Anonym sløjfe

I am 100% foreign, but I have only lived here for 18 months. When the war started in 2012, it hit the area where we lived very severely. I feel that I have always lived in wartime, in Syria, in the Lebanese refugee camp, and also through my dad who still grieves every day about the war in Palestine. I am Palestinian, yet I have never been there. It makes me both angry and sad that I cannot travel there when Danish people can. My mother is from Jordan, so when we fled from Syria we wanted to go there, but they would only let my mother in the country. Not us, because we are Palestinians.

My parents are both 50, and they are not at all happy about having to go to school. My father has been in Denmark for 2,5 years, but he is still unable to speak Danish. They cannot speak to anyone. And they can’t get a job. It is as though I have become my parents’ parent. I have to go to meetings with them, I speak for them at job interviews, at the doctors, and at the employment centre. In Syria they helped me with my homework. Now it is me helping them.

They are not too pleased about asking for my help. They used to be proud and happy people, both with good jobs. I would like to become an astronaut or a singer. I play an Arab string instrument called kanun, and since I was a child, I have had singing lessons. In Syria you have the choice between Middle Eastern singing or opera. I chose opera, because everyone in my family thought I was good at it. But I much prefer to sing pop music, because that is more me. Actually I went to the Justin Bieber concert in October. It was fantastic.

17 years / female / single / 10th grade student / Birkerød / from Syria / Palestinian background / came to Denmark via family reunification in 2015