The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You

” —The New York Times Book Review"Nayeri weaves her empowering personal story with those of the ‘feared swarms’ . .

Her family’s escape from Isfahan to Oklahoma, which involved waiting in Dubai and Italy, is wildly fascinating . .

Using energetic prose, Nayeri is an excellent conduit for these heart–rending stories, eschewing judgment and employing care in threading the stories in with her own . .

” —Star–Tribune (Minneapolis)Aged eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel–turned–refugee camp. Eventually she was granted asylum in America.

She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton University. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers in recent years, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement.

In these pages, a couple fall in love over the phone, and women gather to prepare the noodles that remind them of home. Nayeri confronts notions like “the swarm,” and, on the other hand, “good” immigrants.

She calls attention to the harmful way in which Western governments privilege certain dangers over others. ” —Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Sympathizer and The Refugees