Summary of Dina Nayeri's The Ungrateful Refugee

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 When we arrived in Rome, we were taken to a refugee camp where we were lodged with other asylum seekers from all over the world. It was a temporary safe space for us until we could be processed and assigned a new country to live in.
#2 At the Hotel Barba, I had the chance to meet many different grandmothers and grandfathers from all over the world. I learned how to listen and enjoy the small details that come from a strange confluence.
#3 My family’s escape from Iran was the main focus of my life for years. I was always trying to better myself so that I could escape that country and its problems.
#4 I was able to overcome my fears and become a refugee, but not everyone is as lucky. The native born still view refugees as a threat to their privileged lives.

Sujets

• Cultural
• regional
• Ethnic group
• Général

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 08 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669351436
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Dina Nayeri's The Ungrateful Refugee
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

When we arrived in Rome, we were taken to a refugee camp where we were lodged with other asylum seekers from all over the world. It was a temporary safe space for us until we could be processed and assigned a new country to live in.

#2

At the Hotel Barba, I had the chance to meet many different grandmothers and grandfathers from all over the world. I learned how to listen and enjoy the small details that come from a strange confluence.

#3

My family’s escape from Iran was the main focus of my life for years. I was always trying to better myself so that I could escape that country and its problems.

#4

I was able to overcome my fears and become a refugee, but not everyone is as lucky. The native born still view refugees as a threat to their privileged lives.

#5

The notion of refugee is being used and abused by opportunistic migration. It is being used to shame those who are seeking a small taste of a decent life, and instead are given the label opportunist.

#6

I have spent the last three decades trying to understand my chaotic past, and in 2016, I began a journey to do so. I spoke with many refugees and asylum seekers, as well as naturalized citizens.

#7

As a writer, I was forced to recreate these stories based on the testimonies I received. I was unable to spot every false stroke of the brush, as I was too busy looking for evidence to support the testimonies.

#8

One night, Darius was attacked by a group of Basijis, a volunteer militia. He was saved by his friends, but the next day his mother found out and decided to kill him.

#9

The Iranian government did not allow Darius to stay in Iran, forcing him to leave. His family did not have the money to send him abroad, so he stayed in a halfway house for 2 weeks letting his siblings feed him.

#10

The first airboat trip was full, so Darius and the others were forced to swim to shore, where they were captured by Turkish officers and sent to a jail.

#11

I had an itchy feeling in my brain that made me count my pencils and squeeze my grandmother's cheeks. It became a part of me, like the freckle on my lip.

#12

I was instructed to work on my handwriting. I was to sit with my father on the living-room carpet, practicing. I asked my father about Khadijeh. He said that everyone was destined to do a certain kind of work and that she might have realized early on that school wasn’t for her.

#13

When I was in first grade, my teacher tore my pages in half, demonstrating to me that my work was worth less than those unfilled pages. I was crying, but I remembered how Khadijeh had been treated and I tried to pity my teacher.

#14

When I was five, my parents took me to visit my aunt in London. I was terrified of my father, who was addicted to something or other, and I remember praying every night for him to stop.

#15

My mother, Sima, was Moti’s second daughter. She wasn’t the beautiful eldest, Soheila, after whom Moti pined. She dreamed that one day, her four children would gather around her in the West and they would all be true believers.

#16

When I was seven, I was playing with some girls in the art studio when a boy shoved my hand into the doorjamb and it broke. I howled in pain. The nail didn’t grow back, and I was told it might not grow as fast as the others.

#17

I had a aching jaw after the accident, but I still loved England and wanted to walk up and down my grandmother’s street in West Hendon, looking for change so I could buy Maltesers and real KitKats.

#18

I, too, had to convert. When I was in the Islamic Republic’s underground church, I had to endure three years of arrests and threats before the day of our escape.

#19

When I told my father that Khanom had torn our proud, far-reaching Ks and Gs, his eyes flashed. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to cower to men, so I showed my fangs.

#20

The scarf that Maman wore that day was half red, half black, and it made her look like a witch. She was accosted by the Gashte-Ershad, and although she defended herself by saying that her son had run into traffic, the Pasdar still cursed her.

#21

The teacher, Khanom, gave me a strange look when I told her I loved her, as I had meant to say that I was sorry for bothering her. I felt that the situation had been unfairly written.

#22

I was so ashamed the next day, I dragged myself to school. I was numb and limp by the time I passed through the school gate and climbed the podium. I barely waited for the back chant before reading the words into the bullhorn.

#23

In 1988, everything came to a halt when the city of Isfahan was struck by a series of bombings. The New Year holiday only served to slow things down, as people waited for word on whether their daily lives were worth continuing.