OTTAWA - The Harper government is set to make permanent an internship pilot project that has helped young refugees escape the world's poorest, most violent places.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is expected to make the announcement Monday.
Since last September, university grads born in countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia have gained crucial work experience with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. Department officials hope the life-changing initiative will expand across government.
It's all part of the Young Newcomers Internship Program that welcomed 12 participants in its first year.
One of them was Nasir Maimanagy from northwestern Afghanistan.
Now 28, he first came to Toronto nine years ago through the World University Services Canada student refugee program.
It gave him a golden-ticket opportunity to study business and political science at University of Toronto. He ultimately completed his degree at Memorial University in St. John's, NL.
Landing an internship as a program officer with Citizenship and Immigration has "been really good -- it's wonderful, actually," he said.
"If the government can provide that (experience) to many newcomers, then it will change their lives. It will make it easier for them to find jobs and to help Canada...and their families."
It would also mean fewer foreign-born engineers and doctors driving cabs or doing other menial work simply because they lack professional experience here, Maimanagy said.
"We have a lack of educated people in sectors where they're required. But, sadly, people who have the knowledge are (instead) doing jobs that they're not supposed to do."
Maimanagy has four brothers and three sisters.
"My parents were uneducated but they emphasized that we would learn," he said. "Through their insistence and through our own interest ... my sisters, my brothers, all of us have degrees from universities."
Maimanagy and one brother now live in Canada. He last visited Kabul in 2007.
"It was bitter and sweet at the same time. For me, it was good to see my family, my friends and to see a little bit of development."
"But sad and bitter because the country is not really going towards the right direction. I was really moved by the amount of corruption, by lack of interest in building the country."
"What I saw was that those people who make the laws are usually the ones who break the laws."
Rampant police corruption leaves ordinary Afghan citizens vulnerable to intimidation by criminals -- with nowhere to turn for justice.
Maimanagy follows news from Afghanistan closely, including the sacrifices of Canadian and other foreign troops who have fought and died trying to stabilize the country.
"Gandhi said if you want to see a change in the world, be the change," he said. "The change must come from within."
"If people are not into it, if people are not really willing to help their country, then I don't know how it's going to go."
He hopes to return one day to Afghanistan to build schools with modern science labs and other equipment he lacked as a child.
Danielle Norris, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration, says another 10 university graduates will be chosen for internships starting in September.
The department vets candidates through World University Services Canada which has helped students from Africa, Asia and Latin America for the last 60 years.
"The problem is they'll go to university and then they'll have nowhere to get that first (employment) step," Norris said. "And that's what this program offers. It's really an opportunity to succeed after university."
"We hope that eventually it will expand to other departments."
