Being an immigrant is not an easy life… most new immigrants (first generation) typically fall for the same type of life choices, accepting the first job they can find, which in most cases is a low-paying one, and due to immigrant life hardships, we stay in these jobs for years if not decades, stuck, because our English is not at a native tongue level, we feel that we are not good enough, our past experiences are not good enough because they are not from a local market experiences.

We work 3 times as hard as the locals, just to try and catch up to the standard of living of the people who were born in a country we immigrated to, oftentimes working two, or three jobs just to keep up with what we should be projecting to the outside world.

There is also a certain degree of expectation of our friends and family back home, if we moved here for a better life, we must work hard to achieve a better life and show others that we didn’t move here for the same type of life, but better!

How Design Education Fund for Immigrant Designers was born

In late 2020, while the COVID-19 pandemic was still at its peak, and so many designers among other people were still struggling to find work after mass layoffs in early 2020, my mentoring went from just a few people once every couple of years, to essentially 7-10 people a week, which lead to meeting, mentoring, and getting to know thousands of people in the span of the last almost 3 years.

Among those people, I have met several with some really interesting stories, immigrants who moved to North America (USA or Canada) before the pandemic, and their immense struggles, hardships, and dreams of becoming a designer. One notable story is of a mother, a Syrian refugee who fled her county’s constant violence and state of war, who arrived in Canada and discovered the freedoms that a woman can have, she became passionate about design, specifically, UX design, while living at a refugee center, going through a complicated court situation with her husband, disapprovals from her family because she wanted a career, she still kept on going, she kept on developing endless hunger for knowledge, learning new things, trying new things, being creative and experimenting with UX with her fellow refugees at the center.

Hers and others stories inspired me to go beyond just mentoring, and rather helping by giving them a gift of knowledge, so I become a financial sponsor for a few immigrants aspiring to become designers. But paying for their education did not stop there, I booked regular check-ins for the next 12 months with them to mentor, guide, and be the support they need to keep on going, keep learning, keep progressing, provide the needed emotional support, and encouragement, in addition always keeping open communication via LinkedIn or Emails for them to reach out with any questions or needs.

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The last several years of sponsoring aspiring designers, inspired the next evolution of this journey, starting Design Education Fund for Immigrant Designers. Now, this project is growing beyond just my philanthropy, it is becoming more open to other creatives who express their desire to join me in this project to continue supporting aspiring immigrant designers for as long as we financially can!