For Refugees, New Year Means New Way of Life

By Ambreen Ali, Newser User

Posted Jan 1, 2009 1:50 PM CST

(Newser) – It's no coincidence that 15% of recent Somali refugees to the US share a birthday today. Aid workers often assign Jan. 1 when a birth date is unavailable, as is often the case in war-ravaged and disaster-ridden countries or cultures that don't celebrate birthdays. American rituals seem especially peculiar to the latter, though refugees are increasingly embracing them, the Boston Globe reports.

Many Somali Bantus were already displaced at home and are learning about American customs through their rapidly assimilating kids. "It's hard if you are born while your parents, or your mother, is running through the jungles trying to get to safety," says a relief worker. "People don't have access to water or food, let alone proper documentation."

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Aid workers process new arrivals at a refugee camp in Kenya. Birth dates are often unknown, so Jan. 1 is arbitrarily assigned. (AP Photo/Sayyid Azim)

Panther Alier, a "Lost Boy of Sudan" and survivor of the civil war in Southern Sudan, left, listens, Thursday, March 29, 2007, at the Statehouse in Boston. (AP Photo/Bizuayehu Tesfaye)

Jibril Koshin, a Somali refugee, right, talks with a building owner in Lewiston, Maine. Many refugees celebrate their birthday today. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

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The gifts on the table weren't for everybody, but only for one person. I asked a man, 'Sorry to interrupt, but do you do this every year?'
- Ali Maalim, 25, a Somali refugee

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