After the Last Border:Two Families and the Story of Refuge in America

At five years old, Mu Naw found herself running with her family. They and other families were fleeing from the Myanmar Armed Forces. There was no real safety in Myanmar for those who were not ethnically Burmese, and Mu Naw’s family belonged to the Karen (or Kachin) minority and faced oppression. The flight was difficult. Mu Naw’s father, a Christian, had earlier lost a leg to a land mine, affecting his mobility. He and his wife, a Buddhist, frequently bickered. Goudeau notes that Mu Naw’s “parents’ tension is her country’s war in miniature” (3). After several days, Mu Naw crossed the border out of Myanmar into Thailand.

In April 2007, Mu Naw arrived at the international airport in Austin, Texas with her husband, Saw Ku, and their two daughters, five-year-old Pah Poe and two-year-old Naw Wah. Told that the worker for the International Organization for Migration would not accompany them on their final flight, the family knew that Austin was their destination. After living her entire life surrounded by people who looked like her, Mu Naw was nervous walking through the airport. The family was soon greeted by a man who spoke Karen and a white woman. After collecting their belongings, the family was taken to their apartment.

Mu Naw now regretted not taking the love letters from her husband that she had buried at the crowded camp, called Mae La. Mu Naw’s family was among the first to be resettled in the US from this camp. Once at their apartment, their guides showed them the soft beds, furniture, and noted that some food was in the refrigerator and took their leave. Saw Ku locked the door behind them and they heard loud noises around them. Mu Naw had found the ride from the airport dizzying.

World War II, and especially the Holocaust, dramatically influenced US policy for the resettlement of refugees. There were approximately 10 million displaced persons in Europe following the war. In June 1948, the US passed the Displaced Persons Act, which allowed 400,000 European refugees to be resettled in the US.

The previous year, President Harry S. Truman cited the obligation of Americans to accept refugees, noting that this debt was owed to the country’s allies and soldiers. In the aftermath of the war, Americans also had a sense of guilt for refusing to take Jewish refugees fleeing the Nazi regime. Goudeau explains how the passengers of the MS St. Louis were refused entry in Cuba and the US. The boat returned to Europe. While 288 of its passengers reached safety in England, the rest returned to Belgium, France, and Holland. Among the rest, 254 died in concentration camps (16).

Following the war, newsreels depicted the plight of refugees sympathetically. World leaders acted to prevent another such tragedy as the Holocaust. In 1948, the UN was formed and “unanimously ratified the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide” (19) and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The US made resettlement policy a part of its foreign policy. In 1951, the UN ratified the Refugee Convention, which has a nonrefoulement clause forbidding countries from sending “asylum seekers or refugees back to any country in which they face threats to their life or freedom” (20). At this time, the US perceived itself as a country that defended those in need and welcomed displaced and war-battered people (21).

Hasna loved her city of Daraa and its community of friends and neighbors. She especially cherished mornings in her courtyard, which comprised half of her house, with its high walls. The family ate their meals there and it was a place of joy. Marrying Jebreel al-Salam as a teenager, Hasna had a position of respect in the family as the wife of the only brother. She first had two sons, Yusef who was quiet and thoughtful and Khassem who was “all fire and drive” (25).

In those early years of her marriage, the politics of Syria were tumultuous. By 1971, Hafez al-Assad had consolidated power and ruled with an iron fist (25). Jebreel and Hasna, who were not in the ethnic minority of Alawites who ruled the country, chose to stay completely disengaged from politics, yet it impacted their lives. When Hasna gave birth in 1983 to her third son, Amjad, she was unable to breastfeed him and could not get formula because of international sanctions. Amjad died at three months as a result.

In 1987, Hasna gave birth to her first daughter, Amal. Syria had grown more prosperous, as Assad shifted to secularize the state. Hasna was passionate about ensuring that Amal had the same educational opportunities as her sons (27). Hasna had two more daughters: Laila, who was like Khassem with her drive and passion, and eight years later, Rana, who was curious. Amal, who radiated warmth and was religious, finished high school before marrying. However, Laila fell in love with Malek and they insisted upon an early marriage. Hasna made Malek promise that Laila could finish high school. When Laila became pregnant and was badgered by her mother-in-law to do housework despite serious morning sickness, Laila went to her mother. Soon thereafter, Malek and Laila got their own apartment.

Hasna despaired over the limited opportunities for her sons, as the Assad regime saved the best positions for the Alawites and those who bribed them. Many young men were frustrated as a result. Both her sons had to perform mandatory military service, which worried Hasna.

Waking up for the first time in her new apartment, Mu Naw was extremely hot and took a cold shower. It was the first time that she could shower privately and she enjoyed that experience. However, their escorts did not leave enough food. Her girls were hungry and although there was rice, the stove and oven were not functional. There was a cooked chicken and a few apples, which she rationed out to her family. No one came to their apartment and by the following day, there was no food left. When Saw Ku was in the shower, Mu Naw took Pah Poe out with her in search of food. The authorities had given the family $100. Finding a convenience store, she purchased chips, juice, and cake—all that was available.

Mu Naw met Saw Ku when she was 15. Keeping their relationship a secret for one year, they wrote love letters to each other. Mu Naw converted to Christianity when she married Saw Ku and she kept a clean house. Precautions, such as boiling water, were necessary to stay alive in the refugee camps.

The morning of Friday, March 18, 2011, started typically, with the men attending mosque and Hasna enjoying the peace of the late morning. Then, Hasna heard shots and the shouts of a mob. Eventually, all the men in Hasna’s extended family came back to her home safely. There had been a demonstration, with 30 men raising their voices.

The protest had international and local roots. In December 2010, a man set himself on fire in Tunisia, triggering the Arab Spring. Protests erupted in that country and then Egypt, Algeria, and Yemen. Seeking access to jobs and affordable food, the protesters caused the President of Tunisia to flee to Saudi Arabia. The Arab Spring had not yet spread to Syria. Bashar-al Assad vowed to nip any such protests in the bud.

On February 16, 2011, a group of young boys from Daraa used chalk to write on a school wall, demanding that the principal be deposed. The next day, those boys were arrested, tortured, and killed. When their parents went to the authorities, they were mocked: “They were told—in an insult designed for maximum offense—that they should go home and forget those sons. In fact, they should make new sons” (54). The relatives of those boys were behind the demonstration on March 18, tapping into the anger about the murder of those boys but also long-term issues, such as the lack of opportunities for men.

The families of the boys were given a meeting with Assad and demanded the hanging of the officers who killed the boys, the public execution of the head of the secret police in Daraa, and an apology from Assad himself. Hasna’s son Khassem came home from Damascus late that Sunday night to warn his family that he had heard soldiers talk about the brutal retribution that Assad would unleash in Daraa.