Being a child of a refugee is hard. In 1996 my father came to Canada after escaping a war zone trying to silence him for standing up for human rights. My father was left with many physical and emotional scars that not only haunt him but the rest of my family. When I was younger I was unable to understand the PTSD my father had acquired from the war zone. Our relationship was never perfect and communication was always hard for him. I now understand it’s because of the demons that haunt him every time he closes his eyes. Not only did he have to leave his family behind, he was brought to a country where he spoke not even a word of English and had no valid education in Canada’s eyes. He had to start over with nothing and build his way up from zero. He is a very resilient man and has gained his citizenship and created a life for himself. I wish growing up I understood more about why my father was the way he was. I hope all children with parents who are refugees or immigrants that they try and look at their parents lives through their eyes and maybe they will be able to grasp some of the incredible hard work they put into making sure their children never have to think twice about having a hard life.
It’s important to understand the generational affects immigration can have on the family. I know personally it was very hard to understand the reasons why my father acted or did certain things and in the end, that made me resent him. I was left feeling confused a lot of my life due to the lack of knowledge I had about my father’s past. He never wanted to discuss the things he went through and therefore I was never able to understand his distance. I remember in class, Jo-Anne said that my experience is pretty normal. She said that often times the stories aren’t heard until the second generation of the immigrants children. This made me feel not alone in my process and hopeful, one day I will be able to fully understand my father’s experiences.
Keywords: refugee, father, Canada
Author: Purple
I also want to thank purple for sharing a personal story, and for our classroom being a safe space for it. As kimkardashian said in their comment post, I had no idea what transnational feminism meant. As I only knew a tiny amount of what was happening when it came to migration. And I have my fellow students to thank and our fantastic professor who has taught us so much. That the knowledge I have learned will help me to better understand and have the tools to shed the light on topics I find passionate when it comes to transitional feminisms, migration and all the other important topics we touched on in our four months.
-Zachary
First off, I would like to thank the author, Purple, for sharing their story. It brings me contentment knowing that our classroom and group project has become a safe site for you to express and reflect upon your reality. Being entirely honest, before taking this course I had an unfortunately limited understanding of transnational feminism and the painful truths of migration. Essentially up until now, migration was not a topic of conversation in my life. I was blind to the hardships that migrants and refugees face and ignorant to a migrants’ reality living in a new country (and as Purple said, how succeeding family generations also become affected by such an experience). Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to sit i…
This blog entry provides an insightful contribution to the lives of immigrant children. Earlier this semester we discussed the trauma faced by refugees and how in many situations, the first generation of children are left in the dark about their parents’ experiences. As a first generation Canadian, I have only recently started learning about my grandparents and my dad’s migration experience as well as the racism, and hardships they endured upon arrival. The subject is hard to address and it is evident that in many cases, it is a period that immigrants who have settled in Canada and established a life here, do not want to revisit. Although Canada has embraced a ‘welcoming’ and ‘inclusive’ narrative, our society is plagued…