Today@Dal

From the Tuesday, November 25 Chronicle Herald:

Kasia Wolkowicz moved to Nova Scotia from central Poland in 2008.

It was a year after her husband started a PhD at Dalhousie University. Together, the couple settled in Halifax.

More than five years and two children later, the Poland natives now call the city home.

“We really are Haligonians,” Kasia Wolkowicz said in an interview Monday. “We care about this city.”

But becoming permanent residents was an arduous and lengthy process, and citizenship still seems like a distant dream.

Wolkowicz said the rigorous application process took tremendous effort and investment, and it will be years before the couple is eligible for citizenship.

Yet the couple has put roots down in the city. Jacek Wołkowicz has started a postdoctoral fellowship at Dalhousie, and is the lead research engineer at local tech startup LeadSift.

Kasia Wolkowicz works in payroll at a local university and the couple’s two children, ages 1 and 3, attend a local daycare and take part in city recreation.

“We really are a part of the city. Getting to vote on municipal issues would make sense.”

Read the rest of this article online.