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This Is Home

Directed by: Alexandra Shiva
Runtime: 1hr 31min Year: 2018
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Directed by: Alexandra Shiva
Runtime: 1hr 31min Year: 2018
Country: United States

This Is Home tells the migrant experience that is often forgotten: the first months of settlement in a new country, language and culture.

Baltimore, USA is home to over 45,000 foreign-born immigrants – more than half of whom have moved there since 2000. When a Syrian family get asylum they are sent to the city and given support for just 8 months, after which they must know the language, have a job and be entirely self-sufficient.

Following four families across this period, and the best intentions of case-workers, This Is Home shows the first months of this challenge: and the difficulties of succeeding in self-sufficiency in just 8 months in a new country, with a new language and culture.

In making this intimate portrait of the immigration experience in today’s USA, director Alexandra Shiva unpicks the daily struggles of starting again in a new country. This Is Home is a powerful portrait of how asylum seekers have to try to drastically adapt to a new culture and language whilst working through the traumas of warfare.