The theme of today’s Refugee Realities podcasts examines experiences of displacement and asylum from the perspective of those who have lived through them. As Molly McQueeny and Yujia Zhang discuss with their guests in today’s episodes, being uprooted from one’s home and finding another, demands enormous amounts of perseverance and resilience. The conversations about settling in the UK and working to help other refugees in Lebanon reveal the uncertainty that often comes with displacement and the courage that is needed to navigate it.
The challenges of an asylum journey
Host: Molly McQueeney, MSc student in Development Studies, LSE
This podcast explores the physical and emotional challenges that arise from refugees’ journeys to safety. Sam, a former refugee from Iraq, describes his experience of gaining asylum in the UK and discusses how he has persevered through years of challenges. Sam speaks about his reasons for fleeing, his time living in displacement, and his assimilation to his new community in the UK.
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Working towards dignity
Host: Yujia Zhang, MSc student in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies, LSE
In this podcast, Yujia Zhang invites two women, Nadia and Fatima, to talk about their stories as both, refugees and social workers, in Lebanon. Nadia, a third-generation Palestinian refugee, is currently the director of Manara Centre of the Lighthouse Peace Initiative, an NGO offering English lessons and art training to refugee students. Fatima, a successful businesswoman in Damascus, became a refugee in 2013 due to the war in Syria and fled to Beirut. In 2019, she founded her own social enterprise, making embroidery. Nadia and Fatima speak about their different experiences as refugees, share inspiring stories from their work, and discuss how their work has impacted the lives of other refugees.
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This post is opinion-based and does not reflect the views of the London School of Economics and Political Science or any of its constituent departments and divisions.
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Image: Levi Meir Clancy on Unsplash
