Seeing through the eyes of someone else

Today, I was impressed by a letter that had been written by a woman from South Sudan. She had come to New Zealand in 2005 as a refugee and took the opportunity of publishing a letter in the NZ Herald as a way of expressing her gratitude and also addressing people’s reaction to refugees.

Nowadays, the situation of refugees is intensely discussed. All over the world, people express their desire to help as well as their fear of loosing control over their own country. During my time in New Zealand last year, our teachers reminded school leavers to be careful when travelling back to Europe. My host mother as well used to watch TV every morning and was shocked by all the documentaries demonstrating high numbers of refugees coming to Europe.

Abann Yor’s letter is a great opportunity to see the situation from another’s point of view. She mentions how she had struggled with having “the ‘refugee’ label attached” to her although she had already been offered a “permanent resident status”. Therefore she works at the Auckland Refugee Community Coalition, nowadays. She wishes to help other refugees to get in touch with locals more easily without any barriers the label ‘refugee’ may evoke.

The voices of refugees seldom appear in the media whereas this might be an important step towards social cohesion. As an outsider, it is much easier to reach out for a stranded person if one gets a better insight into their situation instead of believing in horror stories.