The Refugee Dilemma

At The New Yorker, Rachel Aviv writes about the plight of refugees in the United States, and the fear they face of being forced to return to the conflict from which they fled. Aviv reports on Nelson Kargbo, a refugee from Sierra Leone and former child soldier who fought deportation and endured a long stay in prison in order to remain in the United States. “The idea that he had a ‘story’ to tell appeared to strike him as unseemly, as if the details could reactivate the past—an attitude that hurt him during his legal proceedings,” Aviv writes. “He answered the judges’ questions with as few words as possible, the register of his voice barely changing. The numbness with which he described traumatic experiences made him appear as if he were bored by the memories.”

Read at The New Yorker

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