Hello, 

My name is Clare Morneau. I wrote the book Kakuma Girls, a collection of stories documenting the girls in the Kakuma Refugee Camp. The project showed me the power of storytelling and reminded me of how lucky I am to be a Canadian in an era where immigration is growing increasingly difficult. These themes, along with my family’s personal Canadian immigration story, inspired my interest in Canadian immigration. My older sister Grace joined our family in 2011. Grace's experience of transitioning between Uganda and Canada first sparked my curiosity, and I wondered how her time in Canada compared to my own — if she had similar perceptions of the country’s attitudes, felt welcome here, and whether the Canadian identity is one that she felt she could adopt. 

It's no secret that Canada is a country of immigrants. Are the questions I had for Grace perhaps universal to other newcomers to Canada? By listening to and reading the stories of immigrants I believe we can foster a better understanding of what the immigrating to Canada experience is. This project is my own attempt to explore identity and if identity is changed in moving to a different country. It is an examination of what it means to be or want to become a Canadian.