunam | Exploring the Canadian Immigrant Experience.
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