As more countries around the world try to close their borders to asylum seekers, we spoke to the founder of an online language platform designed for refugees, who told us she hopes Chatterbox can remedy the stigmatization refugees face around the world.
(Video report begins at 3:16)
Afghan entrepreneur Mursal Hedayat believes the experiences of immigrants and refugees are undervalued and that language can be a catalyst for their reintegration into the labour market.
“We value the skills and talents of forcibly displaced people,” she explains, not seeing them as “a group of people flocking to Europe,” but rather as “a group of incredibly hardworking people who are motivated to rebuild their lives.”
The young entrepreneur is driven by his memories of his well-educated mother in the UK being treated “condescendingly” and only offered work as a cleaner, despite having a civil engineering qualification.
Hedayat firmly believes that solutions to these societal issues can be found through the use of technology.
She believes many current policies scapegoat displaced people, who she considers to be among the “most vulnerable people in the world.”
Hedayat has received many accolades himself, including being named one of Forbes magazine’s 30 European Social Entrepreneurs Under 30 in 2018.
Though she hasn’t been back to Afghanistan for years, she remains hopeful about the country’s future, saying “the arc of history is long, but it is moving toward justice.”
Text originally published in France 24
