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Assignment: Abdi and the Golden Ticket

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Abdi and the Golden Ticket

28/12/2014

BBC World Service - Assignment, Abdi and the Golden Ticket

Assignment follows Abdi Nor, one of the winners of the US green card lottery

Assignment follows Abdi Nor, a winner of the annual US green card lottery, as he attempts to escape from a life of poverty in Kenya and realise the American dream.

Each year, the US government does a strange and slightly surprising thing: it gives away 50,000 green cards (permanent resident visas) to people chosen at random via a lottery. But becoming an American is not easy, even if you do win a golden ticket.

For Assignment, Leo Hornak follows the story of Abdi Nor, a young Somali lottery winner living in one of the toughest slums in Kenya, as he prepares for his final US embassy interview and the chance of a new life in the States.

But as Abdi's interview date approaches, the obstacles to him achieving his American dream appear to grow ever greater.

(Photo: Somali refugee Abdi Nor was one of the lucky few to be selected in the 2013 US green card lottery. BBC Copyright)

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