Abdi in America
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 31 August 2017
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A young Somali refugee struggles to live the American dream in the USA's whitest state, during the rise of Donald Trump. Is the dream still possible? In December 2014, in 'Abdi and the Golden Ticket,' the BBC's Leo Hornak followed Somali refugee Abdi Nor Iftin as he battled to make it to America through the US green card lottery. Since then, Abdi been trying to make a new life for himself in the US state of Maine, striving to become a 'real American'. He hopes to get educated and start a career, but the pressures of supporting a family in Mogadishu make this seem ever more difficult. And then there is the plan to have his brother Hassan join him. The state of Maine remains almost entirely white, and amid growing public fear of Muslims and immigration, Abdi's American dream runs into obstacles that he never expected. Using personal conversations and audio diaries recorded over three years, 'Abdi in America' documents the highs and lows of one man's struggle to become American. (Photo: Somali refugee Abdi Nor, in Maine, standing next to a United States flag)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi I'm Leo Hornack and I'm the reporter on this week's assignment. |
| 0:04.5 | A while back we made a program called Abdi and the Golden Ticket. |
| 0:07.7 | If you search online you can find it. |
| 0:10.2 | It traced the story of a young Somali refugee struggling to reach the United States through the US Green Card lottery. |
| 0:17.0 | Well, what you're about to hear in this podcast is what happened next. |
| 0:21.0 | When Abdi went to live in Maine, the whitest states in the United States |
| 0:25.7 | during the rise of Donald Trump. Here's Abdi in America. |
| 0:35.0 | BBC World Service, Welcome to Assignment. How long is the drive? |
| 0:38.0 | How long is the drive? |
| 0:39.0 | I wrote to 20 minutes. |
| 0:40.0 | Okay, good. |
| 0:41.0 | This is a tape from three years ago. |
| 0:43.0 | It's nearly midnight on a cool evening in Nairobi in Kenya. |
| 0:47.0 | We're driving to the airport, heading fast, dodging pot holes. |
| 0:51.0 | It's one of the most memorable cab rides in my life. |
| 0:55.0 | This is a night that I've been waiting for in my whole life. |
| 0:59.0 | This are my last hours in Africa and it's almost become true now. |
| 1:04.0 | Abdi has got an air ticket to Boston, Massachusetts and it's one way. |
| 1:08.0 | He's leaving all this behind. |
| 1:10.0 | Going to what I think is the best country in the world, United States of America, the land of opportunity, the dreamland, to build a new life. |
| 1:20.0 | Scroche between us on the backseat is the most important person in Abdi's life, his older brother Hassan. |
| 1:26.6 | He hasn't got a ticket. |
... |
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