Being the new kid at school is never easy. Starting a new job is never easy. But starting life anew in a foreign country is a feeling known by few.

It's been eight years since journalist and activist Shanga Karim fled her home in Kurdistan, in northern Iraq. Her early days of settling in Abbotsford were positive—for the most part. But when she reflects on that time, one particular exchange “still stays in her memory”: purchasing a new cell phone.

Karim’s interaction with the sales agent was “welcoming” until he read her identification, which labelled her as a refugee. Then, Karim recalled, the man’s demeanor changed. He disappeared to the back of the store only to return to ask her to leave.

“It was very hard for me. It was very hurtful at that time,” Karim recently told podcast hosts Sumaiyyah Adam and Darien Johnsen. “When I go back to that time, I’m like wow how can he do that.”