My Father: Albanian Yellow Pages Inc.

After reading the article, “Shattered Lives” by Kristin Lewis, Dania faces living as a refugee outside her country.The challenges that she faced are when they were in World

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.

At just the age of three, she had experienced a full on war. Despite her young age, she remembers it all. “I was three, but from ages three to seven, that entire time we were trying to escape. We lived in many different places and houses, outside, in Croatia, and all these different places in Bosnia, until we finally came here. It was like, we spoke no English and we lived in one small, tiny apartment. We had nothing. We didn't own many clothes or anything.” Fortunately, when she was seven, her family had fled to America. Out of curiosity, who is she today? She goes by the name of Aldina Arnautovic and has the occupation of a Social Services Specialist. “I’m really happy with how far I’ve come and I’m in a good place after a hard, difficult time,” claims Aldina. So, how did she get to where she is today?

In 1987 my grandmother worked for the Soviet Banking system. She was able to see what was going on in the Soviet market. Despite the fact that everything was going well in the Soviet Union, my grandmother knew something was off. My grandparents and my mother started their journey in January of 1989. Their first destination was Italy , where all of the Soviet Immigrants were headed before their final destination of Israel. They were in an immigrant condo for 3 months in Italy. My grandmother and my mother sold hand knitted blankets on the streets, just so they would have enough money to buy food and pay their monthly rent. My Grandfather worked as a construction worker in Italy. When it was time to move on

In 2004, a family of four boarded on a plane from Brazil to Mexico, leaving their homeland with the purpose of pursuing their dream to move to the United States. Thirteen years later, the youngest of the family tells the story of his journey at the age of three in the United States. He’s now sixteen years old and says he prefers to be referred to “Patriot X” rather than his real name. He claims he’s a patriot without citizenship and affirms that he would like to enlighten me about his struggles and his crushed and accomplished dreams.

During this time, Civilians were forced to leave the only place they knew as home. As Serbian police force Albanians out of their homes, Priština, Kosovo’s capital is being drained of its ethnic identity. One refugee being forced to move to the Macedonia border said, “Then at two o’clock we were in the train. So many people it was difficult to survive. Very difficult. I thought I saw death with my eyes” (BBC news). These series of events depict the issues and struggles Albanians endure during the Kosovo War. Albanians fear is being able to create a safety environment for their own families. A main concern as well was if these Albanian families will ever return to their homes. The war for ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was already in progress. Furthermore, Serbians would also be put in a difficult decision, whether to end the war within Kosovo or to endure inescapable NATO air strikes.

The article “Children of War”, by Arthur Brice, is about several children who had to flee the war in Bosnia and immigrate to the U.S. First of all, these children’s lives before the war were comfortable. However, many kids were affected by the war in Bosnia. In the process of fleeing, these children lost their family, friends, and homes. After being a refugee in Croatia for a long period of time, some of these children were able to relocate to the U.S. Here in America, these children have a good education. Also, they have an opportunity to live a better life away from the harshness of war. Still, these kids miss their friends, family, and country that they left behind. Although these kids are living in the United States right now, they

We open our land to refugees; we open our hearts to each passing generation, each aging population, each child that learns to be a citizen, a patriot. This empathy

I have spent my entire life in America, born and raised in the land of the free. When I was twelve years old, my brother and I visited Somalia with my father. My father wanted to take us there so that we would have some knowledge of where he came from. It was summer 2010 and there was a war going on in South Somalia (a conflict that is still going on today). Somaliland is in Northern Somalia, my father would not take us where we wouldn 't be safe. Although the war was not in our area, the tensions from the war did affect the atmosphere of the village. On the way to Somaliland from the airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, my

I remember the day I first came to America. I was in the LAX airport, looking around the totally strange place which was full of strangers. All I could hear was the strangers' buzzing. I was upset about leaving all of people I knew and loved behind me to follow my father, mother and, sister here where we could find better "educational opportunities". I had grown up being around people who used the same language as me and had black hair and brown eyes. I spent my entire childhood in Buwtal Nepal until 2010. On April 27th 2010, I departed from Tribhuvan International Airport with my lovely parents and sister. My uncle was receiving us at the Airport. I still remember landing in New York around 8 o’ clock in the morning and that fresh smell in the air with the start of a whole new life.

Essay: The film ‘Looking for Alibrandi' traces Josephine's Higher School Certificate year. Select four people and/or events from Josephine's final year and discuss how these people or events changed Josephine's perspective.

I grew up in a small town in the state of Michoacan, Mexico until a few weeks after my seventh birthday. In 2001, after six years since my father petitioned to have us come to the United States with him and finally he had received a letter from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that his request had been approved. Being of that age, I was my mother’s companion everywhere, however, all I could grasp from those conversations was that we were going to the United States. I don 't think any of us knew what this meant or to what extent this would change our lives, not even my parents whom I thought knew it all.

When I was young I remember moving cities and I thought it was going to be the end of the world for me. One of the thoughts that always went through my mind was what if I do not fit in? or will I be able to make any friends? Luckily for me I was able to speak English and I knew I could communicate with people if I had to. This was not the case for Cambodian refugees when they moved to the United States because the Khmer Rouge was attacking Cambodia. Thousands of people moved to the United States and many of these people were kids who did not have a saying whether they wanted to stay or come with their parents because they could not take care of themselves. Many of these kids are now suffering because they fell into the wrong crowds and committed a crime when they were young and due to the antiterrorism and death penalty act they are now being deported back to Cambodia, which they know nothing about, and some of them do not even know how to speak the language. I will be talking about the Cambodian kids that were affected by their parents moving to the United States and how the antiterrorism and death penalty act has affected some of them.

The land of Kosovo has been plagued with tension for hundreds of years being claimed by several surrounding countries. The two biggest contenders, Albanians in Kosovo and Serbia have been fighting for the land, which culminated in a full war from 1998-1999. The war brought international attention to the war crimes committed by both sides, and proved that the two countries had years to go before coming to a solution. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) led by Kosovo Albanians, and the Serbian militia led by President Slobodan Milošević committed heinous crimes against their enemies. Crimes range from ethnic cleansing to rape and destruction of whole villages. The violence created a serious refugee problem that is still relevant today.

I am originally from Somalia a country located in the East Africa also called “Horn of Africa”, bordered by Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya. I was born and raised in Kenya. However, both my parents were born and rise in Somalia, they went their school in Mogadishu, Somalia, and built their family there. Five of my siblings, we were born in Mogadishu Somalia, but unfortunately, they did not had the opportunity to experience them early childhood in Somalia. In a brief history the Republic of Somalia has had its ups and downs with unrest, starting with a war, which broke out in the early 90’s. With these conflicts came unbearable life situations and many people searched for opportunities all over the world, mainly the western continents.