We met with Scott Beaton, from Ireland. Scott is a PG Arabic alumni studying for MA French and Arabic at the University of Edinburgh. In an interview with Scott, we asked him the following questions:

Tell us about yourself

My name is Scott and I’m from Ireland, studying for an undergraduate degree in Arabic and French at Edinburgh. I’m currently in my second year of studies and will hopefully be going to Jordan next year!

What made you decide to study the Arabic language and culture?  What & who inspired you?  What were your motivations?

I come from a very rural part of southern Ireland and yet, many tens of adult Syrian refugees arrived in our community and started attending separate English classes at my secondary school. I was aware of the large-scale refugee movement from Syria to Europe but I had never been confronted by it personally. While always having known that I would do civil service/NGO work because of my parents’ careers, I didn’t realise until then exactly what that would look like. Now, I’m currently hoping to get the qualifications required for interpreting and work in refugee camps/immigration detention centres to advance cases for asylum and political rights.

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