Immigrant Story Week 10: Philemon Sm From Eritrea

Philemon Sm was born and raised in Eritrea in the Horn of Africa, known as
the North Korea of the region. He fled his native country in 2008 and lived in the Middle East and North Africa for eight years, including five years in Israel. He finally came to America in 2016 and has lived here ever since.

When Afwerki became the president of Eritrea in 1991, he made the country a socialist
state through mass indoctrination using Marxist- Communist ideologies across the nation. The outcome of communist policies was economic devastation and extreme political
repression. As a result, poverty worsened, inflation was terrible, and many people starved.

Like all Eritrean students, Philemon spent a year of high school at a military camp as mandated by the state. At Mai Nefhi, one of the state-sponsored socialist cadre colleges, he was trained not in critical thinking or science but rather in how to become a better slave to the state. However, with the economy collapsing under the socialist policies, life became so desperate that it became clear to Philemon that it would be better to escape the country in search of personal freedom and economic opportunity. He was nearly killed by the military as he crossed the border into Ethiopia because of the shoot-to-kill policy imposed by the Eritrean regime. He then walked for almost ten days on foot through western Tigray until he reached the Sudanese border. After three long, horrible years in North Africa where he was treated as a sub-human, he made it to Israel and five years later, he finally made it to America, where he's found the freedom of critical thinking and opportunity to prosper that he always dreamed of.

He shares with us his life story and his journey to freedom, and his love and concerns for today's America. #Wokism #Immigrant #freedomloers #lily4congress

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