When we last interviewed Felena Pereira in March, 2021, she was a Seasonal Agricultural Worker who was stranded in Canada over Christmas because Trinidad and Tobago’s borders remained closed due to Covid-19. Her children were living with her mother back home and she didn’t know when she’d see them next.
So much has changed in the last three years! I had started doing research to get my Permanent Residency (PR) status even before the pandemic. I knew I wanted to live in Canada permanently. That’s not easy unless you have the support of your employer but I was lucky to have that. He hired me full time and I was able to get my PR in April, 2022. I can apply for my Canadian citizenship in 2025.
My daughter Jolie Marie (now 19) arrived in June, 2022 and my son Alessio joined us that December. He’s 16. It was emotional waiting for them at the airport. It felt like I stood there for hours waiting for them to come through the gates. We’ve now got a home with a yard where I enjoy gardening. We just got a cat. My daughter’s enrolled in an Early Childhood Education at college and my son’s in grade 11. He’s into science and sports and plays on a local soccer team. My mom came to visit for several weeks last summer. That was wonderful.
I’ve recently left the farm after ten years and have been hired as an outreach delivery worker for a local organization that helps migrant workers needing support. I think I can really help them because I have the lived experience of being a migrant worker myself. I’ve also enrolled in college, taking a two year course to become a social service worker. Back home, I also studied library information sciences.