Joy Haugen- Looking Back While Moving Forward.

Firstly, one of the highlights from Joy Haugen’s talk would be that she acknowledged current opinions and current ideas regarding refugees today. This in contrast to her experiences and perspective on the issue really brings light to the progress that needs to be made.  At just the age of six, an age we normally remember as a time where our time spent was in the playground or at school, Joy Haugen spent it as a refugee.

While Joy Haugen’s experience came as a shock to most of us, something that stood out was how she normalised aspects that still made her childhood somewhat closer to ours. Things like playing games with friends and family. Really show the misrepresentation of refugees in the media. Another example of this would be her experience in America. While she was able to assimilate and settle into America, she entered an environment which has prejudgements about her and her family purely because of their status as a refugee. Not only this but she stated “The people I remember are not those who were mean to me but those who were nice and cared”.

One of my takeaways from the talk and what Joy Haugen would want us to consider would be our engagement and our view of refugees is extremely twisted in comparison to what it would be without the bias of politics or media. From Joy Haugen’s first hand knowledge it was clear how important it is to show our recognition and acknowledgment of how much we don’t know.

Contact- joyhaugenuwc@uwcsea.edu.sg