“At the time, Baghdad was not safe for us; we knew we had to leave - many people were frightened and fleeing Iraq. We left our house and only took our clothes. My family first went to Jordan for asylum while we waited for our humanitarian visas to be approved. We waited and didn’t know what the future would hold. None of my family had ever left Iraq before; it was the first time we had been on a plane - I remember although it was very hard to leave our home country, it was a good feeling to be on that plane.
The UNHCR visa process took some time; we weren’t sure of where we would end up and where our future would be - Canada, the US, or Australia - there were lots of possibilities. When I found out that our family would be going to Australia, I had no idea what life here would be like. I felt relief, so happy and free. I knew we would arrive in Australia and take it step-by-step. I thought “This is when my life starts, now. This is my life; this is my future.”
After arriving in Australia and with the support of SSI, Sinan attended TAFE and gained his Certificate III in Written & Spoken English, Certificate IV in Cyber Security and Certificate IV in Accounting & Bookkeeping. A year later, when the warehouse he was working in was closing, Sinan was invited by SSI to take part in their employment services program, specifically interviewing for a cadetship with Allianz.
“After a few weeks and several rounds of interviews, I received the news that I had been accepted into the Allianz cadetship program, starting as a Case Manager in the Personal Injury division. After a year and a half in that role, I was lucky to move into a new role working in the HR Systems team, which looks after the HR platforms and systems, data entry, analytics, and reporting for the entire company.”
Sinan credits his leaders and team for creating a culture where he has been welcomed and encouraged to grow.
