E129: Rim Aoude knows what it's like to be born without status

In this episode, I’m speaking to Rim Aoude, marketer, poet, and all-round amazing human.

Rim moved from UAE to Canada as a teenager. And we explore what it means when you’re born without a place to call home. Her granddad left Palestine. Her parents were born in Lebanon as refugees. She was then born in UAE with refugee documents.

And her kids, they were born Canadian. The first in three generations to be born with citizenship. “It was a huge deal in our family,” she says.

She talks about arriving in Canada at 17. Her dad had gotten sick in UAE, and couldn’t pay her school fees. Which meant she couldn’t certify her high school diploma. She went to Concordia, told them her situation. And they said, “You’re Canadian. You have the right to education.” They enrolled her immediately. That’s when she knew, she could do well here.

But being in Canada did something else. It allowed her to become who she actually was. She became more Palestinian in Canada than she ever was in the Gulf, where saying you’re Palestinian wasn’t something you advertised.

Rim and I also chat about:

• The lessons she’s gathered from living across three countries

• Why her kids speak French but she doesn’t

• Moving back to Canada from Qatar and starting over

• How struggle makes you attached to your identity