Extended Essay Draft

How to Tell a Refugee Story

            A refugee story is essentially a story of displacement.  It is a story of two places.  One place is home, another is becoming home. Refugees must leave one land and one identity to find a new place of asylum and in turn a new identity. To tell a refugee story, a storyteller must focus on geography and the feelings, identities, and struggles associated with a person’s location and previous locations.  Illustrating the shifting and shattering of identity in relation to location is absolutely essential in telling a refugee’s story.  A refugee story must be told with honesty, without American assumptions about locations, through the eyes of the refugee.  Refugee stores can have many purposes.  The story can be outward facing: told to inform or to inspire. However, they can also be inward facing, told to find peace or to find common ground with others, or possibly, as Deng would say, as a form of personal struggle.

            First and foremost, the storyteller must determine the purpose for telling the refugee story.  The purpose of a refugee story can be multi-faceted, a combination of inward and outward facing elements, as is illustrated in Dave Eggers’ novel What is the What.  In the preface, Valentino Achak Deng explains why he wanted to tell his story, which was written by Eggers.  Deng explains the outward-facing purpose of his novel, he states that he “wanted to reach out to others to help them understand Sudan’s place in our global community” (xiv), a purpose that is selfless, and a means of benefiting his homeland rather than himself.  At the end of the novel, Deng reflects that the purpose of telling his story was not solely outward facing, but also served a personal function.  Deng tells his audience that, “I speak to you because I cannot help it. It gives me strength, almost unbelievable strength, to know that you are there” (535).  For Deng, storytelling serves a personal purpose as well, and the action of telling his story gives him strength and fulfillment that is satisfying in and of itself. 

            Each refugee story has its own unique purposes behind it.  Every author has certain motivations, and these motivations work to determine which details the storyteller includes, and which ones are excluded.  For example, when considering the three refugee stories we examined in class: The Gods Grew Tired of Us, Of Beetles and Angels, and What is the What, it can be noted how each story has different focuses.  The Gods Grew Tired of Us follows the Lost Boys’ journeys in America, and their struggles to find work and support their family at home.  Detail about their persecution in Sudan was only used as a means of introduction.  Similarly, Of Beetles and Angels most heavily details Mawi Asgedom’s life in America.  These stories’ purposes were not to bring attention to circumstances in the refugees’ homelands, but rather to detail their struggles and successes as resettled refugees in America.  Deng’s story, on the other hand, places equal attention to his life in Sudan and in the refugee camp as well as on his life in America.  However, his rhetorical choice makes sense, considering he wanted to inform others about the ordeals of Africans and refugees in Africa as well as in America. Therefore, the purpose of a telling a refugee story determines which locations are given more attention. 

            While specific details of location vary for each story, location as a theme is an integral piece of each story, and should be given considerable weight. Location plays a major role in every refugee story, as each refugee has to deal with forced relocation away from his or her homeland.  Refugees are “described as people who are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence and have a well-founded fear of persecution” (UNHCR 8).  All refugees have been forcefully removed from their homes and countries and consequently have to find asylum elsewhere. This forced removal and relocation affects and changes refugees’ personal identities because they must learn to redefine themselves in terms of the new culture and country they are resettled in.  The importance of identity in refugee stories is explored in Katrina M. Powell’s article “Rhetorics of Displacement: Constructing Identities in Forced Relocations”.  Powell explains how forced relocation causes refugees to face unique struggles forming their identities during their plights. This kind of relocation results in a “shattering of identity” during which “the paths of displacement are violent journeys” for the refugees who have no choice but to relocate (301).  The shattering of one’s identity is a life-altering experience, and one that is unique to stories of forced relocation. The identities and lives that the refugees had built in their homes have to be left behind and they must build new identities in the foreign places in which they are forced to seek safety.   In his novel Of Beetles and Angels, Mawi Asgedom explains what this identity shift is like for refugees.  He explains how “those who can find work often toil at menial jobs.  Those who cannot, stay home.  For both, life is a far cry from the glory and self-worth they knew back in their homeland” (96).  The refugees must learn what it is like to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy, even if they had held prosperous and respected jobs in their homelands.  The men, like Mawi’s father, who had been highly regarded in their village must now realize that their identities have shifted.  The refugees are no longer important, upstanding members of their African village, but rather poor working immigrant fathers in a foreign land in which they receive little to no respect for their hard work.  This enormous identity shift is a result of the simple act of moving locations. 

            What is the What explores these identity issues as well.  Eggers and Deng describe how Deng struggled internally with his identity. While looking back on his life, Deng lamented, “I pretend that I know who I am but I simply don’t.  I’m not American and it seems difficult now to call myself Sudanese” (505).  Deng struggled to understand who he was as a person.  His forced relocation left him in a limbo between two different identities, neither of which he felt truly connected with.  Instead, he felt as though he had no identity at all.  Deng also explores the issue of his external identity.  As an African man in America, he was treated as inferior, uneducated, and less than human.  This issue is illustrated when the 10-year-old boy Michael is holding him hostage.  Deng relates how he felt when Michael tried to silence him by dropping a phonebook on his head, he realized that, “this boy thinks I am not of his species, that I am some other type of creature, one that can be crushed under the weight of a phone book” (50).  Not only does Deng have to struggle with his identity on an internal level, but he also struggles with his identity in everyday life.  He is not seen as human, or recognized as somebody with worth and value to contribute to the world.  Instead he is seen as other, as insignificant as a bug or varmint that might, in fact, be crushed under a phone book.  Deng must search to find who he is on the inside, as well as search for who he is in relation to the people in his new country.  All that he was in his home country as a child has been completely shattered both internally and externally, and he must find a way to rebuild his identity from those broken pieces.

            While it is important to focus on which elements of a refugee story should be included, it is also important to recognize that there are certain elements that seem common or necessary in refugee stories, that can actually hurt a refugee story. Refugee stories, and immigrant narratives have been generalized in ways that prevent refugee storytelling to reach its full potential.   This expected immigrant narrative genre includes elements such as “the ethnic hero, the journey of acculturation, and the trials that the hero must endure—[which] all contribute to shaping misconceptions about the immigrant experience” (Hron 44).  One way in which misconceptions can form is when storytellers use typical strategies and tropes to tell the refugee stories.  Although these methods might be widely used, some can be harmful to the story.  One such example occurs when a storyteller presents the refugees’ homelands as barbaric or primitive lands of savagery. In the article Amal Hassan Fadlalla “Borders of (In)humanity: Sudanese Refugees and the Mediation of Suffering and Subaltern Visibilities” studied depictions of the Sudanese Lost Boys, and noted that, “captured images of the Lost Boys’ departures and resettlements were not free from hegemonic understanding of Africa as a ‘bushland’”(106).  When authors use these kinds of images and descriptions, they give the reader false ideas about what the refugees’ homelands are truly like.  Those reading the stories will miss out on important elements and understandings. Although the homelands of the refugees may have been third world countries, using these common images of a primitive and barbaric land creates a false image in the readers’ mind about what living in that country was truly like.  The truth may actually be that, while their homelands were not necessarily as modern as America, those places were still lively, vibrant, and happy places. 

            Refugee stories that choose not to follow these typical depictions of Africa and other refugee homelands provide a much richer and more honest portrayal of refugee life.  What is the What even goes so far as to insinuate that life in Africa may have been better for Deng than America.  After being robbed and beaten, Deng thought, “I want to be in Kakuma, where I lived in a hut of plastic and sandbags and owned one pair of pants.  I am not sure there was evil of this kind in the Kakuma refugee camp, and I want to return (Eggers 4).  Rather than contrasting Africa’s primitiveness with America’s modernity, Deng and Eggers contrast violent crime in America with the difficult but friendly life in the Kakuma refugee camp.  This choice contradicts the typical representations of Africa, but in doing so presents a more honest depiction of a refugee’s struggles and feelings.  Similarly but less drastically, Mawi Asgedom chooses to forgo the typical illustrations of Africa.  This can be seen when he describes his father in the village, according to Asgedom, ““My father knew how to dance with every muscle of his body… Villagers always interrupted their business when he joined the dancers’ circle.  Conversations stopped, Cups were lowered.  Heads turned.  Then the villagers jumped from their seats and plastered him with money” (9).  Rather than describing Africans as primitive and barbaric people, he shows how his village was lively and full of joy and music and dancing.  Through these illustrations, the reader begins to understand Africa as a whole— although it may have a dark side, there is still joy and liveliness.

            When a storyteller chooses to honestly depict the refugee’s homeland, he or she gives the reader a more meaningful representation of the refugee life.  When a reader understands fully where the refugee came from and the struggles and successes that refugee experienced along the journey of relocation— whether those successes are greater in Africa or America— the reader suddenly has great power.  Not only does the reader have the power of knowledge— true, meaningful, and deep knowledge— but the reader also has the tools necessary to create meaningful change both for the refugee’s homeland and for those refugees living in America today. 

P9 Voices of Refugees reflection

The Voices of Refugees was a very moving event. I thought that the stories told were more effective than some of the narratives we have read in class because the storytellers were in the building, speaking directly to us. There’s something powerful about hearing a story first-hand, and seeing the emotions on the refugees’ faces as they explained what had happened in their lives.

            What was most powerful to me about the refugees’ stories was how they spoke about their home countries.  All of the refugees talked about how they were betrayed by their home countries in some way or another.  For example, the refugee from Burundi spoke about how the army was persecuting his ethnic group.  He said that it was difficult for him to understand how the people who were supposed to be mature adults, and whose job it was to protect the people of Burundi were murdering men, women, and children from their own country.  Similarly, one of the men from Bhutan talked about how he would never return to his country because he “was never treated as a citizen” there. The woman from Burma said that she also wouldn’t return because the army still runs the country, and that she wouldn’t be safe there because of that fact.  Through all of these stories was the common thread of betrayal by one’s own country.  The refugees wanted to trust their government but were persecuted instead.  The fact that they wouldn’t even return to their own country is incredibly sad and really telling about the kind of treatment they felt there.  I can’t imagine how it would feel to hate the place where my entire family was born and much of my life was lived.  This changed my understanding of refugee stories because it added an important dimension to refugee stories.  The stories are about more than simply struggling to survive or assimilating to a new place.  They’re also about the emotions and repercussions involved in being betrayed by the people and organizations that are supposed to protect you. 

ACC Reflection

For the past few weeks, I have been spending my volunteer hours working in Employment at the ACC and working first hand with the refugees who are trying to find jobs. The jobs they apply for are low-wage (and more likely minimum wage) jobs due to their lack of credentials.  I worked one-on-one with a refugee from Nepal who had held several jobs and gone to school there.  However, I was told that I should only apply for fast food jobs for him. His education and work experience were basically irrelevant in his search to find a job here.  It was hard to fathom how that would make someone feel: to spend years working hard, only to have it all mean nothing.  I hope that the applications I helped him fill out got him closer to getting a job.  I know that every little thing that I do for the agency, even if I’m not working directly with the refugees, will do something to ease the refugees’ transitions into employment and daily life in America. I hope that as I volunteer throughout the quarter, my work can continue to be helpful to the organization and the refugees themselves.  I want to make sure that my mentality when completing my service hours is always outward facing rather than inward facing.  I want to make sure I’m focused on what I can do to help and not focused on how it is benefiting me in some way.

            As far as the course goes, I think having one-on-one experience with real refugees makes the class readings much more powerful and relevant.  It might be hard to understand Deng’s struggles in America without having first-hand experience with refugees.  However, once you are face-to-face with them, and understand why it is so difficult for them to find jobs and how much they are struggling to simply get by, the novels, documentaries and even the academic writing about the novels and documentaries, have so much more context which provides for a much deeper understanding. 

Post 7: Powell's Rhetorics of Displacement

          In “Rhetorics of Displacement: Constructing Identities in Forced Relocations, Katrina M. Powell discusses displacement narratives and how labeling a person as displaced “is a way to mark them as other, and discursively binds them with narrative expectations of displacement” (318).  She illustrates this point with two displacement stories: Lee’s film When the Levees Broke and What is the What by Dave Eggers.  Lee’s film responds to how the media portrayed those who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina.  The news outlets referred to these displaced persons as “refugees”.  The displaced people rejected the use of this term, because “the connotation of refugees is like they are some others from somewhere lost needing charity” (303).  These people did not want to be seen as others, or as outsiders as the term implied.  On the other hand, What is the What discusses “the way the UN acts as an institution driving the discursive structures of the refugee” (307). Deng describes how the media and the UN expected the Lost Boys’ stories to have similar elements, despite the fact that the boys came from all different circumstances.  The boys included these expected elements so that they had the best chance of being resettled.  In this way they were bound to the expectations of displacement narratives.

            Powell then moves on to an entirely different story of displacement— the story of Mary Frances Corbin and her family. Powell uses this example to contrast Mary Frances’ story with what is “typical” in a displacement story.  Powell thinks Mary's story “suggests that rhetoricians should reconsider what constitutes a displacement narrative” (317).   She concluded by stating that if we examine the similarities and differences across all kinds of displacement events, we might be able to better understand how displacement affects identity (318). 

            Powell’s piece challenged how stories of displacement, and stories of refugees, should be told.  These stories tend to have common themes, and common elements, which might come from how organizations like the UN determine who is a refugee and who is not.  These generic displaced person narratives lead to negative and unfair connotations and correlations with words like refugee, IDP, etc.  These words are associated with ideas of other-ness, of outsiders, of people with no country who need humanitarian help.  They are even, it seems, associated with race.  These expectations we have about refugees lead us to interpret their stories in a certain way, or expect certain elements in their stories.   Powell argues that narratives shouldn't be so constrained, and that we should reconsider how to tell these stories. Powell’s piece made me think critically about why Deng chooses to tell his story with more honesty and openness about the Lost Boys' narratives— is he resisting the narrative expectations imposed on him?

Post #6

     What is the What by Dave Eggers was strikingly different than God Grew Tired of Us and Of Angels and Beetles because it focuses heavily on the refugee’s life in Africa and spends little time describing his life in America.  Additionally, the story doesn’t try to contrast American modernity with the primitiveness of Africa, which can be seen when Deng insists “it is a primitive land, and I say that without any sense of shame” (Eggers 49).  Deng describes Africa how he experienced it in his youth, which I think allows for a more honest depiction of Africa as opposed to those in the other stories. For example, God Grew Tired of Us lacks full representations of life in Sudan and the war that caused the refugees to flee. Similarly, Asgedom’s story remains focused on life in America, with only a few chapters detailing life in Africa, and his family’s plight to escape. I think this approach lessens the impact of the narratives and can lead to stereotypical views of Africa.  

     However, all of the stories were similar in how they described the refugees’ struggles and successes in America. Deng’s struggles are seen when he is robbed at the beginning of the novel, Deng explains how he thought, “I’m not sure there was evil of this kind in the Kakuma refugee camp, and I want to return” (Eggers 4).   Deng felt betrayed by America and the opportunities it supposedly offered him.  In the novel, Deng does not paint America as a safe haven, a promised land, or a land of opportunity.  Instead he acknowledges that it has a dark side, and that it disappointed him.  This can be seen in the other stories— how the “lost boys” struggled to attend college and send money home to their families, and how Asgedom’s father essentially disintegrated in America.

            By telling his complete story as a refugee— from his happy youth in Africa to the war that forced him into America— Deng changed my idea of what a refugee story looks like.    A refugee story doesn’t have to be about the transition into a new culture and should really focus on what the author, or storyteller, thinks is important.  Deng told his story to “help [others] understand Sudan’s place in the global community” (Eggerx xiv) so it makes sense that he would focus on his life in Africa and the war that tore his country apart.  Whereas Gods Grew Tired of Us wanted to focus on the boys' new lives in America. Therefore, I think that the purpose of a refugee story really determines which parts of the story are told and which are not.  

Short Essay 1 "Coming to America: A Bosnian Refugee Empowered"

“Coming to America: A Bosnian Refugee Empowered” Analysis

            In her chapter titled “’Suffering Matters: The Translation and Politics of Pain”, Madelaine Hron argues that immigrant writers typically have one of two very different goals when telling their stories.  She argues that some immigrant writers are “seeking sympathy, mutual understanding, and a sense of belonging or social integration” while others are after quite the opposite, and instead “advocate resistance and difference in their rhetoric of pain” (Hron 50).  After analyzing the article “Coming to America: A Bosnian Refugee Empowered” I concluded that this particular refugee story was aimed at the first of the two goals identified by Hron.  Natalie, the Bosnian refugee, sought social integration and harmony with her new home country of America.   This can be seen in how her story fits seamlessly with what Hron describes as the immigrant narrative genre.  Natalie’s adherence to the immigrant narrative genre can be identified in her understanding of suffering, and how her story reaffirms popular American myths in existence today.

            It is first important to understand why Natalie’s story is a refugee story.  The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees “describes refugees as people who are outside their country of nationality or habitual residence and have a well-founded fear of persecution” (UNHCR 8).  Natalie originally lived in Bosnia until she was forced to leave after “suffering discrimination due to her mixed heritage” (Brooks).  The discrimination Natalie experienced eventually escalated to persecution, and she describes how “it became [a threat]. If you are, as I said, from a mixed marriage, they would want to make you into soap. That was a noose [around our necks]” (Brooks).  In order to protect her own safety, Natalie left Bosnia and spent years in Croatia and Serbia before being admitted into the United States for resettlement as a refugee.  Natalie’s story can be defined as a refugee story because she fits the definition of a refugee and the article traces her experiences as a refugee.  Her story also details her move and settlement in the United States as a refugee, which also makes her story an immigrant narrative. 

            Hron argues that immigrant narratives are a specific genre of narratives with unique identifying components.  An important part of immigrant narratives relates to the way in which they present immigrant suffering.   Hron states, “the generic immigrant narrative neutralizes immigrant suffering as a necessary part of the immigration process” (Hron 44).   By presenting immigrant suffering as necessary to their journey, suffering loses its importance and meaning.  It becomes the norm, it becomes unavoidable, and it “risks being completely dismissed” (Hron 44).  Natalie’s story illustrates how this happens in immigrant narratives.   Although Natalie earned a law degree during her stay in Croatia, she was forced to work a low-paying job in a retail store upon arriving in America.  However, Natalie doesn’t consider the demotion and subsequent economic struggles a negative part of her life.  Instead, she contends that “its not easy.  You become humble…  And that’s, I think, the best thing that can happen to any human— to become humble” (Brooks).  Rather than viewing her suffering and seemingly unfair economic struggles as a negative reflection on immigrant life in her home country, Natalie sees it as a necessary and important aspect of her journey.   By viewing her suffering in this light, the suffering loses its negative connotations and instead becomes normal and necessary as Hron contends.

            Another element of the immigrant narrative genre is that it “informs many popular myths today, ranging from the myth of the American Dream… to the capitalist ‘myth of success’ that ‘everyone can succeed if only they work hard enough” (Hron 44).   Again, this generic component of immigrant narratives can be seen in Natalie’s story, through the telling of her eventual success in America.  The article details Natalie’s hard work and eventual success in America.  According to the article, Natalie left her job in retail and “was a bank teller, and later the assistant manager of a large independent grocery store.  After three years she went to graduate school to earn a master’s degree” (Brooks). Natalie worked her way up from working a minimum wage job to earning a master’s degree. Natalie’s story attests to the fact that America is a land of social mobility and that hard work will pay off in the long run.  Her hard work and educational achievement allowed her to achieve the American Dream. Her story reaffirms the belief that even poor refugees like Natalie can achieve success in America.

            By adhering to the immigrant narrative genre through her reflections on suffering and reaffirmations of popular American myths, Natalie’s story can be categorized as one that is “seeking sympathy, mutual understanding, and a sense of belonging or social integration” (Hron 44).  Natalie’s story paints immigrant struggle in America as a positive part of her life.  She even believes that all people need to be humbled in the ways she was.  Similarly, Natalie’s story reaffirms the American Dream and the common American and capitalist beliefs that hard work and determination will eventually pay off.  By working her way up to higher positions in the corporate world, and by going to school to receive a master’s degree, Natalie was able to live her ideal life in America.  Clearly, Natalie is not seeking resistance or expressing resentment towards America or her status as a refugee.  Rather, she is commenting on the struggles she has been through and the eventual peace and happiness she found in America, the place that she now calls home.  She is seeking a place of belonging in America— she has gone through her necessary struggles and eventually reached her own American Dream.  She is now an American, identifies as one, and seeks full integration into the country and culture. 

            Although Natalie’s story is certainly a positive and inspiring one, it is not representative of all refugee and immigrant stories.  In fact, the immigrant narrative genre in itself is constricting, as it only tells a certain type of story: a story of necessary suffering and eventual achievement of the American Dream.  The immigrant narrative genre is not representative of the stories in which suffering does not lead to eventual redemption and in which the American Dream is not fully realized.   In order to fully represent refugees, immigrants, and their stories, the genre should be expanded to include those stories that focus on resistance, difference, and that shed new light on immigrant suffering. 

Works Cited

Brooks, Courtney.  “Coming to America: A Bosnian Refugee Empowered”.  Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty. RFE/RL,Inc. 30 Mar. 2013. Web.  9 Apr. 2013. 

Hron, Madelaine. Translating Pain Immigrant Suffering in Literature and Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press Inc. PDF.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.  The UN Refugee Agency.  Protecting Refugees & The Role of the UNHCR. 2012. Web.

Post 5: Genre and Immigrant Narratives

            In “’Suffering Matters’: The Translation and Politics of Pain” Hron argues that it is possible for immigrants to express their pain and suffering through writing, however it is very difficult to translate it accurately.  Among many obstacles to accurate translation, Hron details the issues with genre in pain translation.  Hron explains, “immigrant narratives are clearly subjected to structural codes or genres” and that “even when immigrant writers do not write within the genre of the ‘immigrant narrative’ they are regularly relegated to this category” (Hron 43).   This is important because genres often times guide readers as to how they are supposed to interpret a certain text.  Immigrant narratives are expected to fit certain generic requirements: the immigrant hero struggles to fit in to his or her new culture, and undergoes a series of trials or difficulties along the way.  In this way, the suffering experienced by these immigrants is viewed as “a necessary plot requirement” (Hron 44).  It is simply a function of the genre, as opposed to “being deemed as a reflection of the immigrant condition” (Hron 44).  In this way, immigrant suffering is seen as the norm, it is a necessary and expected step in an immigrant’s journey.           

            This expected structure of immigration representations “informs many popular myths today, ranging from the myth of the American Dream… to the capitalist ‘myth of success’ that ‘everyone can succeed, if only they work hard enough’” (44).  This idea of immigrant narratives informing popular myths is really reflected in Of Angels and Beetles by Mawi Asgedom and in The Gods Grew Tired of Us.  In Of Angels and Beetles these myths are brought up several times, one being when Mawi’s father tells his sons that “you are poor and black and we cannot buy you the resources that other parents can.  But if you have enough desire to outwork all the other students and you never give up, you will win the race one day” (Asgedom 33).  Clearly, the ideas put forth by Mawi’s father here perpetuate the myths of capitalism mentioned above, and therefore fit with the generic immigrant narrative. The suffering that the children and parents endure is a necessary step, and out of the suffering they will be redeemed, if only they work hard enough.  Similarly, The Gods Grew Tired of Us focused heavily on the struggles of the refugees and their eventual successes.  Throughout the documentary, the men explained how hard it was to work all day, to try to support their families in Africa, and to assimilate to the new and foreign culture.  However, in the end, they all have their individual successes.  One is in college; another is leading organizations to help his people back home, etc.   The immigrant narrative remains the same.  The immigrants struggle for a period of time, but this struggle is necessary for their eventual success.  In this way, the stories not only fit with generic constructions of immigrant narratives, but also reiterate national myths of the American Dream and the equal opportunity for success in a capitalist society.