Flight and Freedom
Description
The global number of people currently displaced from their home country-more than 50 million-is higher than at any time since World War II. Yet in recent years Canada has deported, denied, and diverted countless refugees. Is Canada a safe haven for refugees or a closed door?
In Flight and Freedom, Ratna Omidvar and Dana Wagner present a collection of thirty astonishing interviews with refugees, their descendants, or their loved ones to document their extraordinary, and sometimes harrowing, journeys of flight. The stories span two centuries of refugee experiences in Canada: from the War of 1812-where an escaped slave and her infant daughter flee the United States to start a new life in Halifax-to the War in Afghanistan-where asylum seekers collide with state scrutiny and face the challenges of resettlement.
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Person
Ratna Omidvar was born in India. She moved to Iran in 1975 to start life there with her Iranian partner. In 1981 she and her family (including an infant daughter) fled Iran and found a new home in Canada. Her own experiences of flight to freedom have been the foundation of her work. She has focused on articulating pathways to inclusion for immigrants and visible minorities in host societies, both in Canada and globally. Ratna is both a Member of the Order of Canada and Order of Ontario.
Content
- Preface-Ratna Omidvar
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction-Alan Broadbent
- : Who Is a Refugee?
- Chapter 1: Adeline Oliver, United States
- Chapter 2: Mampre Shirinian, Ottoman Empire (Turkey)
- Chapter 3: Loly Rico, El Salvador
- Chapter 4: Ken (Khanh) Do, Vietnam
- Chapter 5: Hodan Ali, Somalia
- Chapter 6: Claudio Durán, Chile
- Chapter 7: Rabbi Erwin Schild, Germany
- Chapter 8: Randy Singh, Guyana
- Chapter 9: Marguerite Nyandwi, Burundi
- Chapter 10: Andrew Hidi, Hungary
- Chapter 11: Sorpong Peou, Cambodia
- Chapter 12: Tarun, Sri Lanka
- Chapter 13: Yodit Negusse, Ethiopia
- Chapter 14: Chai Bouphaphanh, Laos
- Chapter 15: Zafar Iravan, Iran
- Chapter 16: Samnang Eam, Cambodia
- Chapter 17: Marko, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Chapter 18: Iren Hessami Koltermann, Iran
- Chapter 19: Anwar Arkani, Myanmar
- Chapter 20: Elvis, Namibia
- Chapter 21: Humaira, Afghanistan
- Chapter 22: Joseph, Sierra Leone
- Chapter 23: Christine, Rwanda
- Chapter 24: Mie Tha Lah, Myanmar
- Chapter 25: Max Farber, Poland
- Chapter 26: Shabnam, Afghanistan
- Chapter 27: Robi Botos, Hungary
- Chapter 28: Karim Teja, Uganda
- Chapter 29: Avtar Sandhu, India
- Chapter 30: Sabreen, Israel
- : Then and Now: Would They Get In Today?-Peter Showler
