Question for the Somalians

[RFQ 110]

This is mainly out of curiosity-- I am a nurse at a school for new refugees/immigrants here in the US. Many of my Somalian children all have the birthday set as 1/1/year (January 1st) I was wondering if it is up to the parents to choose the birth date or if the government assigns a date in the year or.... ??? How does it work?

[together4evr 360]

I dont know the answer, but i am a nurse too!

[100% Al Ahly Fan 53]

Living in the Twin Cities, I believe we have the highest amount of Somalis out of all the states. My understanding is those that have come over on government refugee programs receive the DOB 01/01/XX. Why this date was picked, I don't know. I do know that many who don't have appropriate records due to birth records not being recorded or lost in the civil war. I believe they can at least pick the birth year, though, given on the account of what the family can best come up. I know many Hmong people as well have the date of birth of 06/01/XX due to the same issues.

[milimelo 4,284]

It is not just Somalia, you will see it in a lot of African countries people have 01/01 as their date of birth. It's mainly related to poor or non-existent record keeping, very late birth registration - often times years after the birth and people just don't remember when the child was born.

[RFQ 110]

Well this is more or less what I figured. Thanks for the input all