NANSEN is a magazine that aims to connect and celebrate migrants of all kinds. Each issue we focus on the experiences of one migrant and their community.
In Issue 03 we meet Muzhgan Samarqandi, an Afghanistani broadcaster and mother who is making Aotearoa New Zealand home with her young family.
She tells her own story, one where Kiwis tell her to shut up and be grateful or go home, of being stereotyped as a mail-order bride, and of the connection she has found with Māori people, a relationship that reaches outside Western notions of who is welcome to live where.
Muzhgan recalls her family’s migration history, one that began 800 years ago in the time of Ghengis Khan. Her writing is exacting and compassionate, and there’s plenty of joy, too.
In this issue we also:
* Eat Qabuli Pulao from Muzhgan’s upcoming cookbook
* Meet Bangladeshi-born hip-hop artist ABRZY
* Annotate the lyrics of Immigration New Zealand’s call waiting music (inexplicably written by its own staff!)
* Explore an Indigenous approach to immigration policy
* Call out ableist immigration policy that dehumanises disabled migrants
* Offer our suggestions for building the migrant utopia we all want