E137: Rania Younes understands migratory grief better than most

In this episode, I’m chatting with Rania Younes, who grew up as a third-culture kid in Kuwait, attended the American University in Cairo, and built a career in Dubai before ultimately settling in Canada.

When Rania’s family moved to Canada, she had to stay behind to complete her university studies. However, watching her parents struggle to settle into the country and find their footing meant that when it was time to return, she hesitated.

She came over anyway, years later, because watching her siblings integrate gave her hope that Canada could give her kids something she had never had…a place to call home.

Then she lost her baby brother in 2010.

And processing that loss made Rania realise that she had been mourning an imagined version of herself for the last ten years. A trajectory of a self she should have been. The social circles and friends she had to leave behind to move to Canada.

Rania and I chat about:

• Why children of immigrants grieve belonging while parents grieve status

• How moving from a collectivist to an individualist culture creates friction

• Why understanding matters more than acceptance

• The difference between systemic acceptance and social acceptance

• How civic engagement builds belonging faster than job hunting