There are many basic truths that aren’t always treated as such, but here’s a huge one: people are people no matter where they were born. Another large truth: in the United States, studies show that not only do refugees and immigrants commit crimes at a lower rate than native-born citizens, but they indeed strengthen the economy and the communities in which they live.
As of May 2024, there were 43.4 million refugees worldwide. The United States allowed 100,034 to enter during the 2024 fiscal year. Given the escalating impacts of climate change and war, the number of refugees will continue to grow dramatically. Our capacity for love and empathy ought to do the same.
Here are some recent titles that explore the immigrant and refugee experience and help demonstrate their place within this nation that is itself built on immigrants.
Viet Thanh Nguyen was a child refugee from Vietnam. Now he is one of our most celebrated authors. “The Sympathizer” is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and relevant to this topic, and the celebrated story collection “The Refugees” is even more explicit in its relevance. Compiled and edited by Nguyen, “The Displaced: Refugee Writers on Refugee Lives” gathers 17 essays from 17 refugee writers from 17 different countries. It is an illuminating and heartbreaking collection that will give the reader a better understanding of what it means to have to leave your home behind and endure an arduous journey to come to a place that will often be openly hostile to your presence.
Another empathy expander, edited by Nikesh Shukla and Chimène Suleyman, “The Good Immigrant: 26 Writers Reflect on America” is a collection of essays from immigrants (and the children of immigrants) from all over the world. The collection touches on a full spectrum of feelings, including fury, heartbreak and annoyance that their identities as writers are reduced to where they come from or what they look like.
Jacob Soboroff’s “Separated: Inside an American Tragedy” takes a hard-hitting look at the policies around immigration implemented during the last decade. The Walter Cronkite Award-winning journalist details the challenges immigrants and refugees faced at the border as they found themselves separated from their families. After the big picture is painted, Soboroff focuses in on a father and son fleeing violence and the cruel ordeal they are forced to endure once they reach the border.
“After the Last Border” by Jessica Goudeau tells the story of two women seeking asylum in the United States. One was granted asylum (after 18 years in a refugee camp) during the George W. Bush presidency, when immigration laws were far less restrictive than they were during the Trump years. The other fled the atrocities of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and upon emigrating to the United States in 2016 found herself and her family mired in endless delays and bizarre policy changes. Not only will readers be absorbed by their stories, they will also receive an education in the United States’ shifting policies and attitudes regarding immigration.
If you’d prefer to get your truths about the immigrant experience from fiction, Patricia Engel’s “Infinite Country” shares the perspectives of three generations of a family of immigrants from Colombia and the prices they pay in search of better lives. You’ll get a love story, the magic of Andean myths and miracles to soften the blows of bigotry, assault, detention and deportation.
“On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong is a novel, and, unlike us earthlings, it is perpetually gorgeous and rich enough to be read as poetry. It’s also a devastating account of an immigrant child enduring abuse, their mother’s mental illness, bigotry, and the opioid crisis’s impact on both their community and their first love.
