Othman Amin

I am an Iraqi Kurd but have never been to Iraq. I was born and raised in Kuwait but I am not a Kuwaiti. I think I can feel at home anywhere, because my identity is not being a Dane, a Kurd or an Iraqi, but in being the person I am.

Since I was young, I have been passionate about science and wanted to learn as much as possible and use it for the benefit of others. I dreamt of reading theoretical physics and becoming an inventor. But the war put a stop to that dream. Nevertheless, the dream has come true albeit in a roundabout way. In Denmark I got an education as an IT security specialist, and in that work, I constantly have to learn new things, like a physicist who makes new discoveries. I like it best when I'm challenged.

In my family, there was a tradition for breeding songbirds and thoroughbred pigeons. But I didn't want to limit myself to that. I have reared reptiles, rodents, invertebrates - most of them rare species and those that are the most difficult to breed.

My children have inherited my thirst for knowledge and urge to explore. The youngest has taught himself how to program; the middle ones have taught themselves how to play several instruments, and the oldest one is in into art. I have taught them that it is about influencing their surroundings rather than letting the surroundings shape them.

As a child I could always make something new out of a toy that had broken. That's how it is with life. As a refugee you learn to get something good from everything. My mother taught me that.

She fled from Indonesia with her parents, then she fled from Iraq with my father and then from Kuwait with us children. Now I pass on her lessons to my children.

Othman Amin / 43 / male / married / children / IT security specialist / Aarhus Vest / Iraqi Kurd / from Kuwait / came to Denmark in 1994 / residence permit 1995