ONE TEENAGE REFUGEE’S JOURNEY TO CHICAGO
July 2012
Salamat, 13, and his older brother flee growing violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Their parents stay behind. The brothers travel 900 miles by truck and on foot to join their sister’s family in Malaysia.
October 2012
Salamat arrives in Malaysia’s Penang State, where he lives with his sister. He applies to the United Nations for refugee status.
2012- 2015
Salamat works part- time jobs and doesn’t attend school. Malaysia isn’t a signatory to the 1951 U. N. Refugee Convention, which requires countries to let refugee children enroll in school.
Late 2013
The family learns that, if their application is approved, they will be sent to the United States as refugees.
2014- 2015
Family members submit required documents, sit for interviews, get fingerprinted and undergo medical screenings and security checks. They give Chicago as a preference for relocation because the city is home to hundreds of Rohingya refugees.
December 2015
The family learns the United States will admit them. Salamat, then 17, qualifies as his sister’s dependent. Family members attend a three- day “cultural orientation” prior to departure.
January 2016
The family arrives in Chicago after a 15- hour journey. A caseworker helps them find housing, food, furniture and other essentials with a resettlement grant of about $ 1,000 per family member. About half of the total goes toward a security deposit and rent for the first two months.
February 2016
Salamat enrolls as a freshman at Mather High School on the North Side. His brother- in- law searches for work.
May 2016
Salamat’s brother- in- law finds work cleaning planes at O’Hare Airport.
August 2016
Salamat drops out of school to work at O’Hare and help support his parents in Myanmar.
October 2017
Salamat re- enrolls, now at- tending Sullivan High School in Rogers Park. He continues to work weekends at the airport and also works part time at a restaurant in a suburban strip mall.
March 2018
Salamat quits his restaurant job to focus on school.
June 2018
He completes his sophomore year at Sullivan and looks for a job closer to home.