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

Mu Naw is a refugee from Myanmar and a friend of Goudeau. The two met when Mu Naw was pregnant with her son. In telling Mu Naw’s story, Goudeau begins with her arrival in Austin, Texas in 2007. Goudeau details the stress of such a transition, including the culture shock for someone who had not lived in a diverse country and the gaps in social services leading to the family’s hunger their first weekend in the US.

At the time of Mu Naw’s arrival, the refugee program was functioning well and there was public support for the resettlement of Karen Christians in the US. Despite that, there was great difficulty in adjusting to life in the US for refugees. When Mu Naw realized that she was pregnant soon after coming to the US, she seriously considered an abortion for economic reasons. The family, already with two young daughters, could barely make ends meet as it was. They had to learn the language and, initially, only low-wage jobs were available to them.

Goudeau recounts Mu Naw’s experiences in Myanmar and the refugee camps in Thailand in stages, highlighting the continued impact of the traumas experienced there. As just a five-year-old child, Mu Naw and her family had to run for their lives and sought refuge in a Thai refugee camp. While Mu Naw did not realize it as a child, her father had forced her mother into marriage after raping her. Thus, Mu Naw’s mother was at times rude to her father and their relationship was volatile. When Mu Naw’s mother left, her father did as well, leaving Mu Naw with her great-grandmother. Once again, she had to flee the camp when forces attacked it.

Crossing back into Myanmar, Mu Naw was sent to live with a cruel cousin after her great-grandmother died. She endured years of abuse and then left with a friend to find her mother in a larger refugee camp in Thailand. While she found her mother there, Mu Naw was angry to see that her mother had remarried and had a daughter. While she loved her sister, she stayed away from her mother’s hut and resented her scandalous reputation. Mu Naw lived in the large, crowded refugee camp for years. Refugees were not allowed to leave the confines of the camp and had to be on guard against disease. Marrying Saw Ku for love, the couple had two daughters at the camp. They applied for resettlement for the sake of their children.

Via the telling of Mu Naw’s story, Goudeau highlights the depression and loneliness of refugees. In Mu Naw’s case, she felt detachment, as though she did not belong anywhere. Her Karen people were stateless and she had been rejected by the Burmese and Thai peoples. Her confidence was impacted, as it took supportive people at her job to make her feel as though she belonged there. She initially had difficulties with relationships, taking her anger out on Saw Ku. However, Goudeau demonstrates the resilience of refugees by documenting Mu Naw’s ability to restore her marriage, to make herself a part of a religious community and a women’s group, and to achieve economic success with the purchase of a home.

Hasna is the other refugee upon whom Goudeau focuses. Providing a chronological account of Hasna’s story, Goudeau offers a glimpse of Syrian life before the civil war. Hasna loved her city of Daraa and her home, taking pleasure in her outdoor space. At the outset of the war, Hasna and her husband Jebreel had two adult sons, Yusef and Khassem, and two adult daughters, Amal and Laila. They also had a teenaged daughter, Rana.

Goudeau then details how Hasna’s world was destroyed by Assad’s attacks and the ensuing civil war. Shaken by the violence and persecution, Hasna helped to get all her children out of Syria and into neighboring Jordan. However, when her son-in-law Malek returned to help his family get out, he was denied re-entry to Jordan. This incident prompted Hasna’s daughter Laila to take her young son back to Syria to be with Malek. A missile then hit Hasna’s home in Daraa, severely injuring her husband Jebreel. Later, Malek was killed, leaving Laila, now with two young sons, in Syria. She and her children experienced repeated traumas in their escape from the country. Through Hasna, Goudeau presents the effects of complex trauma on human beings.

With Assad resorting to chemical weapons, more Syrians fled the country. As that happened, Jordanians began to lose patience with the immigrants. Hasna realized that her family was only one or two years away from being consigned to a refugee camp. With the sole motivation of protecting her extended family, Hasna went through the resettlement process. Goudeau explains the thoroughness of the vetting process by recounting the interviews of Hasna, Jebreel, and Rana. Hasna repeatedly confirmed the promise of family reunification: If she became a refugee in the US, her adult children and their families would get priority.

Arriving in the US in 2016, Hasna had no idea that the US was about to elect Trump and dramatically change its immigration laws. Defining Muslims as antithetical to American identity, the Trump administration abandoned the policy of family reunification and instituted a travel ban in 2017. Without her adult children, Hasna was the only adult able to work in her family. She was limited to low-wage, physically demanding jobs. There was still not enough money to pay the bills, a reality that made her family dependent upon charity. Although adjustment to life in the US was difficult, Hasna nonetheless stayed positive, communicating with her children daily, praying for them, and resolving to find Rana a husband so that she would find happiness in this new country.

The husband of Mu Naw, Saw Ku married her for love in the refugee camp. Mu Naw regrets not taking their love letters with her when she left the camp, an incident that stresses how refugees are forced to leave so much of sentimental value behind.

Once in the US, Saw Ku had a more difficult adjustment than Mu Naw. He did not take to languages the way Mu Naw did and struggled with English. As a result, his work opportunities were limited to low-wage, monotonous, and physically demanding jobs, such as cleaning hotels. His frustrations led to difficulties in his marriage with Mu Naw, with him leaving at one point. Even with a loving marriage, the trauma experienced by refugees and the challenge of resettlement place strains on relationships. Here, Goudeau shows the emotional costs of the stresses associated with making a life in a foreign country.

However, Saw Ku was more often a supportive partner to Mu Naw. Despite their economic struggles initially, they welcomed their son into the world with happiness. When Mu Naw was depressed about the betrayal of her friend who called her lazy and refused to help her settle a financial dispute with the apartment manager, Saw Ku gave Mu Naw confidence. He told her that she could handle the matter herself and she did. After Mu Naw’s mother died, Saw Ku was there to support her. Ultimately, he committed himself, as Mu Naw did, to restoring their marriage.

Jebreel is Hasna’s husband. He came from a close-knit extended family in Daraa. After marrying Jebreel when she was a teenager, Hasna assumed the traditional role of homemaker. They had three sons, Yusef, Khassem, and Amjad. Their youngest son, Amjad, died at three months. Later, the couple had three daughters, Amal, Laila, and Rana.

The family was a loving one. However, Goudeau demonstrates how the tensions of the war invaded the couple’s relationship. They bickered constantly in Jordan and Jebreel exploded at the prospect of Hasna applying for the status of refugee, even though she had to do so to keep Rana enrolled at school. Hasna regretted her treatment of her husband at one point, again demonstrating that the trauma strained relationships and changed people’s behavior.

When Jebreel was injured in a missile attack, he was treated in Jordan at no cost. Goudeau here both describes the pain and suffering of one person and invites the reader to multiply that by so many victims. Once in the US, Jebreel, who was disabled and many years older than Hasna, had a difficult adjustment. Hasna observed that his world was shrinking as he turned inward, suggesting that some refugees struggle to adjust completely to their new home.