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Iraqi Refugees in the United States
The Enduring Effects of the War on Terror
Ken R. Crane
New York University Press
New York
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York
© 2021 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Crane, Ken R., 1957– author.
Title: Iraqi refugees in the United States : the enduring effects of the War on Terror / Ken R. Crane.
Description: New York : New York University Press, [2021] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020015852 (print) | LCCN 2020015853 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479873944 (cloth) | ISBN 9781479886906 (paperback) | ISBN 9781479849611 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479812448 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Refugees—Iraq. | Iraqis—United States—Social conditions. | Immigrants—Cultural assimilation—United States. | Islamophobia—United States. | United States—Emigration and immigration—Social aspects.
Classification: LCC HV640.5.I76 C73 2021 (print) | LCC HV640.5.I76 (ebook) | DDC 305.892/7567073—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015852
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020015853
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppliers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
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Also available as an ebook
For Rebecca, Justin, and Graeme
Astonishingly, I was born
With a passionate tendency for kissing the sky
In the mirrors of lakes;
An obstructive heart for nostalgia;
An ironic sense of the sanity of penitents.
In the depth of my soul there is a vaporous window
Of oblivion to patience that awaits
The arrival of turtle’s death.
In my savage determination
I feel a lust to thrash the weakness
Of these cowards which they call “postponement.”
In this beautiful hell where flitting is my way of life
Every night (oh, life!)
In my imagination
With a sense full of sleepy lightning
I draw the sketch of your abstract face
on the pale and shadowy wall of my grave room
By the smoke of my only cigarette.
The nausea of normality
Embodies a madness inside me
Which I cannot recognize.
—Sassan, “Emptiness’s Decaffeinated Sense”
Contents
Preface
Introduction
1. Belonging and Displacement
2. Work, Autonomy, Belonging
3. “Just Trust Us”
4. Two Kinds of Citizens
5. “Where Are the Americans?”
6. Belonging 2.015
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Methodological Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Preface
I worked at a job-placement desk in a small nonprofit agency in California, as the United States responded to a massive refugee crisis in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. The US Refugee Act of 1980, riding an immense wave of popular support, provided for job-placement services, several years of cash assistance, mental health services, and small-business assistance. Aihwa Ong’s brilliant study of Cambodian refugees described my goal: “daily figuring out ways to produce subjects who can be induced, nudged, and empowered to become self-sufficient and goal-oriented citizens.”1
On the wall facing my desk hung a sign in English that read, “A positive attitude at work can make your daily routine more rewarding and enjoyable. Whatever your job, success depends on your attitude. How do you develop positive attitudes on the job? Courtesy, Consideration, Knowledge, Enthusiasm, Dependability, Respect, Pride.”2
Of all immigrant types, refugees are the most captive of audiences for what I call acculturation “camp,” tethered to the state and its service agents through cultural orientation, English as a second language (ESL), and job development. Like the other staff, I assumed that refugees should be grateful for American rescue (from a crisis we engineered). Wasn’t unconditional gratitude one of the “unspoken conditions” of their acceptance in the United States?3 We produced job placements in order to maintain state funding, as well as our own morale. Part of the job was preparing refugees for work in the low-end service sector—janitors, maids, burger flippers. Why was I surprised to learn that refugees might not want those jobs for long? How inconceivable that a Cambodian teen would only stay at Burger King
