Personal Narrative: Two Refugees

As a part of an immigrant family, there is no doubt that, as the oldest, I had to help my parents with English translation. Even though I have been in this role for years, it was not until recently that I realized the significance of my responsibilities.

What is one story of a young migrant or refugee that you heard?Are there any ways the story opened your eyes?

For the podcast, I interviewed Lina Abdulnoor, with the intention of exploring the intricacies of refugeehood by analyzing Lina’s refugee experience. Lina lived in Iraq with her family until they began receiving death threats due to their religious beliefs. Convinced that they needed to flee the country to survive, they left Iraq as refugees. After leaving Iraq, they settled in Jordan, where they waited two years until the U.N. to approve their request to move to the U.S. in 2012. Lina and her family initially settled in Virginia, where she experienced culture shock as she adapted to American culture and the English language. However, Lina did not feel accepted in Virginia; her experiences in the state led her to think that Americans treated her according to negative stereotypes of Iraqis. After living in Virginia for several months, Lina and her family chose to resettle in San Diego, California, which harbored a larger Iraqi population than Virginia did. Supported by San Diego’s Iraqi community and various refugee organizations, Lina flourished, and she currently studies at UCSD while holding a stable job.

We started off with a bang. We started with me thinking of what to do how to do it and what were my ideas. Then, a little later we actually started it and not gonna lie, it was scary. I didn’t know that much about my family, yeah i've heard stories but they're stories. Later on we went home i didn’t tell my family anything just unsuspiciously getting all the information and I learned a lot yes. I learned about my names and why they're my names, I learned about my dad getting lost a lot, I learned about my mom moving here to america when she was 14 and how her life was before she moved and why she moved. I learned about my uncle going to jail for crossing the border illegally which is kinda funny. All those I learned but i couldn’t find anything

I went into this assignment blind; I knew nothing about the Lost Boys of Sudan. This is an incredible story; mind blowing even. I assumed that they were hurting over there I just didn’t think it was to the extent it was. John Dau was one of the well-known Lost Boys. He was twelve years old when the civil war went through his village and destroyed it. As things were being destroyed and people were being killed he ran into the darkness of the night. John Dau traveled thousands of miles with 27,000 others to safety.

This article features many young boys from southern Sudan, their journey to Ethiopia, and then to the “Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya” (1), as stated in the article. This piece explains their journey and ultimately, or finally, to America, where they dealt with many challenges in adjusting to society. In addition, “Many of the Lost Boys resettled by the IRC also took part in IRC programs aimed at helping them cope with their traumatic past and easing their transition into such a different culture” (4). Many of them created a life for themselves in their new country and have fabricated their own legacy.

Luma Mufleh, a Jordanian refugee explains the feeling that she and many other immigrants feel directly after moving to the United States. “It's kind of hard to believe that you belong when you don't have a home, when your country of origin rejects you because of fear or persecution, or the city that you grew up in is completely destroyed. I didn't feel like I had a home. I was no longer a Jordanian citizen, but I wasn't American, either” (Don't Feel Sorry for Refugees - Believe in Them). Like many other refugees, she got stuck in between her new and old life, not feeling like she belongs anywhere. The loneliness that many experience is extreme because they have no connection to their old home, but know no one to connect them to their new one. Many immigrants, including Beatrice Ziaty experienced the distaste that their new neighbors and fellow community members felt toward the new immigrants that had suddenly moved into their town. In her first couple weeks in Clarkston, Georgia, Ziaty got robbed while walking home from work one night. “The incident robbed Beatrice of the hope that her new home would provide her and her family a sense of security. She became obsessed with her boy’s safety”(31-32). This incident popped the perfect bubble that she was living in and showed her the reality of the United States, and how the perfect ideals of America do not exist in the way that she pictured it. This feeling of unwelcomeness was also felt by Albert, a refugee from Uganda when he experienced racism because of his skin color. “I thought everyone would be nice, loving and caring, but everything changed when I got here. Racism, discrimination and a lot of things changed my expectation” (Hirsch). The racism that he

I am from a country with beautiful landscapes that has turned into a warzone country.

Even though I'm pretty cheap, I bought an expensive Patagonia lightweight jacket for a hiking trip in 2014. However, to offset the price I gratefully took advantage of a friend's kind offer of a 40% discount coupon. Score! Thank you very much, sweet friend.

On January 19, 2017 at approximately 1325 hours, I observed a white in color Ford Crown Victoria with a badly damaged windshield traveling southbound in the 2000 block of Hwy 160, County of Montezuma, State of Colorado.

My name is Sandra Neema Nyamuhebe, and I am a refugee from the Congo in Central Africa. I moved to Tanzania with my family when I was 3 years old to escape wars at home. While in Tanzania, we had an extremely hard time being accepted and meeting our basic needs. My parent struggled to find work and food to feed the family. So, my family applied to be sent overseas to find refuge and more opportunity through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We waited and hoped for 10 years to find a place to start a new life while living in Tanzania.

Edward and Ahmet: A Story of Similarities and Differences Refugees have been in the news a lot lately, but many people don’t know their stories. A refugee is someone who is displaced from their home country, and recently there have been a lot because of wars and fighting. In 2016, there were 22.5 million refugees worldwide, the most there have been since WWII. This essay follows two refugees named Edward Kutuk Tungud and Ahmet. Edward is from the African country of Sudan and Ahmet is from the Middle Eastern country of Syria.

In 2003 a Sudanese Lost Boy named Ayok, who attended the refugee school where my mom worked in Nairobi, came to my parents for help. Over a decade earlier his life had been shattered when his village was bombed by the north. For several years Ayok trekked through the wilderness of Sudan facing exposure to the harsh landscape, dangerous wildlife, and ambush from northern troops.

I had an in-depth talk with him in preparation for this project, he told me various stories from the refugee camps, some similar to the videos and articles we watched and read in class. He shared a very touching story on how him and his family rationed two loaves for bread a day because the camp didn't have enough food to feed everyone he also me how his parents will give him and his sister the one bed and blanket because they wanted them to be comfortable. He shared

As I drive to Elizabeth, NJ, a small city only a thirty minute drive from the manicured lawns and single family homes that grace the town I live, it seems like a different country. I did not drive to Elizabeth, though, to help the locals, I am here to tutor refugees. The address of the mosque is entered into my iPhone and I cautiously drive closer, not sure what to expect.