The recent story on Nawras wrestled in part with what is lost and what is gained as we go somewhere new, become someone new, become something different. Nawras landed stability, an education, a future he had been chasing since he was thirteen. But it also cost him. The day-to-day with a sister whose life in Turkey grows more tenuous by the year. The simple, daily ease of being in the place that made him. The reassurance that his mother is held by something larger than him, that she’s okay.
During the course of reporting I spoke with many others who had made their own journeys to Sweden. People who were actively negotiating their own bargain, weighing what it cost and what it gave, and what that meant to who they wanted to be. I’m grateful to them for opening up their homes and busy schedules to sit with me and talk. What follows are excerpts from those conversations.
Many of these conversations happened because of journalists Mina Demian (who also appears in the piece) and Alex Rodallec. My thanks to them both.
