The Peripatetic.

The school started by Iranian refugees in Togo, West Africa (photo courtesy of N.Rahimi)

The following is in response to a pertinent question asked after the last post: How do you become stateless?

1. The 1979 Iranian Revolution starts brewing.
2. My friend’s parents escape just as things are boiling (and in 2009 they’re still boiling).
3. They become refugees in Togo.  While some fled to Canada and the U.S, they joined family living in Africa.  After three or four years, most people get citizenship in their new homes. West African countries, however, do not give out citizenship so easily.  Friends in other countries throughout West Africa moved to the U.S. as refugees and had full citizenship within a few years.  This family, however, stays in Togo.
4. In 1984 my friend is born to Iranian parents at a time when, as Bahá’ís, they cannot renew their Iranian citizenship.
5. They have UNHCR travel documents.  The documents expire every year.
6. For 27 years, the entire family has refugee status.  Every year, they renew their refugee status.
7. For most of those 27 years, they also work on a school.  They found the Arc-en-Ciel (Rainbow) International School. It becomes one of the best schools in the region, offering an accredited I.B. program.  That is the school my friend went to his whole life, up to college.
8. Children from Togo’s most prominent families enroll in the school.  After years of carefully avoiding any association with certain politicians or taking sides in campaigns, my friend’s mother has the chance to mention her situation. Their case gets some needed attention.
9. The president himself approves their application for citizenship.
10. Wait!  But first the file was in their mother’s name.  In Togo, nationality can only be passed down through the father.  In one last step, they manage to transfer the application to the father.  The whole family becomes Togolese citizens.

My friend has moved on though college and graduate school in top U.S. programs, and he now has a sweet job in DC.  His family continues their work with the Arc-en-Ciel International School.