TEXT I

“no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark.

you only run for the border
when you see the whole city
running as well”.

Warsan Shire, “Home”.
(SHIRE apud YOUSAFZAI, 2019, p. V)

“I have had the immense privilege of meeting many individuals who had to rebuild their lives, often in totally foreign places. People who have lost so much - including loved ones – and then had to start over. This means learning a new language, new culture, a new way of being. I share my story of being displaced not out of a desire to focus on my past, but to honour the people I´ve met and those I´ll never meet.

I wrote this book because it seems that too many people don´t understand that refugees are ordinary people. All that differentiates them is that they got caught in the middle of a conflict that forced them to leave their homes, their loved ones, and the only lives they had known. They risked so much along the way, and why? Because it is too often a choice between life and death.

And, as my family did a decade ago, they chose life”. (YOUSAFZAI, 2019, P. XI)

(Source: YOUSAFZAI, M. We are Displaced. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2019 – London

TEXT II

“Of course, when I first arrived in Australia, the emphasis was on the future, not the past. I was being introduced to a new life in a very different world from the one I´d been born into, and my new mum and dad were putting a lot of effort into facing the challenges that experience brought. Mum didn´t worry too much about my learning English immediately, since she knew it would come through day-to-day use. Rather than trying to rush me into it, she thought it was far more important at the outset to comfort and care for me, and gain my trust. You don´t need words for that. She also knew an Indian couple in the neighborhood, Saleen and Jacob, and we would visit them regularly to eat Indian food together. They would speak with me in my own language, Hindi, asking simple questions and translating instructions and things Mum and Dad wanted me to know about how we´d live our life together. Being so young when I got lost and coming from a very basic background, I didn´t speak much Hindi, either, but being understood by someone was a huge help in becoming comfortable about my new surroundings. Anything my new parents weren´t able to communicate through gestures and smiles, we knew Saleen and Jacob could help us with, so we were never stuck.

[…]

My transition to life in another country and culture wasn´t as difficult as one might expect, most likely because, compared to what I´d gone through in India, it was obvious that I was better off in Australia. Of course, more than anything, I wanted to find my mother again, but once I´d realized that was impossible, I knew I had to take whatever opportunity came my way to survive. Mum and Dad were very affectionate, right from the start, always giving me lots of cuddles and making me feel safe, secure, loved, and, above all, wanted.

[…]

I had often heard music emanating from other people´s radios. Seeing or hearing babies cry also affected me strongly, probably because of memories of my little sister, Shekila. The most emotional thing was seeing other families with lots of children. I suppose that, even in my good fortune, they reminded me of what I´d lost.” (BRIRLEY, 2016 p. 7 - 10)

(Source: BRIERLEY, Saroo. Lion. Penguin: Canada, 2019