Debi Goodwin, a middle-aged Canadian-born writer, at first appeared an unlikely author for a book about young refugees from Africa.
At Carleton to speak about her book, Citizens of Nowhere: From Refugee Camp to Canadian Campus, she opened her speech by admitting, “Being a refugee is not my personal story.”
As a journalist, Goodwin said she found herself drawn to the people of Dadaab, Kenya where, according to CARE Canada, over 455,000 refugees, many from Somalia, are settled. While in Dadaab working for the CBC in 2007, Goodwin became particularly interested in students who had won scholarships through the World University Service of Canada (WUSC), and were preparing to move to Canada.
Fascinated by these stories, Goodwin returned to Dadaab a year and a half later to write a book about WUSC scholars.
“I felt that in a book I could spend enough time to make readers feel they could really know these students,” she said. Published in 2010, Citizens of Nowhere chronicles the lives of 11 WUSC scholars and their first year in Canada.
The book is an account of “needles in the sea,” the youth who, against the odds, find a way out of Dadaab but, in the process, face unimaginable culture shock and isolation.
“The first shock for the students who do get out, who win one of the prized WUSC scholarships to a Canadian university… is that when they get here, their first wish is to return home,” Goodwin said.
Canada is not always the land of prosperity students expect.
Muno Osman, the youngest of the refugees in Goodwin’s book, was shocked by the homelessness she witnessed upon arrival.
“You come here for opportunity… and you believe that everyone can make it. And then reality hits you, and you see people who are born in this country and sleep on the streets and it’s very scary,” Osman said.
Despite cultural struggles, homesickness, and the pressure to support family back in the camps, an overwhelming majority of WUSC scholars complete their studies and contribute to their communities, according to Goodwin.
Paul Davidson, the former WUSC executive director, said he has witnessed the positive impacts of the refugee program.
“These students stay involved, online and locally, helping to strengthen the community back in the camp or back in their country of origin,” Davidson said. “As South Sudan became independent, there have been a number of WUSC student refugees who have gone back to South Sudan and helped build there.”
Four years after coming to Canada, every student Goodwin profiled has found success, including Osman who last June completed her degree in social work at Carleton. While at school, she volunteered with WUSC Carleton, which sponsors one refugee a year.
Osman said she finds it impossible to describe to her family what Canadian life is like.
“I don’t even really try … I just say it’s a different world, and I’m doing good, and that’s it. Because it’s two absolutely different worlds,” Osman said.
Impossible as the task seems, even to the students themselves, Goodwin said it is her goal to tell readers about these two “absolutely different worlds.”
“I think sometimes there’s a fear, saying, ‘Well, it’s not my story, I shouldn’t write it.’ But it is our story,” Goodwin said. “Displacement is a universal theme.”
