Former Somali refugee to a Canadian minister

“Please help us settle here,” a 23-year-old Somali refugee said to an official at Regent Park, a multi-ethnic neighborhood in Toronto, Canada in 1999. Living in the public housing would allow him to get a student loan to go to college. The BBC reported on Sunday that the Somali youth, who struggled to get residency in the public housing 18 years ago, has become Canada’s new minister of immigration.

According to the BBC, Ahmed Hussen (see photo) left Somalia with his brothers in 1993 when he was 16, and arrived in Hamilton in southern Ontario. He managed to graduate middle and high schools with a Canadian dream. Then he moved to Toronto and graduated from York University in 2002.

Hussen was involved in many social activities while he was a university student. His ability to fight for residency in the public housing struck former Ontario politician George Smitherman who said, "Ahmed had to very carefully but forcefully represent their interests." Smitherman helped him land a job working with former Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty. Mahamad Accord, who has known Hussen for years, said to the BBC that Accord admits he was sometimes jealous of the lawyer and social activist's ability to get across a difficult message diplomatically. Hussen wanted to study law to raise awareness about social issues including refugees. He became a lawyer in 2012 and became a member of the parliament in 2015.

The Canadian media note that Hussen openly talks about his humble past. Though the Somali refugee community in Canada where he lived once is stigmatized as a source of crime, he is not shy away from speaking openly about the problems of the community. He confidently says that he was a former refugee and stresses that refugees can succeed like him. “I'm a Canadian. Somali is my heritage and I'm proud of my heritage,” the 41-year-old Canadian minister said in an interview with the Canadian Broadcast Corporation, “I'm not limited by my community.”

Eun-A Cho achim@donga.com