Tracing Refugee Resettlement to the United States through Fiction

Abstract

Perhaps more than ever before, the severity and duration of humanitarian crisis around the globe magnetizes attention to the plight of refugees, forcing countries, communities, and individuals to assess if they can, should, or want to, help. Literature about the refugee experience provides the time and space for intimacy between fictional refugees and readers who are not already involved with the refugee community. This essay traces the path of refugee resettlement to the United States by referencing works of fiction featuring protagonists from northern and eastern African countries during times of violence and upheaval. The phases of resettlement are defined, juxtaposing facts, statistics, and procedures with experiences of fictional characters in order to uncover what occurs between procedural outlines.