The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You

A Finalist for the 2019 Kirkus Prize in Nonfiction

"Nayeri combines her own experience with those of refugees she meets as an adult, telling their stories with tenderness and reverence.â€ â€”The New York Times Book Review

"Nayeri weaves her empowering personal story with those of the â€˜feared swarmsâ€™ . . . Her familyâ€™s escape from Isfahan to Oklahoma, which involved waiting in Dubai and Italy, is wildly fascinating . . . Using energetic prose, Nayeri is an excellent conduit for these heart-rending stories, eschewing judgment and employing care in threading the stories in with her own . . . This is a memoir laced with stimulus and plenty of heart at a time when the latter has grown elusive.â€ â€“â€“Star-Tribune (Minneapolis)

Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotelâ€“turnedâ€“refugee camp. Eventually she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement. In these pages, a couple fall in love over the phone, and women gather to prepare the noodles that remind them of home. A closeted queer man tries to make his case truthfully as he seeks asylum, and a translator attempts to help new arrivals present their stories to officials.

Nayeri confronts notions like â€œthe swarm,â€ and, on the other hand, â€œgoodâ€ immigrants. She calls attention to the harmful way in which Western governments privilege certain dangers over others. With surprising and provocative questions, The Ungrateful Refugee challenges us to rethink how we talk about the refugee crisis.

â€œA writer who confronts issues that are key to the refugee experience.â€ â€”Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer and The Refugees
Country USA
Manufacturer Catapult
Binding Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate 2019-09-03
Format Kindle eBook

Country	USA
Manufacturer	Catapult
Binding	Kindle Edition
ReleaseDate	2019-09-03
Format	Kindle eBook

The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You

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