# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Migration in the 21st century and its effects on education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
For many migrant and refugee children around the world, access to education is very limited. Human Rights Watch says that education is key to helping these children recover from traumatic events in their lives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Checking the facts about U.S. birthright citizenship

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Birthright citizenship is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and not easily changed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The refugee crisis is a human crisis: Behind the statistics are people filled with unique life experiences and dreams for the future. They are mothers longing to return home, fathers yearning to work again, children searching for a childhood.
We are witnessing a massive shift of humanity unlike any seen before. Today more than 68 million people around the world are displaced from their homes.
What does it look like for that many people to be displaced?

It would be like over half the population of Japan going homeless. Or everyone in the U.K. fleeing and leaving an empty nation behind them. It would be like the states of California and Texas slowly draining of every doctor, teacher, engineer and entrepreneur until there was only barren land left behind.

More than a third of the world's displaced population - some 25.4 million people - have been forced to flee their own countries entirely, leaving familiar lands behind. Over two-thirds of those refugees come from just five countries: Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia.

With your support, Mercy Corps is responding to this crisis with emergency assistance to help refugees meet their urgent needs around the world. Our refugee response reaches people in more than 20 countries with support like cash, food, water, shelter, youth centers and life skills training.

All refugees have suffered unimaginable loss, whether they are displaced in their own country or seeking safety overseas. Yet they are filled with potential and the strength to triumph over adversity. Their story is our story, because we are all human - and together, we can build a better world.

Read on to learn more about where this crisis is hitting the hardest, and how you can help.

1. Syria: 6.3 million refugees

Joury, 12, fled Daraa, Syria with her family four years ago. She now lives in Za'atari refugee camp in Jordan, where she dreams of being a painter. PHOTO: Sean Sheridan for Mercy Corps Get the quick facts about the Syria crisis ▸
The Syria crisis has accelerated more dramatically than any crisis on earth, and Syrians continue to be the largest forcibly displaced population in the world. After war erupted in March 2011, it took two years for 1 million people to be displaced. Another million were displaced within six months. Now seven years on, more than half of the pre-war population has been internally displaced or forced to seek safety in neighboring countries. That's more than 11 million people on the run, including some 6.3 million people who have escaped across the borders.

Mercy Corps is reaching hundreds of thousands of people throughout Syria per month with urgently needed food, water, blankets and other essential supplies.

We're also working to reach the millions of Syrian refugees now living in other countries. In a colorful classroom in Jordan's Za'atari refugee camp, 12-year-old Joury paints a picture of a garden. It's a place she remembers from Syria, with tall trees that linger in her memory from visits there with her grandmother.

Joury fled Syria with her family four years ago. There is no way to know if she will be able to go home again. At a Mercy Corps youth center in Za'atari, art helps young refugees like her cope with their stress and enjoy being kids again.

"In Syria I wanted to be an artist, but I didn't know how to draw," she says. "I learned how to draw at Mercy Corps [youth center program]."

Shakila, center, fled Afghanistan with her kids, Sonia and Arash. Cash from Mercy Corps is helping them meet their urgent needs while living in Greece. PHOTO: Sara Hylton for Mercy Corps
"When I am thinking of anything, I just like to draw it. I feel comfortable when I draw."

2. Afghanistan: 2.6 million refugees
Addressing anger, not just income, is key to fighting instability in Afghanistan ▸
Years of unemployment, insecurity and political instability have led to a massive migration from Afghanistan. Over one million people are estimated to be living in new and prolonged displacement, while nearly 2.6 million people have been forced to leave the country to Iran, Pakistan or Europe.

The United Nations estimates that an average 1,100 people a day - mostly women and children - were forcibly displaced by violence in 2017. Today, over half of people displaced by conflict in Afghanistan have been displaced at least twice, compared to just 7 percent five years ago.

Mercy Corps is working to build a stronger future within Afghanistan by training farmers to grow better crops, improving economic opportunities for youth, teaching new mothers healthy nutrition practices, and helping women and girls find better access to financial services and job opportunities.

We're also helping Afghan refugees while they live away from home. Shakila, 31, fled Afghanistan with her husband and three children, seeking a better life. Now they wait in Greece for a future they're not sure will ever arrive.

Angelina has fled violence, flooding and drought looking for a safe place for her family. "I am tired of running from enemies," she says. PHOTO: Jennifer Huxta for Mercy Corps Get the quick facts about the crisis in South Sudan ▸
Mercy Corps is providing Shakila with a cash card to buy essentials for her family, while her daughter, Sonia, is in an art workshop at a Mercy Corps youth center.

"I worry about my children," Shakila says. "They need an education but here they just pass the days without anything. My daughter is depressed. She always stays inside the tent."

"I'm a little older; I don't need anything. I just need my kids to go to school and have an education and change their future for good things to come."

3. South Sudan: 2.4 million refugees

The situation in South Sudan is dire, and the largest refugee crisis in Africa. More than 4 million people have been uprooted from their homes since the start of a brutal civil war in 2013, including about 2.4 million people who have been forced to cross into neighboring countries, the majority of them women and children.

Ongoing warfare, flooding and drought continue to worsen what is already a dangerous humanitarian crisis. There are massive needs for clean water, health care, sanitation, food, shelter, and protection across the country, and millions of people now require urgent support to survive.

Angelina feels that struggle deeply. She fled conflict in her village twice looking for a safe place for her family. The last time she fled, her home was burned behind them.

For five days she walked through deep water, floating her children on a plastic tarp until they found refuge on Nyoat Island, where they rely on food assistance and water lilies to survive. Her children leave by canoe every morning at 4 a.m. to go to a local school Mercy Corps supports.
Learn more about the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh ▸
"I set up here because I am tired of running from enemies," she says. "I decided to come here for two reasons: for fear - I feel safe here - and because I can get water lilies for my kids."

"I have hope [to find work] but I don't know what kind of work. If there is an opportunity given and I can provide for my kids, then I will be happy. Even if I have some small seeds, then I can plant a vegetable garden and sell them and get some money."

4. Myanmar: 1.2 million refugees

Hadija is one of 160,000 Somalis who have been displaced in the city of Baidoa because of drought and instability. Mercy Corps is distributing water and food in the camp where she lives. PHOTO: Peter Caton for Mercy Corps
Since violence broke out in Myanmar's northern Rakhine State in August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya have fled to Cox's Bazar in southeast Bangladesh. Before the crisis began, Bangladesh was already grappling with its own humanitarian challenges, and hosting some 212,000 Rohingya who had escaped Myanmar during earlier periods of violence and persecution.
Famine and food security: What's at stake ▸
The speed and scale of the influx over the course of a three-month period last fall has placed tremendous strain on host communities and Bangladesh as a whole, making it one of the world's largest and worst refugee crises.

Today, there are some 932,000 Rohingya seeking refuge in Bangladesh and at least 1.3 million people - Rohingya refugees and Bangladeshi host communities - who rely on humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs. More than half of them are children. These populations live in desperately overcrowded camps and communities, highly vulnerable to oncoming monsoon and cyclone seasons.

In the midst of one of the world's most pressing refugee crises, Mercy Corps sees an opportunity to address the urgent needs of refugees and, at the same time, help the host communities build resilience and transform their communities.

In response to the start of the monsoon season, Mercy Corps is working with partners to help Rohingya people from Myanmar and Bangladeshis in host communities in Cox's Bazar access clean water and reinforce their shelters against mudslides and flooding.

Cash distributions, like this one in South Sudan, give people the freedom to meet their urgent needs however they choose. Jennifer Huxta for Mercy Corps
5. Somalia: 986,400 refugees

More than two decades of ongoing conflict and natural hazards such as prolonged drought and flooding have driven nearly 1 million Somalis to live in destitute refugee camps in the Horn of Africa and Yemen, while some 2.1 million people remain displaced within the country.

Almost half of the country is in need of assistance, and some 2.5 million people are unable to meet daily food needs, including over 300,000 children suffering from acute malnutrition.

Mercy Corps has been working in Somalia since 2005, improving access to food and water, rehabilitating waterways, supporting local markets and providing education and civic opportunities for youth. We are also providing livelihood opportunities, such as cash for work, to increase farm production and enhance the ability of communities to handle shocks like drought.

That support - and a long-term peaceful solution - is critical for people like 22-year-old Hadija. Two seasons of failed rains forced her to leave her village with her two children. Now she waits in a refugee camp, one of 160,000 people in her region whose life has been put on hold.

"In the village we lived from our animals, but they died from the drought," she says. "The hunger brought us here. Unless things change, we have no hope of going back. We are depending on what relatives and friends give us.

"Tonight we have nothing to eat for my children and myself. We have no hope back at home, we just hope for people who wish us well to take care of us now."

How you can help

In more than 40 countries, Mercy Corps partners to put bold solutions into action - helping people triumph over adversity and build stronger communities from within. With your support, we are helping millions of people meet their urgent needs and build a stronger tomorrow.

You play an important role in ensuring that refugees have the support they need. When we work together, we can help even more people feel safe from conflict, stay healthy and forge ahead to a better, stronger future.

Every single contribution you make helps us provide lifesaving assistance to refugees in crisis around the world. Donate now

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The refugee crisis is a human crisis: Behind the statistics are people filled with unique life experiences and dreams for the future. They are mothers longing to return home, fathers yearning to work again, children searching for a childhood. We are witnessing a massive shift of humanity unlike any seen before.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | Chickens Tell Tale of Human Migration Across Pacific

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Genetic similarities found among chickens in various nations throughout the Pacific serve as an indicator of human settlement patterns

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | New Orleans evacuees integrate their culture into Houston environment

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Evacuees bring a little bit of New Orleans culture to Houston

# data[].attributes.headline
A Great Migration From Puerto Rico Is Set to Transform Orlando

# data[].attributes.subject
A Great Migration From Puerto Rico Is Set to Transform Orlando

# data[].attributes.body
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/us/puerto-ricans-orlando.html

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
TO DISCOVER THE SPECIAL PAGER ON THE ROHINGYA CRISIS AND THE OTHER LANGUAGE VERSIONS PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Discrimination, exclusion and persecution most commonly describe the existence of stateless minorities.

More than 75% of the world's known stateless populations belong to minority groups.

"Imagine being told you don't belong because of the language you speak, the faith you follow, the customs you practice or the colour of your skin. This is the stark reality for many of the world's stateless. Discrimination, which can be the root cause of their lack of nationality, also pervades their everyday lives - often with crippling effects. If we want to end statelessness, we must address this discrimination. We must insist on equal nationality rights for all."

Filippo Grandi
UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES

Statelessness can exacerbate the exclusion that minorities already face, further limiting their access to education, health care, legal employment, freedom of movement, development opportunities and the right to vote. It creates a chasm between affected groups and the wider community, deepening their sense of being outsiders: of never belonging.

In May and June 2017, UNHCR spoke with more than 120 individuals who belong to stateless or formerly stateless minority groups in three countries: the Karana of Madagascar, Roma and other ethnic minorities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and the Pemba and Makonde of Kenya. These are the key findings of UNHCR's consultations:

Discrimination

Discrimination and exclusion of ethnic, religious or linguistic minority groups often lies at the heart of their statelessness. At the same time, their statelessness can lead to further discrimination, both in in practice and in law: at least 20 countries maintain nationality laws in which nationality can be denied or deprived in a discriminatory manner.

Lack of documentation

Discrimination against the stateless minorities consulted manifests itself most clearly in their attempts to access documentation needed to prove their nationality or their entitlement to nationality, such as a national ID card or a birth certificate. Lack of such documentary proof can result in a vicious circle, where authorities refuse to recognize an otherwise valid claim to nationality.

Poverty

Because of their statelessness and lack of documentation, the groups consulted are typically excluded from accessing legal or sustainable employment, or obtaining the kinds of loans or licenses that would allow them to make a decent living. This marginalization can make it difficult for stateless minorities to escape an ongoing cycle of poverty.

Fear

All the groups consulted spoke of their fear for their physical safety and security on account of being stateless. Being criminalized for a situation that they are unable to remedy has left psychological scars and a sense of vulnerability among many.

"I felt like I was a slave. Now I feel like I have been born again," says 51-year-old Amina Kassim, a formerly stateless member of the Makonde community in Kenya.

Ensuring equal access to nationality rights for minority groups is one of the key goals of UNHCR's #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness by 2024.
To achieve this, UNHCR urges all States to take the following steps, in line with Actions 1, 2, 4, 7 and 8 of UNHCR's Global Action Plan to End Statelessness:

Facilitate the naturalization or confirmation of nationality for stateless minority groups resident on the territory provided that they were born or have resided there before a particular date, or have parents or grandparents who meet these criteria.

Allow children to gain the nationality of the country in which they were born if they would otherwise be stateless.

Eliminate laws and practices that deny or deprive persons of nationality on the basis of discriminatory grounds such as race, ethnicity, religion, or linguistic minority status.

Ensure universal birth registration to prevent statelessness.

Eliminate procedural and practical obstacles to the issuance of nationality documentation to those entitled to it under law.

The Karana minority in Madagascar has been present on the island nation for more than a century. They trace their origins to the western provinces of pre-partition India. The most significant wave of migration from India to Madagascar took place in the latter half of the nineteenth century, when seafaring trade on the Indian Ocean became more competitive.
There is no reliable data concerning the exact number of Karana on Madagascar; while it's popularly believed that this Indian-origin minority numbers some 20,000, the actual figure might be significantly higher.

"We are here. We are your neighbors. When it rains it rains for all of us."

The vast majority of these people were born in Madagascar and spent their entire lives on the island. Most live in urban areas, including the capital, Antananarivo, and the city of Mahajanga on the northwest coast. The fact that the Karana are predominantly Muslim has contributed to a perception of them as outsiders.

Madagascar's nationality law follows the principle of jus sanguinis, granting citizenship at birth to children who have at least one parent who possesses Malagasy nationality. The Karana were generally not given citizenship when Madagascar won independence from France in 1960 because they were not considered to be ethnically Malagasy.

Mahamadhoussen Chamimakatomme, a 58-year-old Karana woman, explains how she's spent over 25 years seeking Malagasy citizenship. As part of her recent efforts, she paid a large sum for a 100 year "temporary" residency permit, only to be told soon afterwards that it was no longer valid unless it was redone with biometrics. "My residence card was thrown in the trash by a civil servant," she laments.

Despite the significant challenges faced by the stateless Karana in Madagascar, a recent development is cause for celebration. On 25 January 2017, the Government promulgated a new law guaranteeing the equal right of citizens, regardless of their gender, to confer nationality on their children. Now, any child born to a Malagasy mother or father will be recognized as Malagasy.

UNHCR is hopeful that the government may take further steps to resolve the statelessness of the minority groups without nationality; in addition to the Karana, there are an unknown number of persons of Chinese, Comorian, and mixed descent who are stateless in Madagascar.

Few can argue with the words of Bachir Ibrahim*, an elderly Karana man, who simply but powerfully makes the case for the Karana to have equal access to Malagasy nationality: "We are here. We are your neighbors. When it rains it rains for all of us. When the sun shines it should shine on us all."
*Name changed in order to protect the person's identity at their request.

The origins of the Romani people can be traced back to northern India, from where they migrated between the 13th and 15th centuries to Europe. From the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Roma form the largest group among the ethnic minorities that are stateless or at risk of statelessness.
Official numbers indicate that there are 54,000 Roma in the country, although unofficial estimates range from 110,000 to 260,000. The Roma have a unique ethnic identity and speak the Romani language, which distinguishes them from the majority Macedonian-speaking population.

"They were born here, how can I not get a birth certificate for my children?"

The statelessness of the Roma and other ethnic minorities is linked, in part, to the dissolution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. Those who were legally residing in its territory at the time of the dissolution could acquire the nationality of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, by applying for naturalization within one year.

Many missed this short window of opportunity, largely due to lack of awareness, often remaining unaware of the fact that they were not citizens of the State in which they continued to live. "With an ID for foreigners, no one wants to employ you. We are reduced to poverty", says Haidar Osmani.

Poverty, in combination with the inability to access public healthcare, has devastating health implications for many Roma, who are unable to pay for medical insurance from their own pockets. Haidar was forced to sell his house after he needed treatment for cancer. For the five members of his family, he has to cover around USD 240 per month for health insurance. Without a national ID card, he is not entitled to health insurance, social assistance or sustainable employment.

"I have made more than 20 formal applications for documents since 1991. I even visited the Ombudsman's Office. They [the authorities] didn't explain things to me, they just asked for documents that I don't have", he explains, defeated.

Almost all members of the community share his sentiments that they are not given clear instructions by the authorities, that they experience arbitrary treatment and that they are asked to produce documents they are unable to obtain.

Mivtar Rustemov, a 48-year-old Roma father of seven, has for years been trying in vain to obtain birth certificates for his six children who were born at home. "I cannot understand how this is possible. They were born here, how can I not get a birth certificate for my children? I want her [his daughter Lirije] to have the same opportunities as her friends have."

Some of these issues are now being addressed. Discussions are ongoing on potential law reforms that would help the Roma access procedures for birth and personal name registration. The Ministry of Labor and Social Policy is also covering the costs of DNA testing for the most vulnerable Roma families to enable birth registration for children born at home who lack other evidence to prove their family links.

The Pemba, originating from the Tanzanian island of the same name, arrived in two major waves to Kenya. The first came in 1935-1940, in search of better livelihood opportunities. They settled at Kenya's southern coast, which became an integral part of the country upon its independence in 1963. Notwithstanding their long presence on the coast, or the fact that most had lost their ties with the island of Pemba over time, these first arrivals and their descendants have never been recognized as Kenyan citizens.
The second wave of Pemba arrived in Kenya between 1963 and 1970, some seeking economic opportunity, but most fleeing the violence resulting from the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution. Although some were issued with Kenyan nationality identity cards, these were withdrawn under the repressive regime of President Moi and deportation orders against the Pemba were issued throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

"The biggest problem is the poverty caused by my statelessness."

Notwithstanding these orders, many Pemba took refuge in the Kenyan bush, desperate to remain in the country that they had come to view as home. It is estimated that there are approximately 3,500 Pemba living in Kenya today.

Shaame Hamisi, a 55-year-old father of 13 and Chairman of the Pemba community, remains stateless and undocumented, despite the fact that his wife is a Kenyan national and is entitled to pass her nationality to him under the law. Shaame is a fisherman and spends long, hot days and starry nights on the Indian Ocean, trying to make a living to feed, clothe and educate his large family.

"The biggest problem is the poverty caused by my statelessness" he says. "Because I am stateless, I cannot get a fishing license. Without a license, I cannot go deep-sea fishing where the best catch can be found. I cannot afford my own boat, which costs 300,000 Kenyan shillings (approximately 300 USD), or the equipment to fish well. Without a Kenyan national ID card, I'm not eligible for bank loans to purchase those things. I must pay rent and fuel money to use my neighbour's boat. Even if I could purchase a boat, I would have to register it in someone else's name. A stateless person cannot own property. I feel belittled and disgraced by the situation that I am in."

Omar Kombo, a jovial 48-year-old Pemba man with six young children, also feels bitter about the inequality he experiences as a result of being stateless. "The majority of us are fishermen" he says. "The Beach Management Unit deducts 10 Kenyan shillings for each kilo of fish that every fisherman on this coast sells. It is supposed to issue the dividends to all contributors for damage done to the boats during the season. Because we are Pemba we get nothing, even if our boats are broken. We are forced to participate in this scheme, but all the benefits are given to our brothers with Kenyan nationality."

However, there are signs that this situation may change. In December 2016, the Kenyan Government recognized the stateless Makonde, another ethnic group living on the Kenyan Coast, as Kenyan nationals. The Government has also extended the deadline by which stateless persons present in the country since independence and their descendants can register for nationality. Members of the Pemba community are mobilizing, together with local NGOs such as the Mombasa-based Haki Centre and UNHCR, to advocate for their recognition as Kenyan nationals.

"I felt like I was a slave. Now I feel like I have been born again," says 51-year-old Amina Kassim, a formerly stateless member of the Makonde community in Kenya.

The Makonde in Kenya is an ethnic tribe estimated to be around 4,000 in number who trace their origins to northern Mozambique. The community is mostly made up of labourers who were recruited by the British during the colonial period to work on sisal farms and sugar plantations. Other Makonde in Kenya are the descendants of exiled freedom fighters and refugees from the Mozambican civil war.
Despite most being resident in Kenya since its independence in December 1963, they were not recognized as citizens or included in any of the population registration databases. A 2009 national census report simply classified them as 'others'. Tina Eric, a bright 22-year-old Makonde woman, recounts a painful memory: "One of my teachers in school singled me out one day and told the class that I was a Makonde. 'Those are the ones that eat snakes' she said. I was ridiculed after that. Even those who I thought were my friends did not fully accept me."

"Before I got my national ID, I lived a debilitating life."

Thomas Nguli, the respected 60-year-old Chairman of the Makonde community, confirms how these discriminatory attitudes, present even at the highest levels of government, degraded and excluded the community, stopping them from being viewed as fellow human beings, deserving of respect: "A certain political leader was asked how he viewed the Makonde and he shamelessly responded to the crowd that he saw us as cannibals - people who ate other people! After that, what hope did we have?"

Amina Kassim laments that "before I got my national ID, I lived a debilitating life. I could not engage in any meaningful business. I traded petty things, like Swahili buns. You don't need a permit to sell them."

Although in the past the Makonde in Kenya have, at various times, been invited to vote by both the Mozambican and Kenyan governments in their respective general elections, they have never been accorded the status of citizens by either of them.

In 2015, after decades of lobbying, the Makonde community successfully petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to review their case. In response, he called for the formation of an inter-departmental taskforce to look into statelessness in the country. With assistance from UNHCR, in November2015, the Taskforce completed a report with recommendations to register and naturalize stateless groups in the country.

Frustrated by delays in implementing the recommendations, in October 2016, hundreds of Makonde, young and old, supported by local civil society groups such as the Kenya Human Rights Commission, took part in a now legendary march from Kwale to Nairobi to personally request President Kenyatta to recognize them as Kenyan citizens.

On 13 October 2016, moved by the plight and efforts of the Makonde, and determined to resolve their situation, President Kenyatta apologized, saying "it has taken too long to give you justice as fellow Kenyans. Today is the last day you will be called visitors."

He issued a directive to give effect to provisions in the Kenya Citizenship and Immigration Act (2011) that give stateless persons resident in the country since Kenya's independence in 1963 (and their descendants), the right to be registered as Kenyan nationals. The President also officially recognized the Makonde as the 43rd tribe of Kenya, cementing the claim of future generations of Makonde to be recognized as citizens.

Special pager: Rohingya Crisis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stateless minorities and their search for citizenship

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
TO DISCOVER THE SPECIAL PAGER ON THE ROHINGYA CRISIS AND THE OTHER LANGUAGE VERSIONS PLEASE CLICK HERE. "Imagine being told you don't belong because of the language you speak, the faith you follow, the customs you practice or the colour of your skin. This is the stark reality for many of the world's stateless.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Newsela | History of the Land Bridge Theory

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Today, scientists are trying to determine whether the first Americans traveled to North America from Siberia via the Bering Land Bridge.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hear the immigration stories of real immigrant kids who have recently immigrated to the United States from Asia, Africa, and Europe. See videos, maps, and photos.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Global international migration flows | Wittgenstein Centre

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Global Migration Data Sheet 2013: Unique estimates of migration flows between the top 50 sending and receiving countries.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
ANNA: Hi, I'm Anna and this is my great, great, great Grandfather Captain John Egge. He came to Australia from China in 1852 and worked as a cabin boy on boats along the Murray River. He eventually got his own paddle-steamer and was heavily involved in the river trade. He started up a heap of businesses in a town called Wentworth in New South Wales and became one of the wealthiest men there!

It would've been pretty hard for him starting a new life, moving to a foreign country and learning a new language. But that was the case for the many Chinese people who came to Australia around the same time.

During the 1850s, tens-of-thousands of Chinese immigrants travelled here by boat. They came to work in Victoria's gold fields so they could make money to send back to their families. After the gold rush many went back to China, others stayed to start up their own businesses or work the land. And today, there are around 865-thousand people of Chinese background living in Australia sharing their culture and talents with all of us!

My relative John Egge was so respected for what he did, there's even a statue of him on the wharf in Wentworth! But we wanted to honour him too, so we built our very own paddle-steamer in his memory.

This is the Evangeline. Come have a look. This is the lounge room and the kitchen and the steering wheel at the front. The bedrooms are upstairs. This is the master bedroom and back this way this is where my sister and I sleep. The boat was named after my Great Grandmother. We started with drawing designs in the dirt and it took around 5 years to build it in our backyard. It was kind of the love-hate relationship like when you wanted to be doing things with your friends and you had to be on the boat helping, but in the long run it's been an amazing journey.

Chinese immigrants like my great, great, great Grandfather have played a big role in Australia's history. They've made our society more multi-cultural and brought their traditions to our country to enjoy. I reckon Captain John Egge would quite proud.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
February the 19th is Chinese New Year, which is a big deal to the hundreds of thousands of Chinese Australians that call this country home. So to mark the occasion, we thought we'd take a look at the history of Chinese migration.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
No One Wanted Us - The Tragic Voyage of the SS St. Louis

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Clouds Over Sidra: A Virtual Reality Experience | WITHIN

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Meet Sidra. This charming 12-year-old girl will guide you through the Zaatari Refugee Camp, home to 130,000 Syrians fleeing violence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Jumpstarting a new existence in an emerging city. This is an interactive documentary about everyday life in Domiz Camp, a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq. A combination of drawings, film, photography, sound and text takes you into the world behind the relief organization posters and gives you t…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A North Korean soldier has defected to South Korea at the heavily protected Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), South Korea's military says.

The soldier was shot and injured by his own military as he crossed to the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area in the village of Panmunjom.

The defector has been taken to hospital.

About 1,000 people from the North flee to the South each year - but very few defect via the DMZ.

The Joint Security Area (JSA)

This is the fourth defection by a North Korean soldier via the DMZ - one of the world's most heavily guarded strips of land - in the last three years.

North and South Korea are technically still at war, since the conflict between them ended in 1953 with a truce and not a formal peace treaty.

How to dodge mines and snipers on the Korean border

S Korea sees drop in defectors from North

N Korean soldier defects across river

According to a statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the soldier made it across by passing through the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom, which is the only portion of the Demilitarised Zone where both forces stand face-to-face.

"He crossed from a North Korea post towards our Freedom House [a building on the South Korean side of the border]," the statement said. He was hit in the arm and shoulder.

The number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea dropped by 13% this year. From January to August, 780 North Koreans escaped to South Korea, according to officials in Seoul.

The fall is believed to be a result of tighter government surveillance and reinforced border security by both North Korea and China.

The majority of the defectors flee via China, which has the longest border with North Korea, and which is easier to cross than the heavily protected DMZ.

Seoul says more than 30,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A North Korean soldier has defected to South Korea at the heavily protected Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), South Korea's military says. The soldier was shot and injured by his own military as he crossed to the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area in the village of Panmunjom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
WW2 Commando boots of Yaacov Schloss

© Jewish Military Museum

Yaacov Schloss was born in Gelsenkirchen Westphalia in 1924. His parents were murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942. Following the outbreak of war he travelled around Europe before joining the British Army (Pioneer Corps) in Algiers around 1944.

In 1945 he joined the Jewish 3 troop 10 Commando unit, where he served until 1947.

He lived the rest of his life in North West London, known to all as Jack Scott.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yaacov Schloss was born in Gelsenkirchen Westphalia in 1924. His parents were murdered in Auschwitz in September 1942. Following the outbreak of war he travelled around Europe before joining the British Army (Pioneer Corps) in Algiers around 1944. In 1945 he joined the Jewish 3 troop 10 Commando unit, where he served until 1947.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Young West Indian immigrant, Victoria Station, 24 June 1962

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Outside the Glasgow School of Art, 2012

© Tom Bing

Yaya is a Sudanese refugee and British Red Cross volunteer. My work focuses heavily on refugees and asylum seekers, an often overlooked or misunderstood form of immigration into the UK. I spend a lot of time volunteering my time and skills with local organisations and charities in the Leeds and Bradford area, getting to know people, hearing their stories and learning about the asylum system. I work closely with the British Red Cross Refugee Services team, and have recently started to teach asylum seekers a basic photography class.

I feel this image says a lot about Yaya's character and the way he wants to be seen by the world. He is powerful, he is confident, he has been through so much in his life so far, yet he remains positive and wants to be seen and heard by the UK population.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Yaya is a Sudanese refugee and British Red Cross volunteer. My work focuses heavily on refugees and asylum seekers, an often overlooked or misunderstood form of immigration into the UK. I spend a lot of time volunteering my time and skills with local organisations and charities in the Leeds and Bradford area, getting to know people, hearing their stories and learning about the asylum system.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Polish bible

© Tim Smith

A woman born in Britain holds the only two possessions her Polish mother brought with
her when she arrived in this country shortly after the end of the Second World War. They are her Polish bible, and a photograph of her holding the bible on the farm in Germany to which she was deported to work during the War. She never returned to Poland. I like this picture as it is indicative of the few things that many migrants are able to carry with them on the often difficult journeys that they are forced into making: their culture and their memories.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A woman born in Britain holds the only two possessions her Polish mother brought with her when she arrived in this country shortly after the end of the Second World War. They are her Polish bible, and a photograph of her holding the bible on the farm in Germany to which she was deported to work during the War.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
No, THIS is England Leicester, 17 April 2011

© Kajal Nisha Patel

Worshippers have just begun a three-hour parade, to welcome the annual Sikh festival of Vaisakhi. This is an ancient harvest festival in the Punjab region of India and commemorates the founding of the Sikh nation in 1699. It also marks the Hindu solar New Year and is observed by people of different faiths across the sub-continent.

Leicester's annual Sikh Vaisakhi parade normally attracts around 30,000 worshippers from all around the UK. It has grown enormously since it started in 1986 with a gathering of fewer than 1,000 Sikhs. The parade begins at about 11am at the Guru Nanak Gurdwara, which is located on a street named Holy Bones, since there is a church and graveyard adjacent to the temple. The Gurdwara normally see more than 1000 worshippers a day, either paying their respect for a few minutes to offering sewa (selfless service) through cleaning, cooking, serving food, prayers and much more.

Through this image and my wider body of work, I am keen to explore a community, in which individuals come together and work towards a collective goal. Leicester is a place where sophistication and tradition is continuing and being reinvented at every turn.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
No, THIS is England Leicester, 17 April 2011

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Worshippers have just begun a three-hour parade, to welcome the annual Sikh festival of Vaisakhi. This is an ancient harvest festival in the Punjab region of India and commemorates the founding of the Sikh nation in 1699. It also marks the Hindu solar New Year and is observed by people of different faiths across the sub-continent.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Children of the Kindertransport Liverpool Street Station

© Sue McAlpine

Whosoever rescues a single soul is credited as though they had saved the whole world.
(Talmud)

Lord (Alf) Dubs was born in December 1932 in Prague, and was one of the Czech children rescued from the Nazis in the Kindertransport. He had no idea of the identity of his rescuer until 1988 when a relative spotted his name on Esther Rantzen's 'This Is Your Life' television programme featuring English former stockbroker Nicholas Winton, who had arranged for the transport of 669 children out of Nazi occupied Prague. Alf Dubs campaigned for Winton to be honoured for his actions, and he was later knighted.

'The bronze sculpture at Liverpool Street Station still brings memories of my own journey and arrival in the summer of 1939. A knapsack of uneaten food that my mother had packed for the journey, the midnight departure from Prague with my anxious mother standing near a German soldier with a swastika armband, and the interminably long train journey sitting on hard wooden seats, the night boat to Harwich and then London and a new beginning. Unveiled in September 2006, the bronze sculpture was designed by the renowned Israeli artist and former Kindertransport refugee Frank Meisler'.

Alf Dubs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Children of the Kindertransport Liverpool Street Station

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Whosoever rescues a single soul is credited as though they had saved the whole world. (Talmud) Lord (Alf) Dubs was born in December 1932 in Prague, and was one of the Czech children rescued from the Nazis in the Kindertransport.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
On Board P & O Strathaird Australia, England, 1959

© Rodney Yates

My family's uprooting and exile to Papua New Guinea paradoxically catches me in reverse. Ostensibly a 'native' of PNG having been born there, my uprooting was at age 8, when along with my brother Ed, we were 'repatriated' to a life we had never known, so my formative years were broken up into one of estrangement, disorientation and homesickness for an idyllic childhood which had come to an end with being landed in the Spartan setting of a south London boarding school, where I was based for the next 10 years. Culture shock was my abiding memory of the latter part of that childhood, and I have always put some distance between myself and 'British natives', none of whom seem to have any idea whatsoever about how to live sustainably on this shrinking planet.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
On Board P & O Strathaird Australia, England, 1959

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
My family's uprooting and exile to Papua New Guinea paradoxically catches me in reverse.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Demonstration against new Immigration Rules, Trafalgar Square, 1979

© Alan Denny

The Thatcher government announced it was changing the immigration rules so that Commonwealth dependants would find it even harder still to enter Britain. People were outraged and in November 1979 thousands came from all over the UK to protest in London. In parliament the Tory MP Tony Marlow shamefully claimed that racism amongst British people was a 'natural' instinct. Tory politicians talked openly of repatriating immigrants. The Tories ignored the protests and the new immigration rules came into force in December 1979.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Demonstration against new Immigration Rules, Trafalgar Square, 1979

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Thatcher government announced it was changing the immigration rules so that Commonwealth dependants would find it even harder still to enter Britain. People were outraged and in November 1979 thousands came from all over the UK to protest in London. In parliament the Tory MP Tony Marlow shamefully claimed that racism amongst British people was a 'natural' instinct.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Map Shows How Humans Migrated Across The Globe

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What is the difference between a refugee and a migrant? - Behind the News

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How Migration Affects Culture Cultural Isolation When people move to counties they feel safer in counties that are similar to their own. Some people look for similar language, religion, music or history. When you move to a place completely different you can feel out of place and

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It is the movement of a person or a group of people from one place to the other, often across a political or administrative boundary. Immigration and emigration are the two concepts that describe migration. Find out more here

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Do People Migrate Away From Their Home Country?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Ten-year-old Liliane* and her family were at home in Aleppo when a bomb hit their building.

Relief workers found Liliane's mom first and took her to be treated. She lost a kidney, and was brought to Lebanon for safety, but she believed that the rest of her family had died.

Separately, "Relief workers pulled us from under the rubble and treated us," recalls Liliane.

"My brother was hurt in his eye; me here and here," she says, pointing to her arm and shoulder. "My other brother and my father died."

When Liliane's mother learned that two of her children had survived the bombing, she went back into Syria to get them and bring them with her to safety in Lebanon.

But the strenuous trip put her back in the hospital. She is still being treated there.

While she recovers, Liliane and her brother are being cared for at an SOS Children's Villages interim care centre in Lebanon.

Liliane says: "I like SOS and want to stay here until mom is treated and healthy."

About dreams for the future, she says she wants to become an interior designer. And she wants to go back to Syria. "I miss it," she says.

Story recorded by photographer Bjørn-Owe Holmberg.
Published 16 September 2015

*The child's name has been changed for privacy.

Read another child refugee's story.

You can help!

SOS Children's Villages is helping families stay together, providing counselling and emotional support to children and young people to enable them to cope with trauma, and ensuring that their essential needs for nutrition, shelter and care are met. Please consider making a donation today to help us in supporting them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
She hopes to return to Syria: "I miss it."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Ten-year-old Liliane* and her family were at home in Aleppo when a bomb hit their building. Relief workers found Liliane's mom first and took her to be treated. She lost a kidney, and was brought to Lebanon for safety, but she believed that the rest of her family had died.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
My Story of Immigration | Miriam Martinez | TEDxCarverMilitaryAcademy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
11 Million Stories: Sophie, The Truth of Mass Deportation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
11 Million Stories: The Truth About Mass Deportation, shows in gripping detail what would happen to our country if mass deportation were to become the law of the land. In this six part series, undocumented immigrants are profiled in each episode.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Immigrants in their own words: 100 stories

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What pushed them away from their first homes, what pulled them to these shores, what new lives are they making in Britain? The Guardian asked immigrants living in the UK to tell us about their experiences. These are their stories