Quizlet

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Text number: 1408

Name:   anonymous
Age: 14
Country: United Kingdom
School: 6 - Secondary School

I was born in Erbil, Kurdistan which is the north of Iraq, a large part of Iraq that used to be dominated by war and crisis and still is in several areas. At the age of four I was lucky enough to be able to move to England with my parents who were very young at the time, my mum seventeen and my dad twenty-four. My dad didn’t make the decision of moving to England , he was forced as a result of the situation at that current point; since the death of the dictator Saddam Hussein, the Kurds were being oppressed and blamed by the Arabs and since my dad was part of the Kurdish police force, he was targeted by a series of death notes that threatened not only his life but his family’s too. Of course we had a very stressful and long journey in order to get to England; we succeeded many countries throughout Europe in order to reach England by the help of my dad’s uncle who payed for the transport and the smugglers who would transfer us from lorry to lorry – our method of transport in and out of every country. Clearly the journey was horrendous and it took us many months to escape. At some point through the journey we were arrested and questioned. We explained our case and gave evidence as to why we had escaped from our country and after four years of tough fighting and introducing stronger evidence we had a stable case which promoted our indefinite leave to remain which meant we could stay in the UK without any time restrictions. We were fortunate enough to be granted with indefinite leave to remain after four years since many people have to wait 10 years or more or even less depending on the extremity of the case. A year after this we were entitled to apply for the British passport, which we did and know we are considered British as a result of our passports. Me and my family were very glad that these were the outcomes since we would not have the opportunity of living the life we live today; for example, my mum was married at only fourteen years old, the age I am myself, and gave birth to me at 16 therefore she wasn’t fortunate enough to be able to complete her education. If we hadn’t made the decision of coming to England it would be likely that I would have to face similar situations. The negative side of leaving my country is the fact that we left nearly all of our family behind however leaving was definitely the best choice we made since it has had the biggest impact on my life. When we first came to England, since we were refugees, we didn’t really have a say in what would happen to us: we were asked to move to Norwich, a city we had never heard of before, and into a small house which wasn’t the most appealing. Of course at that point we were grateful enough to have somewhere to live and after only a few years, as I mentioned, we had the right to remain in the country. As a result of this my parents now had the chance of moving into a better residence, which we did. We have remained in this residence for nearly 6 years now and I attend an amazing school which grants me with many opportunities, one of those being having the right to learn and achieve my true potential. Being in this country has allowed me to discover what I am good at and has also helped me to have bigger ambitions. Since attending primary and secondary school in England I have visited many countries and have taken part in many events, the PALM project being one of those events. I also speak English in a way I never thought I could and I am very proud, furthermore the knowledge I have developed here would be non existent in somewhere like Kurdistan so I am extremely grateful for the country I live in today.

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This text number is 1408!