Beyond borders: how a refugee’s resettlement became her mission

For Shahen Khosrawi, today an officer with Immigration New Zealand and former refugee from Kurdistan, the tent she once called home remains a vivid memory. “Being a refugee was all I knew, it seemed normal to me at the time,” she recalls, reflecting on the years she and her family spent as refugees in Iraq and Jordan.

 

Shahen’s grandparents were forced to leave their ancestral lands in Kurdistan (northwestern part of Iran) during the Iran-Iraq war.

Born to refugee parents, Shahen’s early years were marked by financial hardship, limited access to resources, restricted healthcare and education, and the struggle to find safety. “Life in the Iraqi refugee camp was tough, but my parents did everything they could to give us as normal a life as possible,” she says.

In 2003, instability in Iraq forced Shahen’s parents to make yet another life-changing decision to seek refuge for the second time, in yet another country, this time in Jordan.

Their time in Jordan was filled with challenges, as they first lived in ‘No Man’s Land,’ a stretch of borderland between Iraq and Jordan, and later moved into tents in Ruwaished refugee camp inside Jordan, in the far east of the Kingdom.

“Those were the hardest years of my childhood”, Shahen says. “I remember trading personal care items, such as shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes, provided by the UN, with truck drivers crossing the border for diesel.”

“The fuel we were given was enough for cooking but not sufficient for heating”, she explains. “Winters were hard to survive without proper heating.”

Despite the hardships, she recalls moments of kindness and support from humanitarian organizations, “The biscuits and milk we took as sustenance, represented a source of hope for me as a child at the time.”

Three years later, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency facilitated Shahen’s family’s resettlement to New Zealand.
Shahen reminisces the moment they learned of being accepted: “We were all overwhelmed with joy and happiness”, Shahen says, “winning the lotto would not have compared to that moment.”

 

“I remember the amount of happiness I felt because I would not experience the harsh cold or extreme heat anymore, and I knew that my father would finally receive the healthcare he needed, too”, Shahen says.

 

Resettlement is one of three durable solutions for refugees, who are unable to return to their home country or safely stay where they are to move to another country with a legal status ensuring their international protection and ultimately a permanent residence. UNHCR identifies whether a highly vulnerable refugee falls into this category, makes recommendations to receiving countries, supports their selection missions to meet relevant refugees, and facilitates departure arrangements.

 

For her own resettlement, Shahen has one image in her head: the greenery and the blue ocean when they arrived in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, located in North Island. This image remains etched in her memory.

They arrived at their large new house in a suburb in West of Auckland, located next to a horse paddock and close to a tidal stream. For the first time in years, she experienced the comfort and stability of a real home.

“I remember the amount of happiness I felt because I would not experience the harsh cold or extreme heat anymore, and I knew that my father would finally receive the healthcare he needed, too”, Shahen says about her father who had been injured in a motorcycle accident back in 2002.

“My family’s refugee journey has profoundly shaped my values and character”, Shahen says.

The community volunteers from the settlement service providers (Immigration New Zealand), helped them with school enrolment, taking doctors’ appointments…etc. “They were incredibly supportive”, she recalls, “our home was fully set up, and with the eight of us under 18 at the time, the number of toys made the house feel like Disneyland!” she adds.

 

Starting their lives in a new country was not always easy, especially for her parents who struggled specifically with the new language at the beginning.

Years later, after graduating with a bachelor’s in public health and psychology, Shahen wanted to go back to Jordan to work. “My family’s refugee journey has profoundly shaped my values and character”, she says, inspired by her past life.

Shahen now works in resettlement herself, as Resettlement Case Officer with Immigration New Zealand for the very programme that facilitated her family’s resettlement. Based at Te Āhuru Mōwai o Aotearoa – Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre, she is now helping others on the same journey she once took. “My message for refugees is that there is hope, and when the opportunity comes, do not let past experiences limit you from future growth,” she says.

The role ensures a successful transition for refugees arriving at the centre to become self-sufficient and integrated into life in New Zealand. Shahen develops a comprehensive settlement plan prior to their arrival that includes the refugees’ views and perspectives for their future.

 

New Zealand resettled nearly 800 women, men, and children from Jordan since 1991, including 239 individuals in 2024. It is one of nine resettlement countries that offered resettlement quotas in 2024 sharing responsibility with this generous host country. In the first eight months of 2024, UNHCR helped resettle 4,800 Syrian, Iraqi and other refugees to third countries.

 

“More needs to be done”, says Mari Sveen, a Senior Durable Solutions Officer in Amman, “resettlement is a way to restart the life in a new country for some of the most vulnerable families”.

Some 111,000 refugees in Jordan are still in need of resettlement because of protection risks, increased poverty, and hardship, which is about 14 per cent of the refugee population registered with UNHCR in the country.

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