For many who seek refuge, storytelling begins as survival. To gain protection you must narrate your suffering to a case officer who decides if it is legitimate. Later you are invited to become an inspirational example. In both moments the narrative is moulded by what makes others comfortable.
This pressure erodes dignity. As Dina Nayeri notes in The Ungrateful Refugee, it flattens lives into something palatable for an audience when what people need is space simply to be who they are. It reinforces narratives that dehumanise refugees.
As a storyteller, I believe we need a model grounded in antifragility, a term coined by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, to describe how growth can emerge from pressure and uncertainty.
What we miss when we simplify refugee stories. By Samah Shda, City of Sydney News