Good story.

Let me welcome you as an Australian citizen. Now, I expect you will go forth and tell everyone about how great this place is, how tolerant it is, how people want to help those in need.

My father was an immigrant too, and while many mock Australia, he can't praise it enough.

I sincerly hope that you understand why you had to be held in detention - until the government could work out your family's story, as many who come here, flying past hundreds of perfectly safe countries to deliberately come to a WESTERN nation, then bag it for some insane reason, racism most likely.

Welcome, good luck with your studies. I too am a student, and know exactly what you meant about your first day.

Please don't stick to your own people either, get out, mix with Australians. Mabye you come from a very strict conservative family, but you should endeavour to keep an open mind and truly become enlightened.

Perhaps break the marriage taboos and even have children one day with someone from a different culture to your own.

Good luck!

Girl, I know almost exactly what you have been going through. Although not claiming political refugee status I arrived here with my two boys knowing what a return to the country we had come from would entail.

Its that terrible uncertainty of the first couple of years that eats away at one, isn't it? Added to this the sheer bureaucratic problems about filling in forms on which one never knows exactly how to describe oneself, and the fact that there is never a space on any form that accurately describes one's status.

We, thankfully, did not have the added disadvantage of not speaking the language - in fact I had considered Australia, the place to which my English parents emmigrated when I was a child as "home" so it was a double slap in the face that we found it so hard to remain.

I also remember that first day/week/month at University - a "mature" povo still battling culture shock regarding both how the Australia of my youth had morphed into an alien culture and how different this first-world, main-stream culture was to anything I had experienced since those days. My mother had died two days before semester began - far away where I could not even attend the funeral.

So I admire you and your parents bravery and tenacity at overcoming all of the hurdles. It's also hard to imagine the stress for you all at being without your brothers. A daily heart-ache, I imagine.

I empathise with you all and wish you - unreservedly -the best of everything and a return to full health both mentally and physically for all of you as well. Those of us who have earned our "Permanent Residence" stamp the hard way treasure it all the more, I think.

Well done, good luck and a very good life to all of you.

Thank you, Hawraa, for sharing your story. It shows the human side to the problems and uncertainties faced by people on TPVs. Australia can surely afford to be a bit more generous with those who are allowed residency here.

Good luck with your studies

Hawraa, I am so glad things are working out OK for you. Of course you've encountered worse ignorance and rudeness than that shown by Benjamin in the first response to this article; he's entitled to his opinion of course but many people are happy and proud not to share his views.

Welcome to Australia, at last. I know you will be a very fine citizen; my country will be the better for your contribution to it.

Congratulations Hawraa on your success and good luck to you challenging the stereotypical view that a girl doesn't do engineering!

Benjamin read carefully. First, Hawraa is not a citizen, she has refugee status. Perhaps she can apply to be a citizen in a few years. Second, a refugee is not a migrant. Refugees do not want to leave their own country, they have to. To continue to live there would mean imprisonment at the least, or torture and death. Third, the United Nations conventions, I understand, state that no child should be held in detention. Hawraa was 12 by my reckoning when she was held on Manus Island. That must have been hell. Fourth, it appears it took Immigration 4 years to determine Hawraa's refugee status. During this time we invaded Iraq, in part because of the oppressive and cruel regime of Saddam Hussein - the very reasons there were asylum seekers from Iraq. Consider the irony in that. We can decide to invade a country within less than a year, but cannot grant refugee status until 4 years have passed. It is the uncertainty of asylum seeker status we get a jist of from this article.

There is much to learn from stories such as Hawraa's if we are to improve our society. It is incumbent upon us as citizens of a democracy to learn and not pass judgement hastily. It is our responsibility to consider thoughtfully and not fall prey to propaganda. In this way we will not be persuaded by lies such as we were told during the 'children overboard' experience, as some obviously were.

We should be more generous - after all, what counts is how we treat others, not what we can afford to buy.

Hawraa, we can learn from your story and it looks as if some have begun to learn. The comment is made that Swinburne Uni is changing its practices and that has to be an outcome to be proud of. You are just the sort of person we want in this country!

Dear Hawraa, Congratulations on getting into Uni. You've worked hard to get there and it is a tremendous achievement. Already, you've contributed so much to our country. All the best for you and your family's future. I pray that one day your brothers will be able to come over to Australia and join you all here too.