Multiculturalism as a threat and multiculturalism as an asset | Rebar Jaff | TEDxErbil

Canadian PhD student of Kurdish origin, Rébar Jaff, talks about his life experience as a child refugee since the age of 8, then becoming a new first-class citizen of his new home (Canada). Immigrating from his native Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Jaff discusses the interesting way in which multiculturalism in Iraq is often viewed as a threat by its diverse ethnic groups while a much-richer multiculturalism in Canada is seen as one of the country's greatest assets.

Born in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq and raised in Canada. He was in an internship at the United Nations Headquarters in New York for 6 months, where he worked in the Senior Leadership Appointments Section of the Office of the Under-Secretary-General (DFS), then the Executive Office of the Secretary-General (EOSG), and later worked on post-conflict reconstruction and public service delivery in the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

Following that in 2009 he landed a job in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where he was a Consultant for the OECD Middle East and North Africa Governance Programme. Following his first year experience at the OECD, he was hired as Program Manager of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Erbil, Iraq, where he was in charge of implementing and overseeing UNFPA’s youth and juvenile development programs in the country. Moreover, he dealt with a wide range of relevant issues across Iraq in coordination with other governmental and non-governmental agencies and organizations.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx