Abstract

Marta Raquel Zabaleta's autobiographical piece takes us through the trajectory of her exile as an Argentinian refugee, first in Glasgow and then in London. Forced to flee with her husband, a Chilean UN refugee, she describes the differences between the ways her husband and herself were treated by those in solidarity groups and other aid organizations and the particular difficulties faced by women refugees. She explores the isolating effects of having her professional identity and status erased as a refugee and of being relegated to the sole status of ‘wife’. Zabaleta also insists on the fundamental rights of refugees and asylum seekers to have both their histories and their desires for the future acknowledged by those in the host country.