Kathleen talks about interviewing Somalian women and children for a Women at Risk Refugee Program, a partnership between Canada Immigration and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

KS: So running with the UNHCR were amazing, I find them always amazing to work with and so you would interview these people and that was an eye opener because I would say almost all of them had lived six, seven, eight, nine years and most of the children that you met had never left the camp until they came for the interview. So they were shocked, like they didn’t know what to expect. They—and we interviewed in the UNHCR office that is an extremely modest building but they were just—they couldn’t take their eyes off of everything, There were no, no computers, there was just the desk and chairs and—but they just thought everything was so fascinating so it was a, it was for them life changing, there’s no way those people had any idea where Canada was or what their life, how their life would change. You know, they was—they just didn’t know, they could—and you can’t explain that. I think that’s what people don’t understand is, when you don’t have enough points of reference, you can’t explain certain things. How do you explain to somebody that they’re going to get on a plane and change at least twice and go and live in maybe Hamilton or Saskatchewan or something—they don’t understand that they— all they’ve known is living in a tent, in a camp. You can’t explain that to anybody else. Illiterate so there’s difficult—but you interview them and you hope that it works out and it’s good decision. It’s got to be better what they’ve been living on and they’ve been living on, you know, very tight food rations for all of these years, so I don’t think anybody’s brain works very well when they’re underfed. So, it was very interesting.

Kathleen Sigurdson was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1958. Her mother, Marguerite, immigrated to Canada in October 1955 from Alsace, France via England, where she had spent a year as a nanny. She met Kathleen’s father, John, a Canadian, on board the ship to Canada and they were married in 1957. Kathleen grew up in Montreal an only child and completed two bachelors, in linguistics then in education, at the University of Ottawa. She tried teaching before entering federal public service. She was eventually transferred to Foreign Service, and was posted to India, Sri Lanka, Buffalo, Paris, Abu Dhabi and Moscow, while intermittently working in Canada in between. Her daughter Lisa, who was six when Kathleen was first posted overseas, accompanied her until she left Paris to attend McGill University, later settling in Toronto. Kathleen lives in Ottawa and retired in 2015, but still takes on short-term assignments overseas.

Video oral history conducted by Emily Burton on 8 March 2016 at the Marriott Bloor Yorkville Hotel, Toronto, Ontario. The interview is not restricted; contact Museum staff for access to the full interview.

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0

You are free to:

- Share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format

The licensor cannot revoke these freedoms as long as you follow the license terms.

Under the following terms:

- Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.

Credit format: [Name], arrived from [Country], [Date of Arrival]. Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 [Object ID Number].

- NonCommercial — You may not use the material for commercial purposes.

- NoDerivatives — If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

- No additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.

Notices:

You do not have to comply with the license for elements of the material in the public domain or where your use is permitted by an applicable exception or limitation.

No warranties are given. The license may not give you all of the permissions necessary for your intended use. For example, other rights such as publicity, privacy, or moral rights may limit how you use the material.