Citizens of Nowhere: From Refugee Camp to Canadian Campus [Paperback]

An inspiring story of courage, adaptation and determinaton — a year in the life of 11 refugee students entering universities across Canada.

Most journalists have stories they never forget. This is mine.

When Debi Goodwin travelled to the Dadaab Refugee Camp in 2007 to shoot a documentary on young Somali refugees soon coming to Canada, she did not anticipate the impact the journey would have on her. A year later, in August of 2008, she decided to embark upon a new journey, starting in the overcrowded refugee camps in Kenya, and ending in university campuses across Canada. For a year, she recorded the lives of eleven very lucky refugee students who had received coveted scholarships from Canadian universities, guaranteeing them both a spot in the student body and permanent residency in Canada. We meet them in the overcrowded confines of a Kenyan refugee camp and track them all the way through a year of dramatic and sometimes traumatic adjustments to new life in a foreign country called Canada. This is a snapshot of a refugee's first year in Canada, in particular a snapshot of young men and women lucky and smart enough to earn their passage from refugee camp to Canadian campus.Map of Kenya and Somalia
Map of Dadaab Refugee Camps, Kenya 
   Zafanana Bus Stops: August 16, 2008
 
INTRODUCTION: BECOMING UNIVERSAL
 
PART ONE: LEAVING HOME BEHIND
1. Out of the Sealed, Dark Room
2. A List of Heartbreaking Events
 
PART TWO: WELCOME TO CANADA
3. A Citizen of No Country
4. One Day I’m Going to Be Normal
 
PART THREE: A LONG WINTER OF ADJUSTMENT
5. Where the Heart Is
6. Girls Are Not Equal