review of the book refugee

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Common sense media reviewers.

Harrowing page-turner sheds light on child refugees.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this book.

Historical and political information about Nazi Ge

Refugees are relatable people who've been forced t

The kid protagonists are all brave in trying circu

There's much violence, which, though not gratuitou

Frequent mentions of iPhones, which Mahmoud's fami

Educational Value

Historical and political information about Nazi Germany, Cuba in 1994, and the current Syrian situation. One thread based on the true story of the ship the St. Louis , which carried fleeing German Jews and was denied entry by Cuba and the United States and had to turn back to Europe. The Syrian story is also based on news accounts of specific refugees. Author's Note at end makes clear what's factual and where he's taken creative license. Maps of the three journeys.

Positive Messages

Refugees are relatable people who've been forced to flee their country because of dire circumstances. Their families are much like ours. It's good to offer refuge to people in need and to assist them as they try to make new lives.

Positive Role Models

The kid protagonists are all brave in trying circumstances, though they have realistic doubts and fears.They actively work to help their families and find their way. Sometimes they're called upon to act like adults and take charge.

Violence & Scariness

There's much violence, which, though not gratuitous, might be frightening to younger readers. Principal characters are beat up. After one character's leg is bitten by a shark, he bleeds to death. A home is destroyed by a missile. Characters almost drown. A baby is passed off to another family and not seen again. One protagonist sees a dead man floating and another with a bullet in his head. German Jewish father who'd been in concentration camp goes mad and tries to commit suicide. A character is sent to a concentration camp and readers eventually learn he died there.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Frequent mentions of iPhones, which Mahmoud's family uses to navigate their journey.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Refugee by Alan Gratz is a historical novel that braids the stories of three young refugees in three different time periods and settings: 1938 Berlin, 1994 Cuba, and 2015 Syria. The circumstances of all the kids and families are dire, and their journeys are fraught with imminent danger. The publisher recommends this book for kids starting at age 9, but due to the level of violence and peril, we recommend it for 11 and up. Only two of the three protagonists survive, and all lose family members. Also, Josef, the Berlin Jewish boy gets beat up, as does Cuban Isabel's father. Syrian Mahmoud's home is destroyed by a missile, and he sees a dead man floating in the sea, as well as a soldier with a bullet in his head. Some in the book almost drown. One character's leg is bitten by a shark and he bleeds to death. But the book isn't gratuitously violent. It paints a vivid picture of the plight of refugees, and the kids and families seem both real and relatable, making this a good book for sparking family discussion.

Where to Read

Community reviews.

Parents say (9)
Kids say (60)

Based on 9 parent reviews

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What's the story.

REFUGEE braids three different stories of young refugees. In one, Josef and his Jewish family flee Nazi Berlin in 1938. They board the ship St. Louis , based on the actual ship that brought Jewish refugees to Cuba and then to the United States but was denied entry by both. That ship had to return the refugees to Europe, where they were split among four countries, and when those countries subsequently fell to the Nazis, many of the refugees were killed. In another story, Isabel and her family leave Cuba in 1994 on a homemade boat and head for Miami. They weather storms, fight off sharks, and have to deliver a baby onboard. In the third story, Mahmoud and his family flee their Syrian homeland in 2015 when their building in Aleppo is destroyed by the constant shelling. They make their way to Turkey, then by boat to Greece, and overland to Germany. They almost drown, and are preyed upon by mercenaries who exploit their vulnerability. All three journeys are difficult, and the protagonists have to deal with many setbacks and hurdles.

Is It Any Good?

This ambitious, harrowing page-turner is chock-full of historical information, and it succeeds in providing a vivid window onto the lives of three fictional child refugees. Author Alan Gratz alternates the three stories set in different countries and time periods, keeping the chapters in Refugee short and ending each on a cliffhanger, which makes them easy to follow. Gratz writes fast-paced, suspenseful fiction while involving us with characters who seem like real, relatable kids. Though he never lets up on his characters, who face new danger at each page turn, all the kids travel with their families, so there's comfort in that. He also skillfully manages to loosely relate the different stories and characters at the end, which adds to the poignancy and satisfaction.

The only quibble might be his handling of the historical context for the Cuban story. Gratz doesn't mention until his Author's Note at the end that the U.S. trade embargo has been a significant contributing factor to the hardship endured by the Cuban people, important information since the U.S.-Cuba relationship remains a thorny political issue. But the novel as a whole is masterful, and readers will be spellbound by these three very moving stories, which can help them understand and develop empathy for families who are refugees.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the three different stories in Refugee . What similarities do these stories have? How are they different? Why do you think the author wanted to present them all in one book?

How does the author connect the three stories at the end? Were you surprised at how he did that?

Though all the chapters are short and end on a cliffhanger, did you have trouble transitioning from one to the next, or did you easily follow the thread? Did that structure work for you?

Book Details

Author : Alan Gratz
Genre : Historical Fiction
Topics : Brothers and Sisters , Great Boy Role Models , Great Girl Role Models , History
Book type : Fiction
Publisher : Scholastic Press
Publication date : July 25, 2017
Number of pages : 352
Available on : Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
Last updated : March 19, 2019

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352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 25, 2017

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Literary Fusions

Integrating literacy in K-12 classrooms.

Book Review: Refugee by Alan Gratz

April 23, 2018 By Jessica

Refugee by Alan Gratz was chosen for two T exas Library Association lists: The Lone Star List and The Bluebonnet List ! I didn’t even know that was possible. The other reason I chose Refugee from the suggested lists was the timely topic of refugees and how people react.

Why I Finished It:

The only reason why someone would not finish Refugee is from heartache! This book follows three children and their families through horrendous times in history: Nazi Germany, Fidel Castro in Cuba, and Assad in Syria (still happening, unfortunately). Gratz shares fictional stories based on real events of how families have been brutally forced from their homes, separated from loved ones, and treated like property. Through his masterfully told story, he challenges us “regular humans” to take a stand, to be compassionate, and be willing to fight degrading treatment of humans in the face of danger. I finished it quickly, but it will stew in my head for a long time. This book easily goes down on my list of favorite books of all time: The Crossover , Deadline , and How They Croake d.

Who I Would Give It To:

HUMANS! All humans need this book! Regardless of the target audience (4-8 grade), Refugee is emotionally raw and forces the reader outside of their comfort zone to be more humane! And let’s be honest, these events are still happening in our world today, so there’s the current connection as well.

Integration Ideas:

Informal Research of Current and Historical Events

There is no denying that Gratz is a master of the written word, however much of the power of this story for me is in the fact that I knew the history! I know quite a bit about the treatment of Jews under Nazi rule, I knew less (but still enough) about Castro’s reign of terror, and I am familiar with Assad’s rule of Syria. Knowing the historical context on some level, made me connect with the children in this story in an intense way! I want my students to have that same connection, so I would divide my class into three sections and have them conduct informal research as a group on these three times in history. Then each group will present out to the others.

Here are some links to help (please note the sensitivity of the subject matter and preview sites before you hand them out):

Larry Ferlazzo’s Blog – Resources (links and videos) on what’s happening in Syria
Kid World Citizen – Maps, resources, videos and how to help sites
The Guardian – Download a “where it all began” document
Education World – Teaching the Holocaust
Ducksters Education Site – World War II – Holocaust overview of information
Scholastic – A Collection of Resources to teach the Holocaust
US Holocaust Museum Site – Resources for students
Encyclopedia Britannica – Fidel Castro
CNN – A timeline of Castro
Teaching Social Responsibility – Cuba and the US
Ducksters – Fidel Castro

Theme and Essential Questions

We always pull out one or two major themes from a novel and create an essential question. Refugee is about survival and courage from the point of view of the refugee for sure, but it is also about the courage of those not directly affected, the courage to step up and make a change.

Possible essential questions:

What responsibility, if any, do we have to strangers in a crisis?
When is it important to fight for civil rights? How can a child fight for civil rights?

There are so many more possibilities with this powerful book, but I am passionate about creating social activists in my classroom. The ideas in Refugee really go nicely with bullying programs in schools and the idea of standing up for someone who is being abused, or becoming invisible, so the tables don’t get turned on you.

A few powerful points brought up in the book (and there are way more than what I’m sharing) are:

How do people survive and change through such horrendous treatment? Do people become somewhat of a shell, devoid of feelings and with a broken spirit? Do they become outspoken and brazen? Do they try to hide and become invisible?
Becoming a victim of a reign of terror can happen to anyone at any time if people allow it to happen. If people sit by and ignore these catastrophic events, they are silently condoning such behavior.

Vocabulary :

This book has great word choice and I pulled out some vocabulary. Please choose only a handful to teach! I also pulled out some content language/words to bring to students attention as they read.

rationing (8)
recoiled (9 & 181)
indignation (17)
summoned (28)
melodious (30) ethereal (30
catatonic (31)
lurched (36)
disinfected (40)
waning (60)
artillery (70)
paranoia (74)
asylum (90)
dissident (100)
ominous (108)
profusely (115)
inconsolable (133)
dinghy (141)
berating (148)
oppressive (148)
pandemonium (158)
respite (160)
incoherently (183)
chastised (190)
somber (224)
instantaneous (240)
condolences (241)
mutiny (254)

Content words:

swastika (3 & 35)
brownshirts (3)
synagogues (5)
Kristallnacht (5)
communist (8)
Mu’adhadhin (30)
Guantanamo Bay (42)
yarmulkes (75)
“The Storm of the Century” (154)

Research and Take Action

This book is too powerful to end when the students finish reading. Have them continue learning about refugees (past and present). Have them learn what they can do to help and what organizations are trying to make a difference. Here are some sites:

Facing History and Ourselves Lesson Plan
Amnesty International – resources to understand the refugee crisis
Brown University – The Choices Program
Annenberg Media – Curriculum Resources for Teaching about Refugees
The UN Refugee Agency – Teaching Resources
Pulitzer Center – What is it like to be a refugee?
Refugee lesson plan

Author website – https://www.alangratz.com/writing/refugee/

We would love to hear your feedback on the book or lesson ideas!

Copyright Statement

Content © 2024 Jessica Rogers and Sherry McElhannon of Literary Fusions and literaryfusions.com. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s authors and owners is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Literary Fusions and literaryfusions.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Reader Interactions

November 6, 2018 at 6:13 am

This information is very helpful.Thank you.

November 7, 2018 at 3:55 pm

Love your review:)

November 9, 2018 at 1:54 pm

August 24, 2019 at 8:39 pm

October 28, 2019 at 6:00 pm

I read the book. It was good. 😉

October 29, 2019 at 9:07 am

It is still one of our favorites!

October 27, 2020 at 6:05 pm

I’m reading the book right now for school but I honestly would read it in my own time!!! Great review btw.

October 28, 2020 at 3:12 am

Thank you. We feel the same way about that book. It is definitely a favorite with our students.

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Reading Ladies

Refugee [book review].

October 20, 2017

Trust me: This is a great read!

“See us, he thought. Hear us. Help us.”

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Genre: Middle Grade through Adult, Historical Fiction, Global Issues, Refugees

Refugee is the relevant story of the refugee experience from three unique perspectives:

12/13-year-old Josef and family are Jewish and attempt to escape Nazi Germany in 1938 aboard a ship bound for a country(Cuba) that will accept them.
12-year-old Isabel and family are Cuban and flee riots and unrest in Cuba in 1994 on a homemade raft pointed toward safety in Miami, Florida.
12-year-old Mahmoud and family are Syrian and seek to escape war-torn Aleppo in 2015 and relocate to Germany.

Even though these families are separated by continents and decades, their stories share certain similarities. Each journey is fraught with harrowing adventures, frustration, courage, resiliency, heartache, injustice, persecution, dangers, children assuming adult roles and responsibility, loss of childhood innocence and joy, and loss of family members. However, the families have hope that drives them forward. Amazon Rating (October): 4.8 Stars (this is a very high rating in which 88% of the stars are in the 5-star category)

My Thoughts:

Refugee is an important story because it gives refugees a face and a name, and the timeliness of the Syrian refugee family is relevant to current events.

I appreciated the tightly woven plot and seamless transitions between points of view. As the author worked to tie the stories together, the reader notices that all three journeys to safety involve a boat and that children are forced to take on adult responsibilities and worries. In addition, the kindness of strangers and glimmers of hope keep them going forward in each story. Interesting parallels involve Josef fleeing Germany in 1938 and Mahmoud’s family escaping to Germany in 2015; furthermore, Josef’s family tried to gain entry into Cuba in 1938 and Isabel’s family sought to flee Cuba in 1994.

Refugee is engaging from page one and unputdownable. I never felt like I was reading a middle-grade selection except to reflect on how middle-grade readers might react to certain parts of the story. Yes, the story has 12-year-old narrators, but it’s the story of families and how they support each other in the most difficult circumstances. Even though adults will enjoy this story, it’s easily accessible for middle school readers (appropriate language, straight forward writing style, and not overly graphic or violent). That being said, the content is difficult at points (some events can be emotional and some historical perspective is probably needed). I recommend this for mature middle graders who are able to read this with a parent or teacher, and it will easily hold an adult’s interest as well and lead to excellent discussion opportunities.

The most powerful parts of Refugee include the author’s unique structure and smooth transitions between points of view of three refugee families. The POV from innocent children was especially powerful and moving, especially as the oldest children were forced to handle adult responsibilities and make difficult decisions. One powerful idea in the story was Mahmoud’s understanding of being visible or invisible. He learned through his life in Aleppo that being invisible helped him survive and avoid bullies; however, he quickly realized that refugees couldn’t stay invisible if they wanted help from the world. It’s only when people are visible (make waves, rock the boat) that people will notice them and take action. In his own words:

“They only see us when we do something they don’t want us to do,” Mahmoud realized. The thought hit him like a lightning bolt. When they stayed where they were supposed to be–in the ruins of Aleppo or behind the fences of a refuge camp–people could forget about them. But when refugees did something they didn’t want them to do–when they tried to cross the border into their country, or slept on the front stoops of their shops, or jumped in front of their cars, or prayed on decks of their ferries–that’s when people couldn’t ignore them any longer.

Even though some readers might consider the ending slightly contrived as two of the families intersect, I appreciated a somewhat uplifting ending.

Refugee rates as one of my most memorable reads of the year and is highly recommended for readers age 12 through adult who are searching for a riveting histfic read, for parents and/or teachers who are looking for diverse reads to build global empathy and understanding of the effects of war and oppression and the refugee crisis, for book club members who are interested in discussing challenging themes. *Caution: It’s my opinion that even though this is shelved as middle grade (grades 5-8), younger children in this range might find the occasional violence and harsh realities too much for them. It’s actually perfect for high school readers who already have helpful historical knowledge of the events. I would encourage parents to “buddy read” Refugee with their younger middle-grade children. It might be an especially interesting read for any families who have relatives that came to America as a result of being “sponsored.”

My Rating: 5+ Stars

Relevant: A book for younger middle-grade readers (but also enjoyable for adults) with a similar refugee theme might be Inside Out and Back Again (reviewed here as an “extra” in this post).

Refugee Information Here

Meet the Author, Alan Gratz

I’d love to hear in comments if you’re planning to put Refugee on your TBR. Does the refugee crisis topic interest you? Do you enjoy reading diverse books? Do you seek out titles that differ from your go-to genres? Do you think middle grade and/or YA selections can be appreciated by adults? Or would you rather that I not alert you to outstanding fiction for different ages?

Happy Reading Everyone!

“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.” ~Rainer Maria Rilke

“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.” ~Denise J Hughes

“Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad ones.” ~Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (cover) Image: large black text over an orange spiral

Genre/Categories: YA, social and family issues, mental illness, coming of age

Strengths: Turtles All the Way Down deals with a very important subject and I’m assuming the author represents an authentic voice…..I appreciate that the reading experience allowed me to gain additional understanding of OCD and I loved Aza and was deeply moved by her thoughts, angst, and experiences. It is important to know that the inspiration for this book came from John Green’s own personal experiences with OCD.

Weaknesses: A lot is going on—which probably is typical of a teenager’s life and the YA genre (mother/daughter relationship, best friend, school, coming of age, boyfriend, lizard, crime-solving, astronomy, abandoned/neglected boys, etc); and the plot was meh because there were too many things happening on multiple fronts and many details that didn’t make sense in the story (e.g. a high school kid gets $50,000 and doesn’t tell her mom?). Other readers have highly rated this book and/or love John Green so I encourage you to read it and form your own opinion.

My Rating: 2.5 Stars rounded to 3 Stars

For the Amazon rating, summary, and purchase information click here.

Looking Ahead:

I have a couple of ideas from recently published titles regarding my next read, but I haven’t finalized my selection. I’m waiting for Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin (contemporary chick-lit fic) to become available on Overdrive (library app) and I recently bought If the Creek Don’t Rise by Leah Weiss (Appalachia setting) which looks promising. Subject to change if I find something better! What are you reading this week?

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28 comments.

[…] My Full Review Here […]

[…] Dreamland Burning (YA); The Alice Network; Before We Were Yours; America’s First Daughter; Refugee (YA); Gentleman in Moscow (not reviewed…and not a book I loved at first, but I grew to love and […]

[…] Refugee Full Review and Amazon Information Here. […]

[…] Full Review Here Amazon Information Here […]

[…] Review Here […]

[…] Refugee by Alan Gratz Genre: Historical Fiction (Category: refugees) My Rating: 5 Stars (this would also fit in the diversity category) Recommended for mature middle grade readers, this is a riveting refugee story told from three perspectives over several decades and several locations (Syria, Germany, Cuba). It’s an engaging, unputdownable, and relevant read for middle graders and adults, and it features two boys and one girl as main characters. Refugee is one of my favorite mature middle grade reads and you can find my full review here. […]

[…] heard that teachers are using it in their classrooms to promote understanding and empathy. (review) It’s one of the best middle grade books I’ve read. If it’s been a long time […]

[…] Pacing and Plot Considerations For reading enjoyment, I need a story that has a good pace. For this reason I’ve discovered that I really do prefer plot driven stories more than character driven. Even though there are some character driven stories that I truly appreciate, they need some plot for me to consider five stars. One example of an exquisitely written character driven story is Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Goodreads review here. Many readers have given this five stars, and even though the very end of the story becomes faster paced, I decided on four stars rather than five. An example of a riveting page turner is Refugee by Alan Gratz (MG). My review here. […]

[…] From Sand and Ash, Refugee […]

[…] ( Hillbilly Elegy), Jeannette (The Glass Castle), Bryan (Just Mercy), Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud (Refugee), Billie Jo (Out of the Dust), Louis (Unbroken), Augie (Wonder), Rahima (The Pearl That Broke Its […]

[…] by Alan Gratz (mature Middle Grade histfic, refugees, adults will enjoy too) My review. (*one of my fav MG […]

[…] Degree: Lost Roses is told from three points of view. This reminds me of Refugee by Alan Gratz, also told from three points of view, three locations, and three time […]

[…] heard that teachers are using it in their classrooms to promote understanding and empathy. (review) It’s one of the best middle-grade books I’ve read. If it’s been a long time […]

[…] ***Updated 4/30/2020 with my reviews of Refugee and Turtles (here in the same post). […]

[…] Continue reading my review of Refugee to see what I loved…. […]

Sounds interesting. Good choice for your Throwback Thursday!

Thanks Davida! I love this one and recommend it all the time!

[…] Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradly (WW11), Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper (racism, prejudice), Refugee (12+) by Alan Gratz (refugee crisis), Wonder by R.J. Palacio (physical differences), Inside Out and Back Again by […]

[…] books I’ve read and recommend with Refugee themes: The Boat People, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Refugee, The Girl With Seven […]

[…] Out and Back Again by Thannhha Lai and Refugee by Alan Gratzpaired withFamily in Six Tones by Lan […]

[…] The Beekeeper of Allepo and Refugee (refugee […]

[…] by Alan Gratz (mature Middle Grade histfic, refugees, adults will enjoy too) My review of Refugee here. (*one of my fav MG […]

[…] heard that teachers are using it in their classrooms to promote understanding and empathy. My review of Refugee here. It’s one of the best middle-grade books I’ve read. If it’s been a long time since […]

[…] Out and Back Again by Thannhha Lai or Other Words For Home by Jasmine Wanga or Refugee by Alan Gratz or The Boat People by Sharon Bala or The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteripaired withFamily in […]

[…] Series” The War That Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won Isaiah Dunn is My Hero Refugee (mature MG) The Next Great Jane Inside Out and Back Again (scroll down page) Other Words For Home Amal Unbound […]

[…] Books I’ve reviewed with Refugee themes: Refugee by Alan Gratz, Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhha Lai (scroll down page), Other Words For Home by Jasmine […]

[…] Refugee by Alan Gratz […]

More Like This

Historical , Thriller , World War II

Three different kids.

One mission in common: ESCAPE.

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America…

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe…

All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers–from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But for each of them, there is always the hope of tomorrow . And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, surprising connections will tie their stories together in the end.

Scholastic | July 25, 2017 | Ages 8 and Up

A #1 New York Times bestseller!

Book Trailer

Gratz accomplishes a feat that is nothing short of brilliant…Poignant, respectful, and historically accurate while pulsating with emotional turmoil, adventure, and suspense.

—Kirkus - STARRED REVIEW

Filled with both tragic loss and ample evidence of resilience, these memorable and tightly plotted stories contextualize and give voice to current refugee crises…

—Publisher's Weekly - STARRED REVIEW

Exceptional readers Michael Goldstrom, Kyla Garcia, and Assaf Cohen tackle Gratz’s compelling novel

—Booklist Audio - STARRED REVIEW

The audio version provides an ideal (even mandatory) opportunity for libraries to share these resonating tales with readers reluctant to pick up the page.

—School Library Journal Audiobooks - STARRED REVIEW

A stunning, poignant novel about the plight of refugees… Grade A.

—Entertainment Weekly

This compelling novel will help young people make sense of today’s refugee crisis. Meant to be read, discussed, and shared widely.

—School Library Journal

Some novels are engaging and some novels are important. Refugee is both.

—Ruta Sepetys, author of Between Shades of Gray

A gripping, visceral, and hold-your-breath intense story of three young refugees.

—John Green

This dude does his history homework and then hides it in a total page-turner. This is the beets in a brownie of kid lit.

—Tablet Magazine

An intelligent, human, harrowing read.

—Ellen Silva, NPR

Gratz’s stirring novel humanizes the plight of refugees worldwide.

—Horn Book

Fast paced, insightful, filled with drama and tension.

—Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A heartrending and important tale for our time…

—The Buffalo News

Young readers will finish this book and ask: What should we do?

—Shelf Awareness Pro

A haunting fictional treatment of historic events.

—Booklist

Impossible odds and families in peril make for vivid and unrelenting suspense in these stories of flight and daring. This heart-stopping novel is not only compelling— it is necessary.

—Judy Blundell, National Book Award winning author of What I Saw and How I Lied

With urgent, clear-eyed storytelling, Gratz’s Refugee compellingly explores the desperation and strength that unites those struggling for a place to call home.

—Eliot Schrefer, two-time National Book Award finalist

An incredibly important, heartrending, edge-of-the-seat read, bringing light to the plight of immigrants who search for safety and freedom.

—Pam Muñoz Ryan, author of Echo and Esperanza Rising

Full of struggle, heroism, and non-stop adventure, Refugee is not only an important book, it’s a terrific story.

—Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Newbery Honor winning author of The War That Saved My Life

Powerful and compelling. Refugee is more than a story about children fleeing their homelands, it is a story about what unites us all… love, family and perseverance.

—Christina Diaz Gonzalez, author of The Red Umbrella and A Thunderous Whisper

Refugee looks readers straight in the eye, challenging them to truly see these kids who are battling the worst moments of our recent history.

—Margaret Neville, The King's English Bookstore

2018 Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Older Readers

2018 National Jewish Book Award Winner for Young Adults

New York Times Notable Middle Grade Children’s Book 2017

2018 YALSA Quick Pick for Young Readers

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Written by Alan Gratz Review by Elizabeth Caulfield Felt

Germany, 1938. Josef’s father is arrested for being Jewish and practicing law. After six months at a concentration camp, he is released on the condition that he leave Germany. Josef and his family board the ship Saint Louis and head for Cuba.

Cuba, 1994. Isabel’s father participates in a riot to protest food shortages and political persecution. Police beat him and threaten to find him later and arrest him. When Fidel Castro says anyone who wants to leave Cuba is allowed to, Isabel and her family board their neighbor’s poorly constructed boat, trying to cross the dangerous waters between Cuba and the United States.

Syria, 2015. Mahmoud’s family narrowly escapes a missile that blows up their apartment building. With their home and nearly all their possessions destroyed, they finally decide to flee the civil war, which has been going on for years, and attempt the long and dangerous trek to Germany.

In alternating chapters, the book tells these stories, of three families, in three different time periods, fleeing war and persecution in the hope of finding a safe place to live. The conflict is constant; each story is gripping, with chapters ending with cliffhangers. This book is difficult to put down! The stories intersect in interesting ways. Although the main characters are fictional children, some of the side characters are real, and the events are based on actual stories of refugees. Be forewarned: as in real life, not everyone survives. This is an important book, teaching young readers how people become refugees and what those individuals suffer. Intended for ages 9-12, but of interest to older audiences as well.

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Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Alan Gratz's Refugee . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Refugee: Introduction

Refugee: plot summary, refugee: detailed summary & analysis, refugee: themes, refugee: quotes, refugee: characters, refugee: terms, refugee: symbols, refugee: theme wheel, brief biography of alan gratz.

Historical Context of Refugee

Other books related to refugee.

Full Title: Refugee
When Written: 2015-2017
Where Written: North Carolina
When Published: July 2017
Literary Period: Contemporary
Genre: Young Adult fiction; Historical Fiction
Setting: Germany, Cuba, Syria, Turkey, United States, France, Hungary, Austria
Climax: Mahmoud and his family reach Germany and are taken in by Ruthie and her husband.
Antagonist: War; indifference; Nazis
Point of View: Third Person

Extra Credit for Refugee

A Good Cause. Gratz donates a portion of the proceeds for each book sold to UNICEF to support refugee children worldwide.

Lightbulb Moment. Gratz was initially inspired to write the book by the story of the MS St. Louis , until he took a vacation to the Florida Keys and found a raft that likely came from Cuba. At the same time, he was seeing news stories about the Syrian refugees, and when he couldn’t decide which story to write about, he integrated all three together.

C.A. Hughes Book Reviews

The literary journeys of a 20-something, bilingual, elementary school teacher.

Book Review: “Refugee” by Alan Gratz

Book Details:

Year of Publication: 2017

Series: N/a

Genre: Historical Fiction (Upper Middle Grade)

Format (How I Read It): Paperback

Goodreads Synopsis:

Three different kids.

One mission in common: ESCAPE.

Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…

Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America…

Mahmoud is a Syrian boy in 2015. With his homeland torn apart by violence and destruction, he and his family begin a long trek toward Europe…

All three young people will go on harrowing journeys in search of refuge. All will face unimaginable dangers–from drownings to bombings to betrayals. But for each of them, there is always the hope of tomorrow. And although Josef, Isabel, and Mahmoud are separated by continents and decades, surprising connections will tie their stories together in the end.

Book Review

Themes: Good things come to those who wait. Keep trying and eventually you’ll meet your goal. You have to make sacrifices sometimes. Help others; be generous. It’s okay to ask for help/be visible. Life isn’t fair. Don’t judge others. Be patient. Take risks. Fight for what you care about. (All themes generated by my 6th grade students!)

“You can live as a ghost, waiting for death to come, or you can dance .”

Windows and Mirrors: Being a refugee. Being forced to leave your home. Historical and modern plights of people from all over the world. Racism and xenophobia. Political turmoil. War.

“All my life, I kept waiting for things to get better. For the bright promise of mañana. But a funny thing happened while I was waiting for the world to change, Chabela: It didn’t. Because I didn’t change it.”

Overall Thoughts: This book is absolutely incredible. I loved it when I first read it, and it quickly became a class favorite as we read it aloud as a class (in sixth grade). I think this is the perfect read aloud for sixth grade (and possibly seventh, though I’ve never taught that grade level before). It’s intense and mature without being over-the-top in terms of its depictions of violence and other mature themes. Sixth graders are still young, but they’re at an age where they want to be treated like they’re more mature, and this book is at the perfect maturity level for them.

I also loved the structure and the pacing of this book. It has three different POVs that it alternates between for each chapter. To be honest, I actually didn’t love this aspect of it when I was just reading it on my own. As an independent reader, it made it a little hard for me to get into at times because, just as I was getting really invested in a certain storyline, it would switch to another character’s POV. And while I enjoyed all of the narrators of this story, it sometimes felt jarring to have to switch so frequently. However, this actually made it the perfect read-aloud. We would do a chapter or two at a time, and then we’d have to stop anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal that we were on a different character’s POV when we’d pick it back up the next day since we’d already had a natural break from where we’d left off. All three characters are people that you really can’t help but to root for, so it’s impossible not to be invested in their stories and wanting them to survive.

Something else I love about this is that it’s historical fiction, and Alan Gratz does a fantastic job anchoring each storyline in its time and place. This is something that I think can be a struggle for middle grade historical fiction: getting young readers to understand a time period and historical (as well as cultural) context they may know nothing about. However, the depiction of the three different settings in this story is done so elegantly. There is so much information packed into this story, but it doesn’t feel like a history lesson when you’re reading it. My students had relatively little knowledge about all of the settings in this story, but they still were able to follow along and were 100% invested in the story from the beginning. Every once in a while we’d look something up if it was unfamiliar to us, but all of the major points about each refugee crisis were so clearly presented in the story.

Finally, this is a great book to facilitate important discussions about the themes in this story. The themes listed above came from my students, but some other themes that come up are about humanity, acceptance, immigration, kindness, hate, love, and how despite everything there are always helpers (all throughout history).

“And that was the real truth of it, wasn’t it? Whether you were visible or invisible, it was all about how other people reacted to you. Good and bad things happened either way. If you were invisible, bad people couldn’t hurt you, that was true. But the good people couldn’t help you, either. If you stayed invisible here, did everything you were supposed to and never made waves, you would disappear from the eyes and minds of all the good people out there who could help you get your life back. It was better to be visible. To stand up. To stand out.”

Content Warnings: Suicide attempt. Death of a child. Death of a family member (not described in detail). Violence (described in moderate detail). PTSD/paranoia. Catcalling. Drinking. Use of the word “hell.”

Recommendations: I absolutely recommend this as a read-aloud for 6th grade . It’s the perfect fit in terms of its maturity level , and the short chapters ending in cliffhangers make it perfect for being read aloud. I think it could work as a read-aloud for 5th-7th grade, but I really believe it’s the perfect fit for 6th. However, there are a couple things that make this one difficult to do as a read aloud (though still worth the effort/discomfort I’d say). One is that there are a lot of non-English words and names of European and Middle Eastern cities sprinkled throughout the story. I always just told my students I didn’t speak every language but that I was trying my best, but I do wish I’d had time to look up the pronunciations of all the words I didn’t know ahead of time. The other difficulty is the content warnings mentioned above. Knowing that I had students that could be secretly struggling with suicidal ideation or not knowing what they’d been through in their own families, it was really difficult to read the parts of the story regarding a suicide attempt. I considered censoring these parts to make it more ambiguous as to what was actually happening, but I ended up reading it as is. It was difficult, but it led to some good conversations as a class. But censoring it a little is definitely an option depending on the needs of your students.

My students generally struggle with read-alouds with more than one POV, so I also recommend having students do Doodle Notes while they listen. I had them set up 3 columns (one for each narrator), and the idea is just that they doodle as they listen to help them keep track of important information. It was amazing how helpful this was in supporting them to keep track of all the different characters, settings, and conflicts . You can find some information about doodle notes HERE , and you can find the resource I used to introduce the activity to my students HERE . You can also see some photos of examples from my students below!

*The doodle notes do contain some spoilers, but I tried to edit the major ones out. You can see how some students really doodle and express their understanding through drawing, whereas others prefer to use mostly words. This is a great strategy that allows students to express themselves the best way they know how!

After finishing the book, as a class I had them work together to come up with themes from the story. We do this with all of our read-alouds throughout the year, and I put them on a poster so they can see their ideas displayed. We also did a 3-2-1 exit ticket at the end to do a final reflection on what they learned from the story. You can see examples from my students below!

*Again, there are minor spoilers in the 3-2-1 exit tickets, but I edited the major ones out.

Something else I did this year was to read aloud the author’s note at the end. I recommend doing this because it helps students put into perspective just how real the refugee experiences depicted in this book are. It was really powerful for my students to hear this. In general, I also recommend using this book as a model for historical fiction since Gratz does such a great job creating a fictional story based on true historical events. After reading the author’s note, we did a historical fiction compare and contrast activity to see what was real and what was fictionalized for the story. Sometimes students have a hard time understanding the difference between historical fiction and nonfiction, and this helped facilitate a great, student-led conversation about the differences and why this book is considered historical fiction and not nonfiction. You can see the chart we made below!

TLDR: I recommend this book as a read-aloud for 6th grade and a model for teaching about historical fiction. It’s also just an incredible story that should be in all home and classroom libraries (probably 4th grade and up) and should be read by students and adults everywhere.

Refugee is an action-packed and suspenseful story with a lot of heart. I would recommend it for readers of all ages.

Thank you for reading my review! Leave a comment letting me know if you’ve read this one or have any questions about it, and keep an eye out for my next review!

Book Review: The Refugee System by Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald

Perhaps you’ve heard the parable of the blind men and the elephant. A king summons blind men from his kingdom and asks each one to examine an elephant. One man feels the elephant’s head and says that he’s touching a pot. Another man feels the elephant’s side and describes a wall. A third man touches the elephant’s leg and talks about a tree trunk. One lesson of this story: Unless we have enough information, it’s difficult to determine the truth.

That’s also the lesson of a new book, The Refugee System , by Professors Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald. The book argues that many academics and policymakers view the refugee system too narrowly. Instead of seeing the bigger picture, they focus only on the elements of the refugee system that relate to their area of interest. This type of “siloed” approach has real-world implications for those seeking protection and for the nations that host them.

According to Professors Arar and FitzGerald, the “siloed” approach to refugee studies has a number of disadvantages. Perhaps the biggest of these is that the study and analysis of refugees often lacks context and fails to account for the wide range of factors that impact migration. Why do some people move and others stay put? How do people decide where to go, and how do prior migrant flows affect current movements? How important are economic factors? When the exit or admission policies change in one country, how does that change reverberate through the system?

One point that I found particularly interesting was the authors’ explanation of how refugee policies in the Global North rely on refugee policies in the Global South. Professors Arar and FitzGerald note that, “States in the Global North fund refugee hosting in the Global South, and in exchange, Southern states keep most of the refugees away from the North.” Indeed, “Southern states are the foundation of the contemporary system of refugee management.” “The current configuration of Northern refugee reception – even in the most generous states – is only possible because Southern states contain and control most refugee movement.” “In fact, all Northern states combined accept fewer than 1 percent of the world’s refugees through a process called resettlement that allows officials to select, vet, and invite refugees to settle on their territory” and obtain permanent status. In other words, the only reason a country like the U.S. can have generous refugee and asylum systems is because states in the Global South host the vast majority of the world’s refugees.

Of course, this system can be subject to breakdown. As the authors explain, “Governments sometimes use refugees to try to accomplish specific foreign policy goals.” One such goal may be “to weaken a target state’s legitimacy by highlighting the hypocrisy between a public commitment to rights norms and a limited willingness to accept refugees in practice.” “Liberal states are especially vulnerable to this kind of strategy.” An example here might be the Turkish government’s agreement to keep Syrian refugees out of Europe. Or the Mexican government’s agreement to keep migrants away from our Southern border. In each case, the destination country enlisted a third country to do its dirty work and help prevent a “liberal” refugee regime from being overwhelmed by untenable numbers of asylum seekers.

The book also highlights the long term harm caused by warehousing refugees in the Global South, where they mostly live without any permanent status. Generations of refugees reside in countries where they do not have citizenship and have few legal rights. “Conservative estimates suggest that 1 million children were ‘born into refugee life’ between 2018 and 2020.” Analyzing the situation through a “systems approach shows the role that Southern states play on a global scale as spaces of buffering and containment.” Whether this human cost is worth the price of preserving the image of Western nations as “generous” destinations for refugee resettlement, I do not know, but it certainly begs the question of whether there is a better way.

Another point that caught my attention was the difference between countries that have signed the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and countries that have not signed. Professors Arar and FitzGerald found that a “survey of Southern refugee host states reveal that signatory status does not reflect a state’s commitment to refugees.” I had always viewed the non-signatory states negatively, particularly a number of Persian Gulf states that are well-known for refusing to offer permanent status to displaced people from the region (many of my Arab and Afghan clients had spent time in the Gulf but were forced to leave once their status expired). However, the Professors note that many non-signatory states do, in fact, host forced migrants. For example, “To claim that Saudi Arabia has not received any Syrian refugees because those individuals have not been identified as refugees through a legal assessment is false.” And so while the Saudis are not offering permanent status to Syrians (or other refugees), they are probably no worse in this regard than signatory countries who specifically label people as “refugees” but do not allow them to permanently resettle.

There is one last point from the book that I want to highlight, mostly because it is one of my (many) pet peeves. Policies in the U.S. and in most host states can “strip people of refugee status if they have temporarily returned to their country of origin under the logic that a refugee who was wiling to return must be safe there and no longer requires international protection.” This policy creates a strong disincentive for people to return, since they can’t go for a short visit to scout out whether it is safe for them (and their families) to return permanently. If we want to encourage refugees to repatriate, we should allow them to make such trips without risking their status in the host country.

Professors Arar and FitzGerald’s book was not written for a general audience, and it is not an easy read. But I certainly hope it reaches policymakers, academics, and others in the field. The “systems approach” offers a broad and deep view of the refugee phenomenon. When we have a richer and more holistic understanding of causes, effects, and solutions to forced migration, we can make better policies and improve people’s lives.

Hello Jason, how do i contact or email or call asylum office if i have issues with asylum EAD clock. And also if i email them uscis says dont send sensitive information. Do i send my a-number or receipt number or not. And in subject of email what do i write. Do i write my a-number. Thanks Have a Good day

You can find their email if you follow the link under Resources called Asylum Office Locator. They do say not to send the Alien number, but I send it because otherwise, they will not be able to easily find the case. I am not sure what you need, but you can mention that the asylum clock is stopped and ask them to start it. Some offices allow you to go in person to ask, and maybe you want to try to do that as well. It is not easy to get a stopped asylum clock started again, so it may take multiple tries. Take care, Jason

Good morning and happy Tuesday everyone! Jason please advise on form I-485 question 69.a have you ever failed or refused to attend in attendance at any removal proceeding filed against you on or after April 1 1997 if I’m answering No, there is a following question 69.b if you answer to item number 69.a is Yes, do you believe you had reasonable cause? Can I skip this and just leave it blank? Can I just skip all the questions that is not applicable to me and leave them blank or I should put N/A or none? Thank you

Hi Star- Jason will respond. In the meantime, think about it… If a question has two parts (A and B), and part A of the question asks you to answer “yes” or “no”, and part B of the question says (if) your answer to part A is “yes”, then provide an answer, at part B of the question, as to why you answered “yes”. If your answer is “no” at part A of the question, how would part B of the question apply to you? In any any event, if you want to be extra careful, you can literally write “N/A” beside the question and initial it. I suppose that won’t hurt.

Thank you so much JAMIE! Yes I know that’s makes sense but this is USCIS and I just don’t want to mess up the application 😅 this form also not allowing me to type n/a do you think it’s ok to just hand write N/A?

Yes, it can be handwritten and initialed by you

For those questions, we skip them and leave them blank, but you can also write N/A as Jamie suggests. This is yet another sign that USCIS forms are poorly designed and need to be re-done. Take care, Jason

Good morning, I decided to work on my green card application because I believe my lawyer is now charging me too much. However, I have a question for you. Where would you send your package if you lived in Kansas city, Missouri? Again, thank you for time and attention.

You have to go to the I-485 web page and look at Direct Filing Addresses for your category (asylum) and for your place of residence: https://www.uscis.gov/forms/all-forms/direct-filing-addresses-for-form-i-485-application-to-register-permanent-residence-or-adjust-status . Take care, Jason

Hi Jason, I recently filed i-485 based on asylum granted by IJ decision 7 months ago. Should I expect an interview with the USCIS? Does i-485 usually get approved with or without interview when it is based on asylum granted? Thank you!

The Trump Administration made a rule that every I-485 applicant should be interviewed. That was never fully implemented and the Biden Administration seems to have backed away from this (as it is a total waste of time). And so now, some people get interviewed and others do not; as far as I can tell, it is not predictable. Take care, Jason

Hi Jason, I hope you are doing great. I would like to submit green card application on my own. Can you please help me with the following questions? 1) Do I need to submit 2 separate cashier checks for biometric and application or one cashier check for total amount should be fine? 2) Do I need to send the refugee traveling doc to the same address as the green card application? I would like submit I-131 and green card application together. 3) I came here with J1 with 2 year of residency requirements. I never fulfilled 2 years of the residency requirement. However, I was granted asylum by immigration judge. I say “NO” to the question “Have you complied with the foreign residence requirement. Do you think it is the correct answer? Also, Can you please send me the law (code) where asylum waive off the 2 years of requirment? 4) My asylum is granted by immigration judge (previously denied by asylum office). I say “NO” to the question “have you ever applied for any kind of relief or protection from removal, exclusion or deportation.? Is “NO” the correct answer? 5) Can I submit a green application without a medical form?

Thank you so much again

1 – Either way. We try to submit one check for the fee + biometrics. 2 – If you submit them simultaneously, they go to the same address (for the I-485). That way, you get the RTD at no extra cost. 3 – There is a specific section of the Code of Federal Regulations that exempts asylees from the home residency requirement, but I do not remember what it is. If you cannot find it, you can probably provide an explanation that you are an asylee and thus exempt from the home residency requirement. 4 – I would put “yes” since you applied for asylum as relief from being removed. 5 – Yes, but make sure the medical exam is dated shortly before you file the I-485 (less than 30 days is best, though I think a bit longer is ok). Otherwise, the medical exam could expire and you would need to re-do it. Take care, Jason

Hello Mr. Dzubow, My nephew’s i-730 application has a misspelled last name (one extra letter in the middle of his last name). The application was already filed several years ago and it’s currently pending. Unfortunately, I did not see the application when it was being filed. Is it possible to fix the error? And if yes, what would you suggest in such case? Thank you so much!

Whoever filed the I-730 can make an online account at http://www.uscis.gov and submit a letter explaining the error with some evidence (copy of passport, birth certificate, etc.) containing the correct name. If the person cannot create a online account, the person can mail a letter to USCIS with this same info and a copy of the receipt, so hopefully, the letter will get matched with the pending I-730. But if this can be done online, that would be better. Take care, Jason

Good Evening Jason Thank you a lot for all you do for us! I’m currently preparing my AOS package myself Could you please advise if the package is ok? This is what I want to send:

1. Form I-485 Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust status 2. Two passport-style photos 3. 2 checks with fees 1 for the I-485 form and 1 for biometrics fee 4. Proof of grant of Asylum – copy of Immigration Judge order 5. Copy of USCIS Asylum granted status letter 6. Copy of form I-94 with current Asylum status 7. Copy of form I-94 when was admitted to US from the website 8. Copy of government-issued ID- Driver’s license 9. Copy of Employment Authorization Card 10. Copy of Passport page (biographical page) and copy of US nonimmigrant visa with entry stamp 11. Copy of Birth certificate with an English translation 12. Form I-693 Report of Medical Examination and Vaccination Record 13. Form G-1145

I submitted form I-131 for travel document few month ago should I submit it again? Since it’s free with AOS? TYIA

I do not know the case, so I cannot say for sure that this is everything you need, but it looks good for a case with no criminal or immigration issues. If you already filed the I-131, there is no reason to file it again. Maybe you can use the I-485 fee receipt in the future to “pay” for your next I-131 (this should work, but the rules change now and again, so try to double check when/if the time comes). Take care, Jason

Hello Jason, The Hill and other newspapers are reporting that this new bipartisan bill introduced by two Latino Democrat and Republican congresswoman is a nice one and may have enough support! My question on the bill is 1. Does it include pending asylum like most of us following your forum here? 2. Do you think the House leader McCartey allow the bill to be voted on? 3. Is there any chance for the bill to pass congress but fail in Senate 4. Do you think the next one year and nine month of Biden Presidency enough for the bill to pass with enough support? Thank you,

Unfortunately, this bill is not going to pass.

I say this with 99.99% certainty, meaning virtual certainty.

There have been many bills introduced over the years and nothing has passed, and so I’ve stopped paying much attention to these things. If it gets further along in the process, I will take a look, but so far, I have not looked at it. Take care, Jason

How to check which address uscis or asylum office has on file. I asked my lawyer to change my uscis asylum address but before that i stopped taking his services. Im not sure my address changed or not. Can i do foia with uscis. If yes how do i do it and what do i specify there. My a- file or my i-589 details or just write i need to know most current address uscis has on file for me

You can just file a change of address yourself, form AR-11, available at http://www.uscis.gov . It can be filed online. You can also email the asylum office directly. You can find their email if you follow the link under Resources called Asylum Office Locator. A FOIA should also get you this information, but it will take a few months. Take care, Jason

Thank you for all that you’re doing. I really appreciate it! I’m an asylum dependent (along with my two siblings, and dad) and my mom is the main applicant. If I get sponsored by a company, will this affect my mom’s asylum status or my siblings and dad’s dependent statuses? Thank you so much!

It will not affect them, but you should make sure that you are eligible to get a GC and ask whether you can do that in the US, or whether you will have to leave, and if you have to leave, how exactly will that work. I would get this all in writing from the lawyer before you start the process. I wrote about this issue on August 28, 2018 and September 6, 2018 and maybe those will help, but you will need to talk to a lawyer about the specifics of your situation. Take care, Jason

If my mom’s asylum application is still pending, will her pending status effect my greencard application to get approved? Do I have to wait until her application gets approved or denied for my greencard process to go through as in will this slow my process down?

Also, to process my greencard through employment EB-3, do I continue to hold my current dependent pending status until I receive greencard? Or will I hold a different status before then?

If you have an independent basis to get a GC and are eligible to do that, I do not see why your mother’s asylum application would have any effect on your GC application, and I also do not see why you would need to wait for her case to be approved. However, if your only status is asylum pending based on your mother, you are likely not eligible to get a GC without leaving the US (and you may not be eligible at all). You would need to have a lawyer look at the specifics of the case to know for sure, but I wrote articles that might help on August 28, 2018 and September 6, 2018. If you get your GC while you are still a dependent on your mother’s asylum case and the asylum case is still pending, probably you will want to withdraw yourself from her case, since you will no longer need that. Take care, Jason

Hi Jason, thank you so so much for answering my questions.

I was f-2 under my dad and I turned 21 in on October and my mom’s asylum application was received in December but my name is still under her receipt and I was still called in for biometrics and I was later given an A number and even EAD. Am I officially her dependent?

Also, on this page does this mean that I’m not technically unlawful presence because I overstayed the visa by less than 180 days and they mentioned that asylum pending isn’t unlawful presence? https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-7-part-m-chapter-3

But does it mean I held an invalid/void non-immigrant visa status when my mom included me in her asylum application, making it harder for me to adjust status in the US through employment green card?

But I’m not technically unlawful presence, would me holding a void visa holder when I was initially included in my mom’s application be a huge curveball?

If you were 21 years or older when your mother’s I-589 was received (check the receipt date), you are not permitted to be a dependent on the case. If that happened, it is probably a USCIS error, but I do not know that this would protect you. I would talk to a lawyer and have the lawyer look into this. One option would be to file your own asylum case and argue that the USCIS error caused you to believe you were a dependent and that is why you had not filed previously. Also, I do not know about F-2 dependent children, and though I suspect that 21 is the cutoff, I am not sure and so maybe you want to double check about that. Also, maybe you could somehow reinstate yourself into F-1 status (or some other status) based on the USCIS error. In terms of unlawful presence, it would depend on the issues above, but if your F-2 status ended in October and you improperly became a dependent on your mother’s case, USCIS could consider you unlawfully present since you turned 21. I think this is an issue that you would have to argue against, but it is certainly a danger. Even if you are an asylum dependent, it is not easy to get a GC based on employment – I wrote more about that on August 28, 2018 and September 6, 2018, but I think you need to talk to a lawyer and sort out your current status, so you can better know your options. Take care, Jason

Hi Jason, Here’s the situation. Mother and daughter came seeking asylum 7 years ago. Never had an interview so never referred to court. A year ago Mother got married to a US citizen. Daughter was then 18. Mother just got her Green Card as a Legal Permanent Resident, 2-year conditional.

Meanwhile daughter applied for and got TPS (Venezuela) when first available. At the time she did not apply for an EAD under TPS as she had the 2-year EAD as a pending asylee.

Now Mother will file the I-130 as a LPR for daughter. Once that’s approved daughter will file I-485 for adjustment of status to LPR. We hope that with the Child Status Protection Act, she won’t age out before being approved.

Questions: Should Mother petition to withdraw her asylum application (daughter is derivative)?

What if she doesn’t? Does that cause any problem for Mother now, or later when she applies for citizenship?

Is there any benefit to daughter is keeping the asylum application active, especially if this drags on and the administration changes?

FYI daughter is a college student just finishing her sophomore year on a full scholarship at Smith College.

Thank you. As always everyone on this forum appreciates your time and generosity.

If the daughter has TPS, she should be able to get her GC in the US based on the mother, but I do not know how long the waiting period is – you can Google “DOS visa bulletin” to see that. On that web page, there are two charts – one indicates when the daughter is legally eligible to get a GC, but the other (which has an earlier date) indicates when the daughter can file her I-485. I do not think the Child Status Protection Act protects the daughter from aging out in this circumstance, but I have not looked at that in a while and I may be wrong. In terms of your questions: 1 – I would not withdraw, as the daughter may need to remain a dependent depending on how the case goes. Maybe the daughter wants to file her own asylum case? 2 – The mother can keep the case alive with no negative effect on your GC or citizenship. 3 – Maybe, especially if TPS ends or the adjustment does not work for some reason. To protect herself, the daughter may want to file her own asylum case. I would strongly encourage you to talk to a lawyer about the specifics of this situation. It seems to me that this might work out for the daughter, but I think you need a plan and to do that, you should get more specific advice from a lawyer who knows the case. Take care, Jason

Thanks Jason. Yes, I agree she needs to talk with a reputable attorney. The mom talked to someone a week ago but I’m not feeling very positive about her experience. Sounded like he wanted $3,600 to take her case, but it wasn’t clear at all what he would do or what he recommended. Since the daughter is in Massachusetts at college and will be for 2 more years, is this a case your firm would take? I’m really concerned that we do this right. She’s the granddaughter of my heart. There’s no good future for her in Venezuela.

I may have misunderstood the information on Child Status Protection Act on the USCIS site. It’s complicated, but I thought as a Family Preference F2A she’d fall into the category that would allow her to calculate her CSPA age using this formula:

Age at Time of Visa Availability – Pending Time = CSPA Age

Maybe I got this wrong, which is why she needs an attorney. Thanks again.

You may be right – I just have not looked at that issue in a while and I do not remember, so I am suggesting you double check. Also, if you consulted with a lawyer and still do not know the plan, my thought is that you should look for another lawyer. My suggestion is to find a local lawyer, but if you cannot find anyone and want to do a consult with me, you can email me: [email protected] . If I can find an answer about the CSPA during the consult, I will do that, but off the top of my head, I do not remember if it applies to these types of visas. Take care, Jason

Thanks Jason. Appreciate all you do.

Hello Jason, My brother filed i-730 5 years ago for his teenage son. The application is still pending with Texas Service Center. Recently, my brother contacted a paralegal to cancel i-730. Several people including me are trying to convince him not to do it but he is convinced that bringing his son to the US will cause financial and emotional stress to his current family. As far as I know, he only made an appointment with a paralegal to cancel i-730 but hasn’t done any paperwork. My question is, can he cancel the processing of i-730? Is even possible? This is unique and heartbreaking situation for me personally because I love my nephew and I want him to come to the US. Thank you very much.

As far as I understand, the I-730 is filed by the asylee and that person can cancel it at any time. Why it is taking so long, I do not know. Such cases are slow (maybe 2 years), but 5 is way too long. Maybe before canceling it, he should talk to a lawyer about his options, so he knows all the possibilities (including ways to try to expedite) before he takes such a rash action. Take care, Jason

Hi Jason, I have been waiting for my asylum interview since 2014 and I have a lawyer assisting me. How long do you think it will take for me to get an interview? Also, I am waiting for my EAD and it’s been about 11 months since I applied. Can it take more than a year to get the EAD?

No one can predict when the interview will be scheduled. You can try to expedite – I wrote about that on March 23, 2022. In terms of the work permit, they are mostly take between 1 and 1.5 years, but if you filed to renew before the old card expired, you got an automatic 540-day extension on the receipt, and that should be enough until the new card arrives. Take care, Jason

We preparing I-485 and I-131 to file ourselves. I see some people submitted proof of one-year presence in the US. Do we need to submit such proof?

Here are the things I am mailing: – I-485, (Two cashier’s checks, each amount of $1,225) – I-131 – 4 * passport-style photos – Copy of USCIS asylum approval notice letter with attached I-94, and the most recent I-94 from F-1 admission – Copy of Driver’s License – Copy of marriage certificate and birth certificate of our child (US-born). – Copy of birth certificate with English translation (my wife doesn’t have her birth certificate) – Copy of passport bio page and visa page

I initially wanted to pay the fee with a credit card using G-1450, But I read online that banks frequently reject them due to the fraud alert. So decided to go with the cashier’s check.

I do not submit proof about the one year of physical presence unless there is some issue, and that has always been fine. The list of documents seems fine, but I do not know your case and so I cannot know for sure. Also, I think a personal check is best, but a cashier’s check is fine as well. Take care, Jason

Thank you! I mailed the application to USCIS and they accepted it.

I didn’t include a copy of my asylee EAD card as I am not filing an I-765, only filed I-485 and I-131, it should be fine right?

If you are not filing for a new EAD, you should not need to submit a copy of the current EAD. Take care, Jason

Hello Mr. Dzubow, I recently submitted I-485 with an attorney. However, several days ago I realized that 2 passport size photos should have been glossy according to instructions. I did not know that, unfortunately, and sent in matte photos. My attorney did not catch this also and mailed the forms with matte photos. Could you please let me know if it makes a difference whether the photos are matte and not glossy? I think I might get RFE for this but wanted to see if I can be proactive and do something to fix this error. Thank you!

I have sent matte photos before and we never had an issue. I guess it is possible that USCIS will not accept them and send an RFE, but I doubt that will happen and I do not think it is worth trying to send photos before they ask. If you wanted to do that, you would at least have to wait for the receipt, so you have a case number, but I would probably just wait to see what happens and not bother sending new photos unless asked. Take care, Jason

Thank you so much, Mr. Dzubow. I really appreciate your responses to all my questions. I am forever grateful.

Please Jason how much do you charge for a person that wants to withdraw his asylum case? Field office Arlington

I would likely not take such a case, as the person can easily do it on their own. I wrote about this on December 7, 2022 with information and instructions for how to withdraw. Take care, Jason

Please Jason after submitting the letter should I wait for a decision before I travel to another country? I got my GC through marriage.

If you are not traveling to your home country, I think it will not matter, but if you do plan to travel to your home country, that could raise issues, even if the asylum case is withdrawn (withdrawing the case does not erase the fact that you filed for asylum). I wrote about returning home for asylees, but this would apply to you as well – that was on January 6, 2016. Take care, Jason

I have a friend who had an individual hearing at the immigration court. His witness affidavits have been signed and notarized by a notary

However, there’s no date and signature from the affiants. What could happen?

It may make the letters less useful. It is better if they are dated, but they can still be used as evidence. Also, I thought when a document is notarized, the notary includes the date, so maybe check for that. Take care, Jason

I filed affirmative asylum 150 plus days ago.around 4.5 months ago i had my fingerprints/biometrics. When i did it the officer there gave me a stamp notice of appointment of biometrics but he messed up there. First he wrote something than scratched it and wrote again on notice stamp. Secondly employee id number that he has to give on notice he only wrote it once on biometrics qa review but didnt write his id number on ten prints qa review. Will this all mess stop my clock. Its uscis related delay not mine tho

I highly doubt this will have any effect. If the 150 days has passed, I think you can just file now and see what happens. But I do not see why these issues would have any effect. Take care, Jason

Hi everyone,

Has anyone had experience delay for background check before immigration judge at hearing?

It is not common, but we see it now and again. I currently have one case that was delayed twice for this reason, and we are hoping the issue will be resolved next month. Take care, Jason

Thank you as always for your response

Hello Sir, I fled persecution from my home country and arrived the USA 2 weeks ago.I was placed in removal proceedings and given a court date a) Can I move my court case from Florida to New York since I will be living with my sister in New York? b) I have trying to search my court case on the EOIR website invain using my A number. Please if I don’t fine it, can I file for Affirmative Asylum? c) if I file for Affirmative Asylum do I still need to go to my Master hearing? d) If DHS later on sends my case to court what will happen to my Affirmative Asylum? Thanks so much

a – Yes. You can change your address with the court using form EOIR-33, but you may also need to file a request with the court to move your case. If you have a lawyer, the lawyer can help with this. b – If the case is not in the EOIR system, you can file affirmatively. However, once the case gets into the system, the affirmative case will be done and you will need to file again with the court (though you can use the same exact form). c – Yes. If they schedule a MCH, it means your affirmative case is dead and you must file again with the court. Also, if you miss a MCH, the judge will order you deported, so don’t do that. d – See b & c. Your case will probably be in court and you may want to call the court to ask (you can find their number if you follow the link under Resources called Immigration Court). Also, since the case will probably be in court, it is a good idea to Google “pre-order instructions in immigration court” and follow those to get a fingerprint appointment. This takes about 6+ months and you need to do it, and so it is best to start the process as soon as possible. Also, you may want to talk to a lawyer to help with this, as the situation can be tricky when they issue a Notice to Appear by they do not schedule your case for court. Take care, Jason

Hello Jason, Thanks so much for all you do. I am a dependent on my husband’s asylum case. We have been waiting for 4 years invain for an interview. I have 5 siblings who are US citizens already. Can one of them petition for me? Waiting for my husband’s case has been very traumatic. Thanks again

They can petition for you, but the wait time is usually 13+ years (Google “DOS visa bulletin” to see this). Maybe you want to have them file the I-130 so that it is pending as a plan B. Also, even if they do that, and you wait the 13+ years for a GC to become available, you would most likely need to leave the US to get the GC. I wrote about this on August 28, 2018 and September 6, 2018 if you are interested. Take care, Jason

Hi Jason,After waiting 8 years finally my individual hearing was done in Newyork.But after the interview judge didn’t give any result because she need more time to see whole documents.Now what do you think it will be positive or negative?

There is no way to predict and you will just have to wait for a decision. Good luck, Jason

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Dina Nayeri sits with other Iranian women to prepare food in a refugee camp in Greece in 2016.

Who Gets Believed? by Dina Nayeri review – the Kafkaesque ordeal faced by refugees

The author uses her first-hand experience of migration to examine the flaws and hypocrisies of the asylum system

T he question driving Dina Nayeri’s latest book, “who gets believed?”, is deceptively simple. The Iranian-American novelist, once a child refugee, weaves stories from her own life with those people who were wrongly denied asylum in the UK and US. In doing so, she shows how “the accident of birth, the privilege of race, class, and nationality” often trumps “data, history, science, and reason” when it comes to whose voices are heard, and whose truths acknowledged. The consequences can be devastating.

The book is instantly gripping, opening with the story of a Sri Lankan refugee known only as KV. He arrived in Britain in 2011 as an asylum seeker with scars on his back and an account of being tortured by the Sri Lankan government. Despite the support of medical experts, his asylum claim was rejected. KV was accused of inflicting the injuries on himself, kickstarting an eight-year legal battle that reached the UK supreme court.

When she was a refugee, Nayeri learned quickly of a “code” that she had to crack to perform the role of a respectable, believable actor in the US. “As a foreign kid, I knew that American was a performance. So is refugee, good mother, top manager,” she writes. Her professional and financial success, and the ease that would bring to her life, were dependent on mastering this code. And she does, honing its intricacies as a consultant at McKinsey, where she learned to “bullshit gracefully” in order to build trust with her clients.

Many refugees who fail to get asylum do so not because their painful stories don’t afford them the right to a sanctuary, but because they aren’t performing their pain correctly. Nayeri looks at what she was taught at McKinsey and asks how an asylum seeker would fare if they exhibited behaviours that were drilled into her, but don’t come naturally. A Home Office official tells her of an Iranian man she cross-examined who knew precisely the legal grounds for asylum and argued them forcefully. He ensured he covered everything to convince the judge, and won. “The code works; it’s just that only a few are trained in it.”

Nayeri also brings in stories of innocent people who were wrongfully convicted and people of colour whose cries of pain were ignored in medical settings. Her frustration and anger light up the page as she makes formidable arguments for justice. She could have restricted the book to such case studies, but instead the narrative takes a courageous turn as she moves away from nightmarish institutions to write about her brother in law’s struggle with mental illness and her refusal to believe him. “I had cruel thoughts involving refugee camps for soft white boys, or Iranian solutions to this privileged nonsense.” Her brother in law spirals and his life unravels. Here I found myself forced to confront an unsettling question: what impact could my own ideas about credibility have on the people around me?

It’s hard to categorise Who Gets Believed; it is part memoir, part reportage, part criticism. Nayeri often illuminates the bureaucracy of the UK Home Office and US Citizenship and Immigration Service with references to Kafka’s best-known works. But rather than dropping in familiar quotes to underline a specific point, she engages deeply with the texts, alongside other forms of art, to provide refreshing insights that drive the narrative forward. There are some philosophical meditations, particularly in its final act, which feel distracting and interfere with pacing. Even so, the book remains an ambitious and moving exploration of the borders we draw around credible victimhood, and will cement Nayeri’s position as a master storyteller of the refugee experience.

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THE UNGRATEFUL REFUGEE

What immigrants never tell you.

by Dina Nayeri ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 3, 2019

A unique, deeply thought-out refugee saga perfect for our moment.

A novelist turns to nonfiction to illuminate the refugee experience, focusing mostly on her Iranian family but also reporting the sagas of many others fleeing poverty and violence.

The word “ungrateful” in the title is intended sarcastically, even bitterly. For Nayeri ( Refuge , 2017, etc.), winner of the UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize, that word signifies the misguided mindset of privileged individuals in stable nations who treat desperate refugees with suspicion, condescension, or even outright cruelty. Those unkind hosts falsely believe that refugees expect something for nothing, that maybe those fleeing to save their lives will somehow displace welfare benefits and jobs in a new land. With inventive, powerful prose, Nayeri demonstrates what should be obvious: that refugees give up everything in their native lands only when absolutely necessary—if they remain, they may face poverty, physical torture, or even death. The author, who was born during the Iranian Revolution and came to the U.S. when she was 10, grew up with her brother in a household run by her physician mother and dentist father. However, their relative privilege could not keep them safe from Muslim extremists involved in the revolution. Nayeri’s father learned to compromise his principles to get along, but her mother rebelled openly, converting to Christianity. The extremists threatened to kill her and take her children, so her mother gathered her children and fled, leaving Iran secretly via a risky route. Nayeri’s father stayed behind, eventually remarrying and starting a new family. The refugees subsisted for 16 months in squalor, mostly in a compound in Italy. Nayeri’s mother, desperately working every angle, used her wits and solid education to gain entry to the U.S. The author uses some time-shifting to unfold the narrative, which she divides into five sections: escape (from Iran), refugee camp, asylum (in the U.S.), assimilation, and cultural repatriation.

Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-948226-42-4

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Catapult

Review Posted Online: May 26, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2019

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | ISSUES & CONTROVERSIES | GENERAL CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR

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by Dina Nayeri

by Dina Nayeri ; illustrated by Anna Bosch Miralpeix

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PERSPECTIVES

by Elie Wiesel & translated by Marion Wiesel ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 16, 2006

The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the...

Elie Wiesel spent his early years in a small Transylvanian town as one of four children.

He was the only one of the family to survive what Francois Maurois, in his introduction, calls the "human holocaust" of the persecution of the Jews, which began with the restrictions, the singularization of the yellow star, the enclosure within the ghetto, and went on to the mass deportations to the ovens of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. There are unforgettable and horrifying scenes here in this spare and sombre memoir of this experience of the hanging of a child, of his first farewell with his father who leaves him an inheritance of a knife and a spoon, and of his last goodbye at Buchenwald his father's corpse is already cold let alone the long months of survival under unconscionable conditions.

Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006

ISBN: 0374500010

Page Count: 120

Publisher: Hill & Wang

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2006

BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | HOLOCAUST | HISTORY | GENERAL BIOGRAPHY & MEMOIR | GENERAL HISTORY

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by Elie Wiesel ; edited by Alan Rosen

by Elie Wiesel ; illustrated by Mark Podwal

by Elie Wiesel ; translated by Marion Wiesel

THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

From mean streets to wall street.

by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2006

Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

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Interview highlights

'worry' is a disturbing and honest picture of what it's like to be in your 20s.

Ailsa Chang

Alejandra Marquez Janse

Justine Kenin

Alexandra Tanner's debut novel centers two sisters in their 20s struggling with the love, anxieties and truths that they hold about each other. Sasha Fletcher hide caption

Alexandra Tanner's debut novel centers two sisters in their 20s struggling with the love, anxieties and truths that they hold about each other.

Your 20s are often painted as the greatest decade, but what's less talked about is how brutal those years can also be. There is pressure to declare who we are, uncertainty about what that even means, and confusion about what we want.

That is the case for two sisters in their 20s at the center of Alexandra Tanner's debut novel, Worry . Jules and Poppy Gold end up becoming roommates in New York City, and they torture each other with their anxieties, despair and truths. It's a portrait of sisterly love that's both hilarious and disturbing.

Author Interviews

A former nun explains why she ran away from her 'cloistered' life.

Tanner spoke to All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang about how she tried to capture the complexities of the decade and sisterhood in this book.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Ailsa Chang: So can we just first talk about the 20s? Like, what is it about that decade that makes it so painful? You just finished the decade, right?

Alexandra Tanner: Yes. I'm in my early 30s now and very glad to be done with my 20s forever. I think they're this just super pressurized time where you feel like, you know, your early 20s, you're on your own for the first time, you're out of college, you feel like, "Here I am, I've arrived in my life." But often you haven't arrived in your life and you don't know who you are and you're still a child, really.

Chang: In the middle of this existential dread that is the 20s are your characters Jules and Poppy. And let's just talk about the relationship between these two sisters. I mean, it's loving, but it's so messed up. It made me wonder: Were you writing from personal experience there? Do you have a sister?

Tanner: I have a younger sibling. They're non-binary and trans, and they are my favorite person in the entire world. But sometimes a sibling relationship is quite diabolical. It's a very unique relationship in that it's someone you love so intensely and know so well – you think. There's this huge gulf between what you [think you know] of your sibling and what you actually know of your sibling. So I think the core of the novel is the horror of realizing that your sister is a part of you and the bigger horror of realizing your sister is separate from you.

Chang: Well, even though we're talking about the viciousness between these two sisters, it really, for me, was the mother in this book who was the most cruel. Like, you depict a particularly vicious woman who calls her daughter the disappointment of her life. You also, I noticed, write about these other annoying mommy bloggers out there, and all of that got me thinking: How do you feel about motherhood, Alexandra?

Tanner: I mean, I wrote 300 pages about it and I still can't quite figure it out. And I think that, you know, in the writing of the novel, I kind of endeavored to have the relationship Jules and Poppy have with their mother, which I think it mirrors the relationship they have with each other, and that it's a relationship of deep emotional extremes, deep boundaryless-ness. And that's the thing about family, right? You can say anything to them and they're the people who are always going to be with you.

Chang: You hope.

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'The Tree Doctor' chronicles one woman's response to a series of life-changing crises

Tanner: You hope. But there's a huge responsibility in that to recognize that you have to treat other people with care. And that saying something like, "You are the disappointment of my life," in a moment of deep emotional stress, they're going to remember that for the rest of their lives. That's not a statement you can just walk back. And I think, mothers, daughters, you go through these cycles of being there for each other and not being there for each other and wounding each other and then being the only person in the world who can lift someone up from, you know, a breakup, getting fired, a devastation. That's the person you want to reach out to.

Chang: Why set this book in 2019, by the way? Because for me, you know, it's so specifically not the present day, but also not that long ago. So what was it about the cusp of the pandemic that you wanted to remind us about?

Tanner : When I look back on 2019, it was this year that felt really normal until all of a sudden it didn't. And I remember there was this period, especially toward the end of the year, where it started to feel like things were about to hit the fan in this really big, scary way. And maybe that's a little bit of an anachronistic thing to say. But now when we look back on it, it was the last year of a chapter in our collective narrative about the world and about so many of our individual lives. And it just had this bonkers energy that I really wanted to try to capture.

In 'The Manicurist's Daughter,' a refugee family goes on after its matriarch's death

Shots - Health News

In 'unshrinking,' a writer discusses coming out as fat and pushing back against bias.

Chang: You know, loneliness became such a theme during the pandemic, but you remind us that there was a lot of loneliness before the pandemic.

Tanner: Everybody around the world was lonely in 2019, too. You sort of thought things were about as bad as they could get, you know, politically, socially, whatever. And then it got so much worse.

Chang: Well, I want to end this interview where I started. What do you hope current 20-something-year-olds come away with after reading your book? What do you want to tell them?

Tanner: You're going to strive, you're going to suffer. It's all going to be OK. You're going to make it even if you only make it with a percentage of yourself that is far less than you thought you would carry on to the other side of it.

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The U.S. Is Rebuilding a Legal Pathway for Refugees. The Election Could Change That.

President Biden is restoring resources and staffing for the refugee program, which was gutted during the Trump administration.

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Two men playing basketball in front of two-story apartment buildings.

By Hamed Aleaziz

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy.

With national attention focused on the chaos at the southern border, President Biden has been steadily rebuilding a legal pathway for immigration that was gutted during the Trump administration.

Listen to this article with reporter commentary

Open this article in the New York Times Audio app on iOS.

The United States has allowed more than 40,000 refugees into the country in the first five months of the fiscal year after they passed a rigorous, often yearslong, screening process that includes security and medical vetting and interviews with American officers overseas.

The figure represents a significant expansion of the refugee program, which is at the heart of U.S. laws that provide desperate people from around the world with a legal way to find safe haven in the United States.

The United States has not granted refugee status to so many people in such a short period of time in more than seven years. The Biden administration is now on target to allow in 125,000 refugees this year, the most in three decades, said Angelo Fernández Hernández, a White House spokesman.

By comparison, roughly 64,000 refugees were admitted during the last three years of the Trump administration.

“The Biden administration has been talking a big talk about resettling more refugees since Biden took office,” said Julia Gelatt, an associate director at the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. “Finally we are seeing the payoff in higher numbers.”

But as the presidential campaign heats up, immigration advocates fear that the gains will be wiped out if former President Donald J. Trump is elected. The former president has vowed to suspend the program if he takes office again, just as he did in 2017 for 120 days.

Mr. Trump has characterized the program as a security threat , even though refugees go through extensive background checks and screening. He reassigned officers, shuttered overseas posts and slashed the number of refugees allowed into the country every year.

The result, when Mr. Biden took office, was a system devoid of resources.

“The refugee program hangs in the balance with this election,” said Barbara L. Strack, the former lead refugee official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

‘Like my birthday’

The refugee program gets far less attention than the country’s asylum system, which is buckling under the weight of millions of new arrivals at the southern border.

The paths to claiming asylum and refugee status are separate. Potential refugees apply for the program overseas and wait there during the screening process. Those seeking asylum ask for it when they step on American soil, and their claims must then wend their way through a backlogged immigration court system.

Mr. Biden has taken a tougher line on asylum in recent months as he faces growing pressure to bring some sort of order to the southern frontier.

The refugee program historically has had strong bipartisan support, in part because it was seen as the “right way” to come to the United States.

Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said in a congressional hearing last year that the process for the refugee program was “sound.” He said he did not view the program as a “substantial” safety risk and said the program’s robust checks stood in “contrast to the chaos we see at the southern border.”

Still, some of that bipartisan support has eroded as the number of people crossing the southern border has reached record levels. Mr. Trump has made his anti-immigrant platform a hallmark of his political identity as he calls for sealing off the country from immigrants — both legal and illegal.

But for people like Machar Malith Geu, who lived in a refugee camp in Kenya for most of his life, the opportunity to come to America felt like his only hope for the future.

It took six years, but his application to be resettled in the United States was approved and he arrived here in February. His new home is in Wichita, Kan.

“Being accepted to come to the United States of America, it was like my birthday again, because I knew I will leave the life of a refugee behind me,” said Mr. Geu, whose family fled what is now South Sudan in the 1990s.

Mr. Geu, 33, said he did not consider making his way to the U.S.-Mexico border and crossing illegally. In recent years, the southern border has seen an uptick in migration from African countries, including Mauritania, Senegal and Angola.

“I never dared to come illegally to America or any other place,” he said. All he was hoping for, he said, was “to stay alive.”

Now, he has applied for a work permit and wants to become a security guard before bringing his wife and three daughters to the United States. While he’s waiting, he has found solace playing pickup basketball with refugees from Sudan and Congo.

After refugees are approved for resettlement, the U.S. government provides funding for cultural orientation classes and connects them to local groups that help them get on their feet with job training, food and housing.

Refugees must apply for a green card within a year of arrival in the United States. Later, they can get American citizenship.

The Biden administration inherited a program that had been stripped to the bone during the Trump years.

Mr. Trump repeatedly warned that refugees were a threat. He said during a 2020 rally in Minnesota that refugees were coming from “ the most dangerous places in the world, including Yemen, Syria and your favorite country, Somalia, right?”

At one point, Mr. Trump allowed states and cities to refuse to accept refugees, a measure that was later blocked in federal court.

The International Rescue Committee said, contrary to Mr. Trump’s assertions, that “the hardest way to come to the U.S. is as a refugee.”

“Refugees are vetted more intensively than any other group seeking to enter the U.S.,” the group said in a statement. “All those seeking to come here must first be registered by the United Nations refugee agency, which identifies the families most in need. The U.S. then hand-selects every person who is admitted.”

By the end of his administration, Mr. Trump had cut the “refugee cap,” or the maximum number of refugees who could be allowed in a single fiscal year, to 18,000 in 2020 and a proposed record low of 15,000 in 2021.

Because funding for local programs is tied to that figure, money dried up fast.

Many organizations that help resettle refugees were forced to close their doors. The officer corps that handled refugee interviews dropped from around 170 to 107 by the end of the Trump administration, according to government data.

“I was feeling pretty demoralized,” Sandra Vines, senior director of refugee resettlement at the International Rescue Committee, said of the Trump years. “I felt like every day I would come into the office and there was another administrative attack on the program. We called it death by a thousand paper cuts.”

The pandemic also contributed to low refugee admissions in the early years of the Biden administration. In the 2021 fiscal year, which included part of the Trump administration, the United States allowed in just over 11,000 refugees. The next year, it allowed more than 25,000.

The Biden administration has worked to rebuild the infrastructure for the program. About 150 refugee resettlement offices have opened around the country, and the number of refugee officers conducting interviews has also increased.

The signs of a more robust refugee program began to show last year when more than 60,000 refugees were admitted into the country. It was a far cry from the limit of 125,000 set by Mr. Biden, but it proved that the program was handling more cases.

Beyond the added resources, the Biden administration has streamlined processing and opened up so-called Safe Mobility Offices in Colombia, Guatemala, Ecuador and Costa Rica to help take in applications from migrants and expand refugee processing from the region.

“A lot of people wished to see the increased admissions sooner, but I think understanding what it takes to make a program successful — those hopes were not realistic,” said Ms. Strack, the former refugee official.

“We’re just seeing the fruits of all of the labor now.”

Read by Hamed Aleaziz

Audio produced by Patricia Sulbarán .

Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy. More about Hamed Aleaziz

Our Coverage of the 2024 Presidential Election

News and Analysis

While President Biden and Donald Trump scored overwhelming victories in primaries in New York, Wisconsin, Rhode Island and Connecticut on April 2, small but significant protest votes in both parties have persisted .

Trump again cast Biden’s immigration record in violent and ominous terms , accusing him of creating a “border blood bath” and once more using dehumanizing language to describe some migrants entering the country illegally.

Biden called a decision by the Florida Supreme Court to uphold a restrictive abortion law “outrageous” and “extreme,” while Trump demurred on taking a clear position.

Biden’s alternatively cozy and combative relationship with America’s business leaders has rippled through the national economy, federal policy and now the 2024 election.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called Biden a bigger threat to democracy than Trump , who has denied his 2020 election loss and praised Jan. 6 rioters. After Kennedy’s stance drew scrutiny, he quickly backtracked.

Trump, who ends many of his rallies with a churchlike ritual, has infused his movement with Christianity .

Covert Chinese accounts are masquerading online as American supporters of Trump , signaling a potential shift in how Beijing aims to influence U.S. politics.

IMAGES

refugee book cover review
10 Books to Help Kids Understand the Refugee Experience
Adult and Kid Must Read: Refugee by Alan Gratz
Book Review: "Refugee: A Memoir"
Refugee Discussion Guide in 2021
Refugee Stories (9781909728486)

COMMENTS

Refugee Book Review
Parents need to know that Refugee by Alan Gratz is a historical novel that braids the stories of three young refugees in three different time periods and settings: 1938 Berlin, 1994 Cuba, and 2015 Syria. The circumstances of all the kids and families are dire, and their journeys are fraught with imminent danger. The publisher recommends this book for kids starting at age 9, but due to the ...
Refugee by Alan Gratz
Alan Gratz is the bestselling author of a number of novels for young readers. His 2017 novel Refugee has spent more than two years on the New York Times bestseller list, and is the winner of 14 state awards. Its other accolades include the Sydney Taylor Book Award, the National Jewish Book Award, the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Award, a Charlotte Huck Award Honor, and a Malka Penn Award for ...
Book Review: Refugee by Alan Gratz
The only reason why someone would not finish Refugee is from heartache! This book follows three children and their families through horrendous times in history: Nazi Germany, Fidel Castro in Cuba, and Assad in Syria (still happening, unfortunately). Gratz shares fictional stories based on real events of how families have been brutally forced ...
REFUGEE
Parallel stories of three different middle school-aged refugees—Josef from Nazi Germany in 1938, Isabel from 1994 Cuba, and Mahmoud from 2015 Aleppo—eventually intertwine for maximum impact. Three countries, three time periods, three brave protagonists. Yet these three refugee odysseys have so much in common. Each traverses a landscape ...
Refugee [Book Review]
Refugee [Book Review] October 20, 2017. Trust me: This is a great read! ... Alan Gratz is the author of a number of books for young readers, including Refugee, Ban This Book, Prisoner B-3087, Code of Honor, Projekt 1065, the League of Seven series, and The Brooklyn Nine. I live in the mountains of western North Carolina with my family, where I ...
Refugee: Full Book Summary
Refugee Full Book Summary. Refugee follows the stories of three different children and their families, each attempting to flee their violent homelands, in different regions of the world and during different decades. Josef and his family flee Nazi Germany in 1938; Isabel and her family flee Cuba in 1994; and Mahmoud and his family flee Syria in ...
Refugee
Josef is a Jewish boy in 1930s Nazi Germany. With the threat of concentration camps looming, he and his family board a ship bound for the other side of the world…. Isabel is a Cuban girl in 1994. With riots and unrest plaguing her country, she and her family set out on a raft, hoping to find safety and freedom in America….
Refugee
Refugee. Written by Alan Gratz. Review by Elizabeth Caulfield Felt. Germany, 1938. Josef's father is arrested for being Jewish and practicing law. After six months at a concentration camp, he is released on the condition that he leave Germany. Josef and his family board the ship Saint Louis and head for Cuba. Cuba, 1994.
Refugee: Study Guide
Alan Gratz's critically acclaimed 2017 historical novel Refugee follows the stories of three child refugees from real international crises: Josef, escaping 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, fleeing Cuba in 1994 on a leaky boat; and Mahmoud, bombed out of his home in Aleppo, Syria, in 2015.A New York Times Bestseller, Refugee has won numerous awards and honors, including the American Library ...
Refugee (Gratz novel)
First edition. Refugee is a young adult literature novel by Alan Gratz published by Scholastic Corporation in 2017.. The book revolves around three main characters from three different eras: Nazi Germany, 1990s Cuba, and modern-day Syria.It follows Josef Landau, a German Jew in the 1930s, who tries to escape Germany to Cuba, Isabel Fernandez, a Cuban girl in 1994, who tries to escape Cuba's ...
Book Review of "Refugee" by Alan Gratz
Sep 29. "Refugee" is a young adult novel written by Alan Gratz, published in 2017. The book weaves together three distinct storylines involving child refugees from different time periods and ...
Refugee Study Guide
Historical Context of Refugee. Gratz's book is deeply rooted in three periods of crisis: Nazi Germany just before World War II, the fallout of the Cold War in Cuba, and the Syrian Civil War following the Arab Spring. The MS , on which Josef is a passenger in the novel, was a real ship that set sail from Nazi Germany to Cuba in 1939.
PDF Review of Refugee By Alan Gratz
Refugee is one of those books that keeps the reader on the edge of their seat with its engaging plot and cliffhangers, while also telling the stories of characters the reader can't help but feel like they know and love. For these reasons, Refugee is a book that will appeal to upper elementary and middle grades students as well as young adults ...
Book Review: "Refugee" by Alan Gratz
TLDR: I recommend this book as a read-aloud for 6th grade and a model for teaching about historical fiction. It's also just an incredible story that should be in all home and classroom libraries (probably 4th grade and up) and should be read by students and adults everywhere. Refugee is an action-packed and suspenseful story with a lot of heart.
A Journalist Went Undercover as a Refugee. It Became an Act of Love
His first book, "The Naked Don't Fear the Water: An Underground Journey With Afghan Refugees," follows his friend and longtime translator Omar (who, like most of the Afghans portrayed in the ...
Review of 'The Refugee System' by Rawan Arar and ...
In The Refugee System, Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald offer an avenue for overcoming the limits of the siloed approaches which direct research on refugees.Situating their work at the intersection of international migration, forced displacement, and conflict studies, they propose a 'systems approach' which 'shows how "refugeedom" - the relationship between refugees, state ...
Book Review: 'The Refugees,' By Viet Thanh Nguyen : NPR
Book Review: 'The Refugees,' By Viet Thanh Nguyen Viet Thanh Nguyen's new collection looks at how it feels and what it means to be a refugee. It's a wonderful group of stories that prove fiction ...
Book Review: The Refugee System by Rawan Arar and David Scott
Book Review: The Refugee System by Rawan Arar and David Scott FitzGerald. Perhaps you've heard the parable of the blind men and the elephant. A king summons blind men from his kingdom and asks each one to examine an elephant. One man feels the elephant's head and says that he's touching a pot. Another man feels the elephant's side and ...
Who Gets Believed? by Dina Nayeri review
The book is instantly gripping, opening with the story of a Sri Lankan refugee known only as KV. He arrived in Britain in 2011 as an asylum seeker with scars on his back and an account of being ...
Book Review: The Refugee System
The Refugee System will interest readers with sociology, political sciences, migration, and area studies backgrounds. For students, the book's entirety or individual chapters can serve as a comprehensive literature review of the field's significant debates.
THE UNGRATEFUL REFUGEE
The author's youthfulness helps to assure the inevitable comparison with the Anne Frank diary although over and above the sphere of suffering shared, and in this case extended to the death march itself, there is no spiritual or emotional legacy here to offset any reader reluctance. 26. Pub Date: Jan. 16, 2006. ISBN: 0374500010.
Refugee By Alan Gratz Sparknotes
1282 Words6 Pages. Refugees are individuals who require more hope to survive than anyone else. In Alan Gratz's historical fiction novel Refugee, he tells the tales of three young immigrants on their quest for asylum. Three children are fleeing their homes in the hopes of finding safety: Mahmoud from Syria, Josef from Germany, and Isabel from Cuba.
'Worry' is a disturbing and honest picture of what it's like to be in
That is the case for two sisters in their 20s at the center of Alexandra Tanner's debut novel, Worry. Jules and Poppy Gold end up becoming roommates in New York City, and they torture each other ...
The U.S. Is Rebuilding a Legal Pathway for Refugees. The Election Could
Machar Malith Geu, left, and Madit Bior, Sudanese refugees, in Wichita, Kan. Mr. Geu lived most of his life in a refugee camp in Kenya, and arrived in the United States in February after a six ...