ꜱᴀᴊɪᴅᴀ’s Reviews > The Ungrateful Refugee > Status Update

“You know what I love?’ says Paul. ‘When they complain about the selection. Because that means that they’ve forgotten they’re in a camp. They’re briefly transported and they’re just people in a store, with money in hand, complaining about yoghurt.”

Excerpt From: Dina Nayeri. “The Ungrateful Refugee.” iBooks.

“He talks to me about dignity, about the humiliation of accepting charity. I listen, realising that we have both lost sleep over this specific shame. Days, months, when I’ve eaten meals provided by charities, governments, good people. In total, these days have made up a sliver of my life and yet, after decades of eating well and returning favours, I struggle to accept a cup of coffee. ”

Europeans are always debating how much refugees will contribute; they claim to want the economically beneficial kind, the ‘good’ immigrants. And yet, they welcome only those with a foot in the grave. The minute you arrive, though, even if you did have a foot in the grave, God help you if you need social services for a while.

“More infuriating is the word ‘opportunism’, a lie created by the privileged to shame suffering strangers who crave a small taste of a decent life. The same hopes in their own children would be labelled ‘motivation’ and ‘drive’.”

With the Iraq war over, their plight is often considered insufficient. Syria is hell. Afghanistan, South Sudan, Eritrea are hell. Iraq is . . . a bit less so? And Iran? What is hell enough for the West to feel responsible, not just as perpetrators of much of the madness, but as primary beneficiaries of the planet’s bounty, who sit behind screens watching suspicious and limp-fisted as strangers suffer?”

“What is escape in such circumstances and what is just opportunistic migration? Who is a true refugee? It makes me chuckle, this notion that ‘refugee’ is a sacred category, a people hallowed by evading hell. Thus, they can’t acknowledge a shred of joy left behind or they risk becoming migrants again."

Excerpt From: Dina Nayeri. “The Ungrateful Refugee.” iBooks.