Despite being Australian, our status as temporary makes it hard for them. We can’t go anywhere and their dad has to work, work, work all the time. In school holidays they tell us about their friends going away to different places. We aren’t allowed to go anywhere or ever take a small break with them. I feel like saying, ‘sorry kids, your mum and dad have nothing here, we can’t go anywhere.’ It’s like a jail here in that sense. Sometimes, our lack of freedom—the restrictions we have on us— makes it feel like we are living in a jail. Like we don’t have a future. My husband’s mother arrived on the same boat as us, but she is living in community detention in a different state. She was detained in Nauru with us. She’s been in community detention in Australia now for almost ten years. This is hard on her as an older person. She has lots of medical problems. Worst of all, she can’t travel to see us—and we can’t go to her. She doesn’t know her grandkids. We came all this way together, and now we are separated by a short difference but unable to see each other. 80 Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness | Understanding Statelessness in Australia Australia is a safe country—our kids have a good future here. Australians are kind people. It was different in the country we came from. There was tension, we weren’t safe. We are happy to live here, but we have nothing. That’s why we worry about the future. Our kids have citizenship and we are happy to support them. But we have nothing. We are here for our kids, that’s what matters. (May, 2024)