It's too bad that these parents can't choose what nationality they want their newborns to be -- whether the country the parents left or the country the parents are now living.
Nowhere Babies: Syrians Born in Exile Face Uncertain Future
What do you do when your baby is born stateless, in limbo between nationalities?
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By Emily Feldman on Jul 20, 2015 at 15:17 PM
Sana, 8, and her 3-month-old brother may grow up in Turkey, a Western country or in Syria. (Emily Feldman For Vocativ)
Jamal Mamo and his wife never expected a second child. The couple had trouble conceiving for years after their daughter was born in 2007, and hope they had for another baby dimmed when war forced them to flee to Turkey from their home in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Now, two years into their lives as refugees, the Mamos have welcomed a son, a blued-eyed 3-month-old who joins the growing number of Syrians born in exile, without a clear identity or home.
Mamo calls his son a “hero” for his improbable arrival and has doted on the boy so much that his sister, Sana, demonstrates signs of jealousy. But Taim’s birth in Turkey has also added to the family’s struggles and underscored the complexity of raising children in limbo.
“Our biggest concern is that we don’t know what our future is,” Mamo said. “We live with this feeling of uncertainty.”
Along with a flood of other displaced Syrians, Mamo applied with the UN’s top refugee agency with the hope of resettling his family in the West. But it could take years for him to get a firm answer. As he waits, he is weighing how much he should integrate his 8-year-old daughter into Turkish society and what to do about Taim, who at the moment, is not a citizen of any country at all.
It’s a situation that many of the tens of thousands of babies born to displaced Syrians find themselves in, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, which warns that newborns lacking citizenship or legal birth documents may face major obstacles accessing healthcare, education and legal employment—not to mention traveling—later down the line.
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Nowhere Babies Syrians Born in Exile Face Uncertain Future?
Nowhere Babies: Syrians Born in Exile Face Uncertain Future
What do you do when your baby is born stateless, in limbo between nationalities?
Share this
Tweet this
By Emily Feldman on Jul 20, 2015 at 15:17 PM
Jamal Mamo and his wife never expected a second child. The couple had trouble conceiving for years after their daughter was born in 2007, and hope they had for another baby dimmed when war forced them to flee to Turkey from their home in the Syrian city of Aleppo.
Now, two years into their lives as refugees, the Mamos have welcomed a son, a blued-eyed 3-month-old who joins the growing number of Syrians born in exile, without a clear identity or home.
Mamo calls his son a “hero” for his improbable arrival and has doted on the boy so much that his sister, Sana, demonstrates signs of jealousy. But Taim’s birth in Turkey has also added to the family’s struggles and underscored the complexity of raising children in limbo.
“Our biggest concern is that we don’t know what our future is,” Mamo said. “We live with this feeling of uncertainty.”
Along with a flood of other displaced Syrians, Mamo applied with the UN’s top refugee agency with the hope of resettling his family in the West. But it could take years for him to get a firm answer. As he waits, he is weighing how much he should integrate his 8-year-old daughter into Turkish society and what to do about Taim, who at the moment, is not a citizen of any country at all.
It’s a situation that many of the tens of thousands of babies born to displaced Syrians find themselves in, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, which warns that newborns lacking citizenship or legal birth documents may face major obstacles accessing healthcare, education and legal employment—not to mention traveling—later down the line.
Continue reading at:
Nowhere Babies Syrians Born in Exile Face Uncertain Future?
