“No country owes me a status. As an Immigrant, I’m always home...I’m always home” - David Delisca
People often ask me where I come from. As an Iranian-Canadian immigrant growing up in a predominately white neighborhood in Canada, I’ve always struggled to belong somewhere. As a child, I learned how to assimilate into western culture. I became increasingly aware that my Iranian heritage was something I needed to hide. Assimilation was a survival tactic. When I turned 24, I packed my life into a suitcase and went in search of a new “home”.
I’ve lived a nomadic life for five years, transplanting myself from one place to another; constantly feeling off balance.
My work revolves around what home means to other people and in the process finding my own. My project “Everyday Migration” documents my journey in Dubai, Oman, and Turkey as I examined my own migration and heritage through the lives of the Muslim diaspora. The photos illuminate my cultural background and the challenges I face as I constantly search for a place to belong. Home is a work in progress.
