“With the keen eye and sharp pen of a reporter, Agus takes us around the world to meet mothers, fathers, [and] children displaced from their homes. Now, more than ever, this is a book that needed to be written and needs to be read.”
—Ali Noraani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum and author of There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration
“Morales notes [that] those who live on the margins are not even refugees, often seeking survival without the UNHCR, internally displaced people whose stories we need to hear, whose lives we need to remember. . . a must read.”
—Dr. Westy Egmont, Professor, Director of the Immigrant Integration Lab, Boston College School of Social Work
Before We Begin . . . . . . . . . . . ix
“We Are Not Refugees” . . . . . . . 1
Part I
Origins: Why Are They Fleeing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Bin Laden, Refugee, Afghanistan and Pakistan . . . . . 15
A Doctor Is More Dangerous Than a Fighter, Syria . . 28
Plastic Bottles, South Sudan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Part II
Flights: Who Are They? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
In the Shade of a Turkish Lemon Tree,
Salwa and Bushra, from Syria . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Because of an Iranian Accountant,
Nesime, from Afghanistan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
The Forgotten lake Kivu, Birihoya, Julienne, and
David, from the Deomcratic Republic of Congo . . 88
Part III
The Camps: Where Do They Live? . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
The City of Refugees, Zaatari (Jordan) . . . . . . . . . 105
Open-Air Prisons, Malakal (South Sudan) . . . . . . . . 114
The Spirit o fhte Migrant Shelters, Ixtepec (Mexico). 125
Part IV
Routes: How Do They Travel? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Waiting for the Beast, Central America—
The United States
The Route of Shame, Turkey—Greece—The Balkans. 164
Libyan Waves, Mediterranean Sea . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Part V
Destinations: When Do They Arrive? . . . . . . . . . . 201
A Ticket to Limbo in Refugee Class,
Central African Republic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
The Refugee Parliament, Tibetans in Exile . . . . . . . . 233
The Last Border, Syrians in Europe . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Acknowlegements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
