Summary: <br> <br> This podcast features Aimee Corrine Ottroh. Aimee was an asylum seeker from Ivory coast. She arrived in the UK in 2011. After dispersal to Glasgow, she spent three years trying to get refugee status. She has now several academic achievements and she is now a UNESCO RILA ambassador.<br> <br> Links to all the organisations mentioned in the podcast are at the bottom of this post. <br> We thought we would try something new and what follows is a transcript of the interview. <br> K: So what's on your mind today?<br> <br> Ok, I just wanted to start with the fact that French is my first language and I wanted to speak of the identity of people. For example, when my story started I was seeing myself as an asylum seeker and then as a refugee.<br> <br> I forgot that I was ... I am, a person. So you know I labelled myself as a refugee. Instead of seeing myself as a person with refugee status or a person seeking asylum. And since I've started to do this demarcation I feel better.<br> <br> K: When did you decide to make that demarcation? <br> <br> I decided when I completed my BSc Honours in community development.<br> <br> Yes, this is it, because we have learnt how you know people with ... we call people with disabilities. You know in order not to use (I don't know how to call it) pejorative words. So yes so I thought ... why not see myself as a person with refugee status. And honestly, I felt light (on) this day when I decided it. So yes.<br> <br> I am Aimee from the Ivory Coast and here, I have a status of a refugee. So I am a person with refugee status.<br> <br> K: When did your refugee story start?<br> <br> It started in 2011 when I arrived in London, where I claimed asylum and I have been (how to call it) ... dispersed.<br> <br> So I have been lucky to be sent here in Glasgow. I said lucky because when I showed my papers to other people because we were on a bus. The people were going to Liverpool and blah blah blah. When I showed my paper someone told me you're lucky. You're going to Glasgow. People from Glasgow very nice. This is it.<br> <br> K: So what did you expect it to be like and how was it?<br> <br> So I claimed asylum. So I expected to be believed and then I thought it will take at least one or two months and then I will start my life again.<br> <br> So in London people have been so nice you know because they interviewed me. And I don’t know if they believed in me but the same day I'd been put in an accommodation. And you know I had to come here, so I was expecting the same scenario and you know. And I came here. I had my interview and I wasn't believed.<br> <br> So it took me three years to get my refugee status. So it was ... I came here with honestly so many hope and so many joy and this was my second time to get out of my country. I went to Canada for training and people were amazing. I went to London (people were) were amazing. So I was expecting the same thing so yes, the way it started was honestly very hard for me because I didn't expect it.<br> <br> I wasn't believed. I was portrayed as someone who was telling lies and you know it. <br> <br> So I lost confidence in myself through the process. I am someone (who is a) happy person you know, with lots of dreams. So being in this position where I had to you know, to look for proof to show that I am a genuine person in need of help, was something hard.<br> <br> But again I have learnt a lot through this process. So I lost confidence.<br> <br> Today I don't know if I can speak English or I can speak French. You know sometimes hard times in your life make you lose a lot of things in your life. So this is it.<br> <br> But I am lucky because I was coming from Egypt to where I had completed my masters in project management. So I wanted to learn. I wanted to put this little knowledge. I wanted to use it in the community.
