WALLACE IMMEN

Tuesday, December 26, 2000

In camps for Somali refugees in Africa, Toronto is known as Dixon.

The reference is to the brick canyons of apartment buildings clustered along Dixon Road east of Pearson Airport that have become "Little Mogadishu," the first home in Canada for hundreds of new Somali immigrants.

It's not that people from the conflict-devastated East African country love faceless high-rises; they head immediately to the suburban apartments near the border of Mississauga because there are many people who have shared their experience and can give them support.

Mohammed Tabit didn't have that advantage when he arrived as one of the first Somalis in Toronto in 1989.

"Imagine arriving to a place where no one has heard of your language and culture. It is much colder than the homeland you left, and you have nothing," said Mr. Tabit, who now helps newcomers as program manager for the Midaynta (Unity) Association of Somali Service Agencies.

He had trained as a doctor in Italy and Romania and was establishing a practice in dentistry when genocidal anarchy swept Somalia, forcing nearly a third of the population to flee in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

"People went crazy killing each other," Mr. Tabit said. Villages, fields and flocks were destroyed; wells were poisoned. Women who weren't killed were raped.

"It was like a fire. People had to run for their lives. They didn't take anything with them.

"Canada is seen as some kind of heaven, compared to the camps" in Kenya and Ethiopia, where many refugees were forced into crowded tent cities plagued by infectious diseases. Mr. Tabit managed to get a flight to Montreal.

"I was starting from zero," he said. "There was nothing for help or guidance. I had no clue about housing and the system of government."

As a Muslim, he said, he didn't feel comfortable going to Christian or Jewish social-service groups for help.

Finding a home and job in Montreal was frustrating because he spoke little French. Like many immigrants with professions, he found his credentials were not recognized in Canada and he found that to get back into medicine would require years of expensive retraining.

So he left Montreal for Toronto, where a Somali friend who offered to share an apartment said he could use his English and find a job in a dental laboratory.

Mr. Tabit said he immediately fell in love with the city.

"Toronto is a nice place to live because there are no ghettos. I like the fact that there is no discrimination and no restriction on faith."

And, in contrast to Somalia, Toronto offers safety.

Stories of the welcoming, tolerant city quickly spread back in Africa and a flood of refugees to Toronto followed.

Mr. Tabit estimates the 2001 census will show 40,000 to 50,000 Somalis in Toronto and its surrounding regions, up from 8,530 in the last census in 1996.

"We have a culture that people follow each other. It is an oral society, and the reputation of Canada is that it welcomes people from every place," said Mr. Tabit.

When he came to Canada, Mr. Tabit was fortunate that his wife had been an exchange student in Wisconsin. She stayed there until he got settled. Their daughter was born in Milwaukee and they have since had three sons in Canada.

They found a place to live in Scarborough.

The new centres of population have become established where families can live near each other and help with child-rearing.

In Somali society, care of the large families is a community venture, Mr. Tabit explained. "The women can go and shop and leave their kids with a friend. They share. One day is my day. The next day I stay and you can go."

More than 50 businesses along Weston Road north of Lawrence Avenue are run by Somalis.

Mr. Tabit said new refugees still face many hurdles in coming to Toronto. Many people with professional training in medicine, engineering and management have to take low-paying jobs to keep a roof over their heads.

Well educated and skilled Somalis are disproportionately represented among the city's cab drivers, parking lot attendants and pizza delivery people, Mr. Tabit said.

"This is a great waste," he said. His community association is lobbying for more recognition of overseas professional training in Canada.

"Whatever happens now, my children only know this country. This is where they belong. I will sacrifice for them to help them become productive Canadians."
First in an occasional series that asks immigrants to Canada to describe the challenges and joys of making a new start in the Toronto region.

Toronto's ever-growing diversity

The 2001 census is expected to confirm that Toronto is the one of the most cosmopolitan places on Earth.

Foreign-born residents have become a majority of the city's population: More than 70,000 new immigrants arrive each year. Speaking more than 100 different languages, from 169 countries, they are as likely to look for homes in the suburban regions around Toronto as they are to settle in the city's downtown core.

Somalis in Toronto

-First arrived after prolonged civil war in the 1990s
-Estimated population:
40,000 to 50,000
-Communities:
Dixon Road and Weston Road in northwest Toronto, River Street in downtown Toronto.