These 3 immigrant success stories show the Canadian dream is still alive for some in Saskatchewan

This story is part of Welcome to Canada, a CBC News series about immigration told through the eyes of the people who have experienced it.

Robel Fessehaye Firay points to the desk in Tina's Tailoring Service where he started his first sewing job 15 years ago. At the time, he was a recent refugee to Canada from Eritrea and had nothing to his name. Now he owns not only Tina's Tailoring Service, but also two other sewing shops in Saskatoon.

"I am from zero," he said. "[I went] from zero to hero."

Firday said he was driven to carry on his family's tailoring legacy. He worked as a janitor and at a sewing shop to save up money to launch his own tailoring business.

Refugees are able to access government support for up to a year, but he said after three months he had enough work to support himself.

While Firay has made a life and a home for himself in Saskatchewan, the province has struggled compared to other provinces to retain newcomers arriving from other countries, according to Statistics Canada data and a recent Pollara survey commissioned by CBC.

In that survey, a little more than 1,500 adult Canadian residents answered questions online between Nov. 1 and 18, 2024. They all arrived in Canada in the past 10 years. Margins of error cannot be calculated for surveys that come from online panels, but for comparison purposes, a probability sample of 1,507 would carry a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 per cent.

Almost two-fifths of respondents to CBC's survey who still live in the province they immigrated to said they are likely to consider moving to another province. The number was even higher in Saskatchewan, although the sample size in the province was small, so the comparable margin of error is much higher than for the country-wide survey results.

Meanwhile, Statistics Canada data says only half of immigrants admitted to Saskatchewan in 2017 were still living in the province five years later, down 16.4 percentage points from 2013, the sharpest decrease among all provinces and territories.

Asotosh Patel said he understands why immigrants choose to leave Saskatchewan, especially when their work experience is not recognized here.

He came to the province in 2019 under the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program, which selects newcomers with skills and experience in occupations that are in high demand in the province. He said some professionals, even those admitted through this program, can find it frustrating finding work in their field.

"Software engineers, software developers … they are not [finding it] easy to get the job over here in Saskatchewan," he said.

"Then they change their cities. They go to Toronto or, like, Calgary."

Patel said he saw the potential to own a business in Saskatchewan. He saved up while working at a 7-Eleven for three years, while building his management experience.