I remember it was at night.
I was in the city named Mosul about 7pm.
One day my son go to the school.
I just heard some gunshots and everything
and people came and knocked the door,
broke the door and took everybody outside.
And after a while he come back because he say,
"There is a man. He's dead, on the glass."
People in the street, they stopped me.
They were killing people around me.
They tried to kidnap me from the car.
They are shooting the people in front of my house.
And we start to run, and once they turn back
they see us running away, they start to shout at us.
They gonna ask my family for money and they gonna kill me after that.
I was young but I could see what was going on
and it was hard to see.
It was so, so horrible.
It was so danger to stay more.
So, I decided to move.
I AM A REFUGEE
Life in Bosnia before was awesome.
We were living, like, peacefully.
I grew up a good life because my mom's family were good financially.
I had small business, my restaurant over there.
We have some problems, we have some good.
It's normal.
But eventually,
without any warning or anything, it just started one day.
We were outside when bombing started.
It was kind of unexpected.
I left when I was 11 years old.
Eight years old.
I think I was 16.
Our parents said that, "OK, we need to do a bus ride."
We were told we're going to the city for the amusement park.
We didn't know that we are leaving for forever.
Almost all the Iraqi people, they can't live in camp.
We were never in a refugee camp.
We were living in refugee camp.
About two years in the refugee camp.
I grew up in the refugee camp.
You don't know where you're gonna end up.
I think at one point we were gonna end up in Finland,
and then, another point, we were gonna end up in Sweden.
It was a whole process, actually
and screening before we get approval.
Finally, they told us,
"You're gonna end up in Buffalo, New York."
We thought it was New York City but it wasn't.
Coming to the United States
is also one of the challenging things.
That's a very strange transition, 180 degrees.
Everything was hard.
For three days we didn't even leave our home.
English was
completely out of my mind.
My English was, like, zero.
I couldn't talk to anybody.
In school I was just by myself, sitting there.
I remember being asked, "What's your name?"
And my answer was, "Yes."
Everything was different.
First of all, the weather.
It was my first time see big buildings.
This the first time in my life
I sleep on mattress.
We went into the bus and we were circling for like three hours
because I didn't know there is a string you should pull down
if you want to get out.
And then finally my dad decided,
"You know what? I'm gonna leave."
"I see a corner store that people are coming in and out,"
"I'm gonna walk there."
My mom and I remember looking out of the window
to see if he makes it back safely.
And then he came back all happy because the owner of the
corner store was Yemenese, so he speaks Arabic.
That made my dad's day.
We thought that there is only one kind of people,
but when we arrived here and there is like
white people
Asian people African people
Lot of people, so, "Oh, OK. Maybe we are good too."
I start looking for job just after couple months.
My first job is mechanic.
I work in medical billing.
It's my first year of college.
Right now I work as interpreter,
and I love that job.
When you start job, you feel proud for yourself.
My salary start with $8.50. I was so happy.
I help other people who were in my shoes.
Every day I call my dad, "Are you proud now?"
I'm just looking to be here and
go back to school as every kid's supposed to do.
I feel that this community
make me feel very welcome.
I decided, only one way to pay back to those people.
I'm not rich, so I'm not gonna pay back financially.
I decided to join the armed forces.
Until today, I'm serving here about 13 years.
Interviewer: What do you feel like you've left behind,
or what do you miss the most about life there?
I miss my whole life.
It's not easy to leave the people that you love.
I miss...
you had a sense of connection, you had a sense of belonging.
I'm still searching for that.
I like how everything goes here, but it doesn't change me much
'cause I still have this sense of where I came from.
To be honest with you, I don't miss my country.
Because here I found what I missed.
I want to be more, I want to be better, you know?
What is my dream?
Oh, there are a lot of dreams.
My dream was to go to school
which I went for, like, eight years.
That feeling when I graduated,
it's like something no one can pay you for.
Like, when they call your name.
One dream come true, that I buy a home for the first time.
What's your dream for the future?
I wish that I could be a singer.
It's done. It happened.
When I saw my kids, they grow up in safety place
and they study what they want
and they don't need to do something they don't like it
that's the dream. What I need more?
My name is Immaculee.
I'm Nadeen Yousef.
Felix Madgi.
Hi, my name is Masarra Faek.
I'm from Iraq.
Bhutan.
Burundi.
Burma.
I am a refugee, and I am global citizen.
I'm a global citizen.
I am a global citizen.
I AM A REFUGEE
I AM A MOTHER
I AM A DAUGHTER
I AM A HUSBAND
I AM A BROTHER
I AM A FRIEND
I AM A NEIGHBOR
I AM A STUDENT
I AM AN ENTREPRENEUR
I AM A GLOBAL CITIZEN