Call them by their names

In Western countries, refugees are often seen as a burden, as an indistinct mass of people threatening our “values and well-being”. In this podcast, MSc student in Gender, Development and Globalisation Simona Camillini hears the incredible stories of two of the hundreds of thousands of people who every year are forced to flee their homes and leave everything behind to start a new life elsewhere. 

Paul is from Nigeria and, since 2014, he has been living in Sankt Poelten, a city in Lower Austria near the Austrian capital Vienna, Nour is from Syria and she has been living in Vienna since 2017. Their experiences of refugeehood are very different and yet, in a way, very similar. Not only because they are both very well integrated into the Austrian society, but also because being a refugee deeply marked their lives. However, despite the traumatic experience they both went through, Paul and Nour remain hopeful and have a message for governments and politicians: believing in the human capital of refugees and in their potential is the first step to creating a more just, open, tolerant and inclusive society for all.