Tsering Yangzom, a graduate of the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto, is a Tibetan refugee who has made Canada home.
Somewhere, the Dalai Lama is smiling.
He couldn’t help but be pleased by Tsering Yangzom, a Tibetan refugee who has made Canada and Toronto her home since 2011.
Yangzom, the first Tibetan graduate of the Munk School of Global Affairs, is interested in pursuing a career in refugee and human rights law, perhaps even one day helping to free Tibet.
With a master’s degree in East Asian and Asia Pacific Studies from Munk now completed, law school is next on her list. She’s looking at universities in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
The 31-year-old is truly a student of the world. She has studied in five countries and speaks English, Tibetan, Hindi and Nepali, and a bit of Norwegian.
But until she came to Canada she was stateless, and all she had for identification was a travel document from India. She knows too well the plight of refugees and has great empathy for the Syrians who are coming to Canada and taking their first steps toward settling in a new homeland. She also feels compassion for those stuck in war-torn Syria and for those who have fled but remain in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
“I can connect on a human level with the problem they’re going through. I can feel it.”
She adds: “I’ve been through the process as a refugee. I completely empathize with their situation. I feel really proud to be Canadian and that we’re helping those in need of help … I just adore Mr. Trudeau. He’s amazing,” she says of the new prime minister.
Yangzom says she feels the same sense of abandonment and groundlessness the Syrian refugees feel coming to Canada, but they are fortunate in a way because at least they have a country — even if it is at war.
“I never had a country,” she explains. “I was born as a refugee with a big R on my forehead. I was born stateless.”
Her friends in Toronto’s Tibetan community praise her accomplishments and see her as an example of what can be done through determination and hard work. She is a role model.
“I wanted to push myself and see where I could go in life,” she says of studying at the Munk School. “So I tried, and I was lucky to get into my master’s program in East Asian Studies and Asia Pacific Studies.”
She came to Canada after studying abroad since 2002, when she left the Tibetan Children’s Village School in Dharamsala, India, where she was born. Her parents had fled Tibet in 1959, to live in the community where the Dalai Lama and other Tibetans had sought refuge after China’s takeover of their country.
Thanks to scholarships, Yangzom was able to attend the United World College in Norway for an international baccalaureate in 2003 and then went on to study for her bachelor of arts at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 2005, finishing in 2010. She worked for a year at the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy as a program officer, facilitating meetings with Tibetan NGOs in Washington, D.C.
Yangzom moved to Canada in fall 2011, volunteering and working for a while before leaving to do a master’s degree at the Central European University in Hungary. She returned in 2013 to Canada — the country that had finally given her a home and permanent status.
She chose Canada because it is a “country with a golden heart,” she explains. “It’s a country that has a strong tradition of being compassionate; a strong tradition of providing humanitarian assistance to refugees — and not just refugees, but helping immigrants as well.
“I heard great things about Canada — also about the health care and the education system, and that if you work really hard you can do things in Canada.”
Her sense of purpose is rooted deeply in her identity as a Tibetan and the fact she grew up without a homeland, she says. From the moment she arrived in Canada, “I volunteered right away because it was the fastest way for me to integrate into society and the community in order to have a smooth transition,” she says.
Within weeks, she was at Parkdale Legal Services, helping with interpretation and family reunification. Then she got a job at St. Christopher House as a newcomer co-ordinator.
“Even though I was born and raised as a refugee, I always live my life with hope,” she explains. “I push myself each day to do better.”
The only member of her family to attend college, Yangzom remains grateful for all the opportunities she has had.
“Canada, which is multicultural and respects other people’s rights and … other cultures as well — it’s like heaven for me. The fact I’m in Canada, I’m really thankful.”
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