Witnessing the after effects of the Arab Spring, fleeing Syria at the age of seventeen, learning English that summer and entering to a top medical school a few years later: the incredible story of a Syrian refugee!

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What is it like to leave home as a teenager, and be separated from your mother? What new pressures come after fleeing, such as from having the opportunity at education or the platform to voice one's struggle? How do you integrate at school when your grasp of English is still rocky from the workshops run by refugee volunteers a few months previously? Then a few years later, what is it like to be given the authority to influence someone's healthcare (as a medical student) but still not be given basic voting rights? And how does one look after one's own mental and physical health when the barriers to healthcare for refugees is so high?

In this episode, Thivyaa speaks to her good friend and fellow medical student, Kinan, who is a Syrian refugee and all-round incredible human being. They discuss the months leading up to Kinan's escape, his journey, and life after reaching 'safety' in the UK. Kinan is one of the most inspiring young people of our time - definitely worth a listen!

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If you liked this episode, please do leave us a review and share with your friends! 

Alternatively, get in touch:

Stories of Migration (instagram): @storiesofmigration_

Changing one’s name to suit the English tongue, using accent slips as comedic resilience against racism, and ditching the immigrant career stereotype: A reflection on the life of a young black woman who migrated from Nigeria in her childhood!

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Have you noticed how many immigrants end up going by British names, or perhaps nicknames that are easier on the European tongue? How does that affect one’s identity, growing up? What is it like to feel pressured to adopt a ‘British’ accent? How does it feel to experience colonial racial slurs from your own race? And how does one turn that racism on its head, using accents for comedy? 

In this episode, Thivyaa speaks to one of her best friends from childhood, Tobore Sonia Dafiaga, a young Black actress, writer and director doing a masters in Global Health and Social Justice! Tobore - known formally as Sonia - reflects on what it was like to migrate to the UK as a child from her Urhobo tribe in Nigeria. We reflect on how her identity has changed, what it was like for her to adopt Black-British culture, and reaffirm her Black identity through reclaiming her name. We also discuss the beauty of uniting the arts with the sciences, and tackling the world’s problems through an interdisciplinary approach!

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If you liked this episode, please do leave us a review and share with your friends! 

Alternatively, get in touch via the links below:

Tobore (instagram): @sonia_dafiaga 

Stories of Migration (instagram): @storiesofmigration_

Stories of Migration (twitter): @SoMigration

Playing amidst bullet wounds on coconut trees and memorialisation through poetry: A reflection on the life of a Tamil refugee who fled to London. 

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How does a child make sense of separation from their father, who has fled war? What is it like to leave behind friends and flee to a new country? To start school afresh without knowing the language? How does one deal with culture shock, racism, and the nightmare of dreaming of a deserted homeland but waking up in a cold, foreign country?

Then, many years later, what does one feel when stepping foot in the island one left behind, now devastatingly shell-shocked from war? When getting a Facebook request from friends back home who survived? And how, amidst it all, does one memorialise what genocide has tried to erase?

In this episode, Thivyaa interviews Bharathy, a Tamil refugee, psychology graduate and inspirational poet (pen name: Amsavalli). We discuss what it was like to flee the post-colonial genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka, and grow up in London as a teenager. We reflect on Bharathy's memories, emotions and the effect of her displacement on who she is today. We also discuss the power of the arts in memorialising the diaspora struggle, and touch upon Bharathy's writings in Tamil and English.

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Key terms used in this episode:
Diaspora - A community dispersed across the world due to war/difficulty in their own country

Tamil - One of the world's oldest living languages

Tamil Eelam or Eelam - The name Tamils give to their homeland (what the world calls Sri Lanka), also meaning 'Tamil Island' or 'Island'
*Note: many Tamils will not refer to themselves as 'Sri Lankan', since the government, which is predominantly made of Sinhalese individuals (Sinahalese = people who speak the language Sinhala) orchestrated a systematic discrimination and post-colonial genocide of Tamils, killing thousands of Tamils and leaving thousands more unaccounted for.

Pottu - Bindi

Veepoothi - A religious ash placed upon one's forehead after prayer, in Saivism

Mullivaikal massacre of 2009  - Often referred to as the end of the 'civil' war (though the genocide is ongoing); this was a key point in the genocide when the Sri Lankan government declared a 'No Fire Zone' to falsely lure many Tamils into this area under the pretence of safety, and then systematically targeted and killed tens of thousands of Tamils. For more information, see the Channel 4 documentary, 'No Fire Zone'.

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Get in touch!

Bharathy's poetry (instagram): @amsavalli.writes
Stories of Migration (instagram): @storiesofmigration_
Stories of Migration (twitter): @SoMigration
Stories of Migration (email): storiesofmigrationthepodcast@gmail.com