Original version

BBC World Service Australasia

From Our Own Correspondent

News

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

From Our Own Correspondent: The meaning of "home"

Magazines & Reviews

The meaning of "home"

28/12/2019 GMT

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, The meaning of "home"

Our place in the world: thoughts from Syria, Turkey, Cuba, Mexico, Uganda and Greenland

With millions of people on Earth displaced, correspondents share thoughts on our place in the world - from Syria, Turkey, Cuba, Mexico, the UK, Uganda and Greenland

What does it mean to feel at home? The station Radio Alwan started up to give Syrians an oasis of normality amid the civil war - but soon its staff were themselves working from exile in Turkey. They carried on broadcasting from Istanbul, but now they're scattering again, as funding dried up and President Erdogan's rhetoric about Syrian refugees in Turkey hardened. Emma Jane Kirby talks to them about finding a place in the world - and creating a sense of welcome and comfort on air.

Pascale Harter introduces this and other stories from correspondents and writers across the world. 

Will Grant has spent much of the past decade living in countries which many of their own citizens wish to leave: Venezuela, Mexico, and Cuba. Migration has always been a vital part of the story of the Americas, but now it's more prominent than ever. Millions of people are on the move, seeking somewhere safe, a place to prosper, or a refuge from political persecution. 

After Idi Amin decided in 1972 that the Ugandan Asian community should be kicked out of the country, a global diaspora was created. The families expelled from Uganda, most of Indian origin, had already created new lives in a new continent once - but many would do so again, moving to North America, Europe and the UK. Reha Kansara recently visited Uganda to put a picture to her grandparents' and parents' memories of Africa.

Inuit communities have lived in and roamed across the vast spaces of Greenland for millennia - but this huge Arctic territory isn't what it used to be. Climate change is beginning to alter the landscape, as ice and snow recede - and social change may not be far behind as foreign interests jockey for a part in extracting the mineral resources which are opening up. Trekking far across the tundra along the Arctic Circle Trail, Horatio Clare heard tales of dangerous nature, epic history ... and the wingbeats of a raven, fifty metres away.

Photo: Staff of Radio Alwan, Syrian broadcaster in exile, are trying to rebuild its studio and get back on air (c) Radio Alwan - used with permission

Accessibility links

Programme Index

From Our Own Correspondent

The meaning of "home"

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Australasia

About BBC World Service