Migration from Colombia: My Interview With Fernando Gamboa

Interview with Fernando Gamboa

by William Finch

Oral Narrative

My interview with Fernando Gamboa was among one of the more memorable academic events that I was blessed to have while in attendance at James Madison University.  During my time with Fernando Gamboa, I learned a lot about his migration to the United States of America from Colombia.  Throughout the interview, I gained valuable insight into the views and opinions of one of this state’s—and this country’s—many Latino immigrants. I will divide the rest of this text into several distinct sections to help explain his journey and views as an immigrant living in America.  This particular interview occurred on March 12, 2018 on the campus of James Madison University.

 

Migration and Cause(s):

Fernando Gamboa left his hometown of Bucaramanga, Colombia following the footsteps of his father in February of 2001(Where-is-Bucaramanga-map-Colombia.jpg).  His father left in search of better economic opportunities here, securing an H-1B visa to work in the United States.  He was a systems engineer and technician back in Colombia and found work through one of his relatives by working at their local travel agency.  While Fernando and his family left Colombia in seek of better economic opportunities, some fled due to the violence of the Colombian drug cartels.  These cartels, along with the communist Colombian paramilitary groups ELN and FARC,

“began target[ing] the civilian population during the 1990s through mass execution, enforced disappearances, mass displacement, and torture.  Additionally, the conglomerate of paramilitary groups, AUC, [was] involved in drug trafficking and [had] committed numerous human rights abuses, including sexual violence against women, restrictions of freedom of movement and recruitment of child soldiers.” [1]

This forced many people to find a safer home in other nations.

 

Religion:

In my interview, Fernando Gamboa told me that he was not practicing a religion, and thus was not religious.  He told me that his family grew up Catholic and that he was briefly raised Catholic, but that he no longer practices a religion.  However, he still says that he participated, and participates today, in occasional religious activities with his family.

 

Education:

Fernando Gamboa was five when he arrived in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  His formal schooling began here.  He was a public school student of Harrisonburg.  He states that his experience in this school atmosphere was enjoyable and for the most part, unproblematic.  After reading an article entitled, “‘Just Like Me’: How Immigrant Students Experience a U.S. High School,” I think that he may have had a better experience in a school teaching English through collaborating with other students who may have been in a similar situation.  As Jennifer McCloud states in this article, “[p]artnering within someone ‘just like [them]’ [is] significant,” as it helps to construct “relationships with other English language learners.”[2]  Most importantly, this gives these students the unique “opportunity…to enter into the school’s social and institutional context as English language learners.”[3]  This may have played a small role for Fernando as he was very young when he started to learn English.  Yet, it may have played a much larger role for those incoming student-immigrants who needed help or for those who are currently in the ESL programs.  Fernando could have provided this type of assistance to help these non-English speakers learn the language.

 

Policies:

In regards to policies on immigration, Fernando believes that the United States government should abandon institutions like ICE and the Border Patrol.  He believes that the actions of these groups have become increasingly violent and too powerful.  He states that ICE can detain people for over twenty-four hours with no reason or questions asked.  He believes in a more open form of immigration as a better and easier path to citizenship.  Also, soon after he arrived in the United States, the September 11 attacks happened.  These attacks greatly changed the policies of the United States.  Under the Bush administration, the 2001 Patriot Act and the DHS “imposed significant hardships on the millions of people who have applied for entry into the United States, or who have already gained entry.”[4](sand-dune-fence.jpg)

 

Racism and Discrimination:

After asking if there were any racist encounters between him and other Americans, Fernando responded that there was one particular occasion after 9/11 where he and his father were encountered by a man who inappropriately and intrusively asked Fernando’s father about his identity.  He also remembered attending a rally in which racism was prevalent.  While these are the only two encounters that he recollected on the day of the interview, he believes that the United States is still an incredibly racist nation that it has been exclusive of non-white people, such as the majority of the Latino community.  He also finds it very problematic that some people are rounded up by ICE simply because they look brown or appear undocumented.

 

 

[1] Whitney Drake, “Disparate Treatment: A Comparison of United States Immigration Policies Toward Asylum-Seekers And Refugees From Colombia and Mexico,” Texas Hispanic Journal of Law and Policy 20 (2014): 132.

[2] Jennifer McCloud, “’Just Like Me’: How Immigrant Students Experience a U.S. High School,” The High School Journal 98, no.3 (2015): 269.

[3] McCloud, 269.

[4] Thomas W. Donovan, “Immigration Policy Changes After 9/11: Some Intended and Unintended Consequences,” The Social Policy Journal 4, no. 1 (2005): 34.

Transcript of Interview with Fernando Gamboa

William Finch: Today I’m here with Fernando Gamboa, interviewing him. It’s 5:20, March 12th, 2018.

 

Finch: Hi, Fernando. How are you?

 

Fernando Gamboa: I’m doing well. How are you?

Finch: Pretty good. Pretty good. Now, can you tell me your name, age and, uh, where you’re from?

Gamboa: Um, I’m Fernando Gamboa. I’m, uh, 22. Uh, I grew up in Harrisonburg, um, but I’m from Colombia.

Finch: You’re from Colombia. Now what part of Colombia?

 

Gmaboa: Uh, Bucaramanga. It’s like a city in Santander, which is like the department, I think is what they’re called.

 

Finch: Okay.

 

Gamboa: …the state.

 

Finch: Okay. Now, what about your childhood, now. Where were you, were you educated originally in Colombia, were you educated primarily here?

 

Gamboa: Um, I guess like I’m, I came here when I was five, um, so I went to like preschool and like, that’s about it in Colombia, and then I just went to like Harrisonburg City schools and now I’m here.

 

Finch: Okay. All right. And, uh, did you grow up with a religion, if you don’t mind me asking? Um, are you still religious, do you still practice that religion?

 

Gamboa: Um, I am not. So I do not. Um, my family, I guess, is Catholic, like a bunch of peo- like a bunch of, I guess, Latinx people are. Um, and I guess I was like raised Catholic. Like I went to church, um, up until I was like halfway through high school then I jettisoned the whole like religion thing…um, my parents are like, what I, I generally like to call it Catholic light.

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: They just only sometimes do church things, ’cause a lot of other stuff gets in the way.

 

Finch: Okay. All right. And how did you come to the United States?

 

Gamboa: Um, we flew here in 2001. Um, my dad had a specialty workers visa, it’s one of like the H … is it like the H-1B, I think is what it was. Um, and then we were like on the, I guess like adjacent visas, it’s like H, H-something, for like spouses and dependents. Um, and so like we flew here February 2001…and yeah.

 

Finch: And can you explain those, those visas? I mean, what are the different types of visas-

 

Gamboa: Um …

 

Finch: … for those who don’t know?

 

Gamboa: I guess, um…H1 is a specialty workers’ visa. Um, so it’s like…I guess, yeah. I guess special workers’ visas are for like computer jobs and stuff,and there are other types of visas, there are visas for, um, people who are like part of like the judicial, like, stuff if they’re like a victim of a, a crime, there’s visas for, like, celebrities, there’s a bunch of different kinds of visas, I guess. I’m not super well versed.

 

Finch: Okay. All right.  And, uh, did you live, you know, somewhere else before Harrisonburg when you, when you came to the United States or was Harrisonburg the first location that you went to?

 

Gamboa: Um, no, so like we came here right away. Um, my dad had, or has I guess, my godfather, it’s like my godfather’s cousin’s husband owned, owns, I guess owned, ’cause that company is no longer around, owned the company that my dad, uh, started working for. He came here on a tourism visa, found a job and then we came here follow, uh, like, following him after. Um, he, like, changed his visa status-

 

Finch: Okay.

 

Gamboa: … from tourism to like the specialty workers’.

 

Finch: And what was that job, if you don’t mind me asking you?

 

Gamboa: Um, it was something to do with old, like, real–time sharing, like vacation company that was around here. Um, and so, I think he like, he did something with computers ’cause he’s a systems engineer, um, er, back at home in Colombia, so, um, it was like working with the computer stuff.

 

Finch: Okay. All right. And, uh, I guess you’ve already, you’ve already answered most of this, but how did you end up finally here in Harrisonburg with the, your father.

 

(04:15) Gamboa: Yeah. So, my, yeah, my dad found, um, yeah he got that job, uh, or, yeah, got hired by that company while he was here on a tourism visa, um, and then we just kind of followed suit.

 

Finch: Right. Okay. And what was Harrisonburg like when you got here? What was it?

 

Gamboa: Um …

 

Finch: Was it friendly, hostile, was it …

 

Gamboa: I mean, I don’t, so I was like five-

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: … um, so it’s like kind of hard to sort of tell. Um, I mean, so like, when we first got here it was like before 9-11, obviously, ’cause it was, um, February 2001. Um, so it’s like kind of interesting to sort of like hear my parents talk about the, like, flying before that versus like then now, like flying afterwards and then some of like the, so like responses other people had to like brown bodies post 9-11, um, we were like in DC at some point and, um, my dad who’s just like, I don’t know, he’s like a brown dude with like curly black hair, um, some guy like stopped him and like demanded to know where he was from.

 

Finch: Wow.

 

Gamboa: ‘Cause he’s like, looked like, I don’t know, someone who could be like, potentially have been a terrorist.  Um, so it’s like those sort of things, but that’s like, obviously not like Harrisonburg itself. Um, growing up and like the city schools and everything was like all right. Harrisonburg’s always like–there’s a lot of people of color here. Um, and, uh, I guess the way like the city is like, was sort of like built, it’s like there’s a huge Mennonite population like the Eastern, I think the Eastern Mennonite University does a lot of stuff of like, um, immigrants and it’s just sort of like a, this, like the people that prescribe to that religion to my understanding, are like this, those kinds of people are very like open and like welcoming to others. Um, I don’t know, it’s like a, just like a pretty nice place to be around.

 

Finch: So, in general, accepting.

 

Gamboa: Yeah.

 

Finch: Have there, have there been troubles, um, for you, I mean I kno- I know you mentioned your dad.

 

Gamboa: Um …

 

Finch: That encounter.

 

Gamboa: Yeah. I mean, like, personally not really other than like with trash people here at the University. Um, I remember there was like uh Senator Gutierrez, um, from, I think it was like some district in the Illinois, I don’t know, came here, um, to talk about, uh, immigration. We had a rally, uh, in Court Square with him there.

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: And there was like some a**holes that like were being loud, like, while they were driving by. Like, nothing like super, at least to me like, to myself and my family have not experienced anything that’s like, um, viscerally violent.

 

Finch: Okay. All right.

 

Gamboa: …of our immigration status.

 

Finch: Right. Okay. Um, and currently do, do you hold a job right now-somewhere?

 

Gamboa: Mm-hmm. Yeah, I work at Staples. Um-

 

Finch: Okay.

 

Gamboa: … uh, I worked at Martin’s before that, or at some point for two weeks. That was no fun.

 

Finch: *laughs*

 

Gamboa: Um, um, but no, yeah. I have a job.

 

Finch: And how have the … How have those jobs been, how … are there, are there other people of, um, Latino descent working those jobs or have those jobs?

 

Gamboa: Um, used to, there was like … I mean like, no. Uh, at least in my department at the store, I’m the only person of color. There’s a bunch of other white dudes that work there.

 

Finch: Wow.

 

Gamboa: Um, the staple, like the store at large has a bunch of, uh, people, I mean it goes in and out, just people like are hired and quit or going to do something else, but, um, our, like I think the general manager is Egyptian. Um, they’re, and they’re like, no, like some … yeah. There are just people of other ethnicities that work there. Um, not entirely sure of like everyone’s migration status-

 

Finch: *laughs*

 

Gamboa: … but I can, I’m like, I’m, I would be pretty confident to say I’m like the only non-citizen that works there.

 

(08:55) Finch: Hmm. And how has Harrisonburg changed since you moved here? Changed a lot?

 

Gamboa: Mmm, it’s gotten bigger. So like-

 

Finch: Bigger?

 

Gamboa: … yeah there’s a lot more people here. It’s like, sort of, like the whole overcrowding problem, like, the schools have right now. It’s gotten a lot bigger, it’s gotten a lot more brown. Um, there’s a, there’s a huge influx of like, uh, there’s a larger Kurdish population, um, that’s here, um, and like the demographic’s just like gotten, um, a lot more diverse. Um, when my brother graduated high school, um, like, I guess one of the things they talked on at the, his Commencement, uh, ceremony was that there are a l- like it’s over 100 countries or something that are represented at the high school. Um, most are like there’s a large percentage of students there that speak more than two languages.

 

Finch: Okay.

 

Gamboa: Um, that are more than just English and Spanish. Like, the, um, a bunch of different dialects or like people that speak a bunch of, a lot of different languages. This is just a very diverse, um, city. And that’s the sort of interesting, sort of to see that juxtaposition between like Harrisonburg itself, and then like JMU, ’cause JMU is like very white, very rich…

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: …compared to like everyone outside the bubble.

 

Finch: Right. Um, and you mentioned that you’re part of the debate teams-is that right?

 

Gamboa: Mm-hmm.

 

Finch: Right, what, what other organizations are you’re part of right now?

 

Gamboa: Um, I, I guess I would say I’m in a JMU Feminist Collective, um, and then, but, I guess I’d like to be more involved with, uh, JMU NAACP Chapter, but, um, like work has gotten in the way of being able to go to General Body Meetings…um, I’m trying to think. I guess the Society of Physics Students. Um, that’s just sort of like if you’re in the major you’re in, with, in, that organization.

 

Finch: Okay. And so, I mean, I don’t know if you could answer this, but what are the plans for those organizations for the future, um, specifically more the, the cultural ones…

 

Gamboa: Yeah.

 

Finch: …and the political ones.

 

Gamboa: Sure, um, I guess the NAACP, I’m not entirely sure I’m not on Exec, I’m like a General Body member. Um, I’m not entirely sure what their sort of like mission is outside of JMU, um, I know they do a bunch of stuff- like sort of like outreachy sort of things, they do some community service, um, for Martin Luther King, there’s like a breakfast, they had, I think, like a … what’s it called? Like a, a gala sort of thing and festival for that, um, up- upcoming, they have, like, Image Awards, so like you sort of like nominate people for, um, in some essay competition, uh, for that. The Feminist Collective, that one’s a kind of interesting, um, they’re sort of like, I guess, figuring out how to be more, uh, like, sort of have more Praxis, instead of just sort of like sitting and theorizing or talking about things, um, trying to find more instances where, um, there’s like opportunity for doing things with the community or sort of, um, yeah, like making spaces more avai- uh, like accessible to people.

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: Um, because right now it really is mostly just like a, like a meeting to go to, uh, once a week. Um, and there’s like some stuff like I know during Sex Positivity Week, we sell, like, penis and vulva pops, um, to sort of like promote sex positivity.

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: Um, uh, for … In the past they’ve done like, um, things with the One Billion Rising on Valentine’s Day, which is a sort of like, uh, movement around, uh, the world against sexual assault. Um, I’m trying to think. When Project Condom comes around, um, we enter, I think, like, um, I don’t know, it’s like a fashion show where you build a costume out of condoms. Um, I made the one for last year, that was really fun. Um, I guess it’s a more, I think everyone is attempting to, like, sort of reach outside of JMU, but it’s just kind of hard.

 

Finch:  Right.

(13:56) Gamboa:  I think this is a sort of disconnect or sort of an, um, like a gap in people’s ability to do things more than just around them, because it’s like kind of hard to do that as just students.

 

Finch: Right. Right. Um, in more broader terms, what do you see as the future for, uh, the, the current Latino population that’s living here?

 

Gamboa: Um, I don’t know. So there’s a bunch of organizations, right, there is like GOSPUS um, which I think that was the Salvadorian organization, um, that does stuff, um, but I don’t know if there’s like, there’s like, I guess New Bridges Immigration Center, like there’s a lot of, um, a lot of st- a lot, a lot of like different organizations. I don’t know if they like, any one like central goal that anyone is like trying to go towards. Um-

 

Finch: Right.

 

Gamboa:  It also like, I guess sort of problems I get, um, if it’s like questions about immigration that’s like sort of necessary to understand that, um, not all Latinx people are immigrants, not all immigrants are Latinx.

 

Finch: Okay.

 

(15:12) Gamboa: Um, ’cause they’re sort of like large, so there’s large groups of, um, mostly like, I well, not mostly, that’s like are Mexican, Americans that are like the border across them, right? Um, when, when the, you, like the southern border of the US got drawn, they were people who, it was Mexico, 55 of Mexico got turned into the US. It’s sort of like those people then became American by virtue of where they happened to be living at that time…um, and then, um, also sort of like, yeah, not all immigrants are Latinx and, um, it’s sort of like a problem and when people discuss immigrant issues and like the needs of immigrant or like the needs of immigrant populations, they sort of only ever focus on Latinx issues, because it’s like, yes, there is a lot of, Latin- a large of a large portion of Latinx, of immigrants are Latinx, but, um, there’s a host of issues that other communities, other people in the immigrant commun- in like immigrant communities face that aren’t addressed or like are focused on, because the overarching narrative is of that of like a Latinx immigrant.

 

Finch: Okay. Uh, this next question is … it starts kind of small but it’ll expand, um-

 

Gamboa: Mm-hmm.

 

Finch: So, what are the changes, um, that you currently like see in Harrisonburg and then, second part of the question is much broader, what are the changes you’d like to see, uh, in the nation in general, and you can speak on immigration if you want to, you can speak on any issue, um, that, that you think has affected you or those around you-

 

Gamboa: Mm-hmm.

 

Finch: … like that is really important to you.

 

Gamboa: Yeah. Um, I guess, I don’t know insofar as like Harrisonburg because there’s not, like, Harrisonburg is very much like a pro immigrant city, right?

 

Finch: Right.

 

Gamboa: Like those, um, I been, it would have been nice, or like nice to see, I guess, in like the current climate sort of like, things like moves to be more of like a sanctu- like, uh, things like becoming a sanctuary city. Um, and taking effects to do that…um, I think the more pressing issues like the sort of like nationwide, so like how policies change, right, so like, um, ideally, just like abandoning ICE and like border, and border patrol. I think those things are unnecessarily, um, violent and-

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: … kill people. Um-

 

Finch: Right.

 

Gamboa: … uh, sort of like ending deportations, um, sort of moving away from like citizenship as, um, the sort of barrier to be able to access public goods. So, um, yeah, like open migration sort of things. Um, because at the end of the day like, this is stolen land. It’s, um, I think really hypocritical for like white people to stand here and complain about immigration, because, um, they stole this country. Like, they kill- killed a bunch of people, um, in order to create this, um, this, like, this nation, um, and then, are then hurt because brown people come. Because at the end of the day, like, a bunch of that shit’s just like racism.

 

Finch: Yeah.

 

(18:40) Gamboa: Like, people are racist. Like, I think it’s really telling, um, uh, when like recently when South Africa sort of I guess voted to take back land that was taken from, like, Africans by f**kin- colonizers, um, that a bunch of like racist people want, uh, like special attention to be given to, um, white South Africans. It’s like, they only really care about them because they’re white, not because they’re like immigrants or that they even need anything, because at the end of the day the, those are the same people that were, that like, there are the colonizers, they’re the ones that caused all this f**k s**t to happen to people of color, um, around the world. So-

 

Finch: Yeah.

 

Gamboa: … and, uh, I guess as a nation like I would love for the US to stop being, I don’t know, I think it’s like unnecessarily an, a violent body that does f**k s**t abroad and domestically, um, to people of color all around the world. Um, I don’t know. I don’t like the US. The US is like-

 

Finch: There are a lot of problems here.

 

Gamboa: There are a s**t ton of problems.

 

Finch: Yeah.

 

Gamboa: Primarily caused by angry white dudes.

 

Finch: I would agree with that. Um, so I mean, adding to that, what do you think of the rhetoric, uh, specifically in terms of the, you know, regarding the issue of immigration in the public sphere? I know you sort of touching on this, um, if you want to add to that.

 

Gamboa: Um, I guess like the rhetoric that’s been used around immigration is sort of like a long sort of like, it was like, has been constructed to be that way, right, so like the sort of, um, the construction of like the criminal immigrant, the criminal immigrant? Yeah, like crimmigration, um, with like the categorization of an illegal immigrant since like the creation of the Chinese Exclusion Act, um, that sort of like creates a…cl- a classification of person that is not deserving of being here. Um, really based on them not having been born here or not coming here the right way…um, so like, sort of moving away from, like, calling people illegal, um, which is just like violence in and of itself, but then also that justifies a bunch of f**k s**t from happening. So like, it’s like Operation Blockade and, or Project Blockade an Operation Hold the Line, sort of like Clinton era, uh, border enforcement that happened along like border cities of San Diego and El Paso, so like in California and Texas, that sort of literally militarized the border and forced people to, um, stop crossing in urban areas and to go enforce it and sort of funnel them to the desert. The sort of ways that the like policymakers, uh, were talking about that as like sort of, um, prevention by deterrence, uh, sort of making it really difficult and dangerous for people to come into the country…uh and then sort of justifying the deaths of those people both, um, in the desert in Mexico, but also, uh, in the US by saying that they’re criminal and that there was just a necessary, that that’s just an inherent risk that they took coming into this country illegally, um, when those are just like artificial constructions because they don’t want brown people to be there or be here.

 

(22:19) Finch: Right. And adding to that, what, I mean, so out of curiosity, I’d like your opinion, your input on this. Uh, what do you think they should do about the border?

 

Gamboa: Um, get rid of that s**t-

 

Finch: Okay.

 

Gamboa: … like a border is unnecessarily a violent institution. Um, yeah, no, like, I think the open borders, I think like the border fences, like … It is asinine to think that you can do that. It’s sort of misunderstanding of like how the geography and topography works-

 

Finch: Right.

 

Gamboa: … um, in the border lands, um, and like the Sou- yeah, in the south, like the south, the southern border of the US. Um, and sort of like the hyper, um, militarization that’s happened to it, like that s**t needs to go, right? Like get rid of border patrol. Um-

 

Finch: Seems to create a lot more violence.

 

Gamboa: It really does. It, um, kills a bunch of people, uh, that it doesn’t need to, and shit like getting rid of, or like preventing, there’s like militias, um, just like white dudes that have nothing to do, but like, attack brown people. They go around and round up people that look brown or look undocumented and will turn them in to ICE.

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: And they ride around in like SUVs with like AKs, just like militarizing the border on their own accord outside of any sort of like governing body. I think that sort of stuff needs to not happen.

 

Finch: Okay. And I wouldn’t happen to be well versed on this, but is, does ICE have a large presence here in Harrisonburg?

 

Gamboa: Um-

 

Finch: …you can finish eating, don’t rush.

 

Gamboa: Um, there’s a … Yeah, there’s an ICE office here-

 

Finch: Okay.

 

Gamboa: … um, people have been picked up before. Uh, I know in the past there’s been a sort of like, ICE detainer that gets placed on someone so that, um, you can be held more than 24 hours after like being pulled over for something, and it gives, um, ICE the, like, time to be able to, like, check whether or not that person is in the country, um, like as, has like, is authorized to be in the country. Um, so there is that. Um, sometimes I know there’s been raids at, I think that poultry farms, like the poultry, uh, poultry processing plants that are around here. Um, but I personally have not seen like ICE agents. But then again, pigs look the same regardless of what they’re wearing. So.

 

Finch: Yeah, and they seem to, just from my understanding, from what I have discovered from class and that is, uh, we’ve watched, seems that this country continues to do that and then the people that they need working in these plantations or these, these farms, like these chicken factories and stuff like that happen to be people, uh, you know, some people of Latino descent who are willing to put in a lot more effort than-

 

Gamboa: Yeah.

 

Finch: … a lot of people here.

 

Gamboa: Yeah. I mean, white people don’t want those jobs. Um, they don’t think, they think they’re above it.

 

Finch: Right.

 

Gamboa: Um, and don’t do that. And that’s sort of like, it is a job that no one wants to do sort of like leads to exploitation of very vulnerable populations because they don’t-

 

Finch: Yeah.

 

Gamboa: … want to. Um, I guess I’m also not super big on a fan of like justifying having immigrants here to do jobs that white people don’t want to.

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

(25:46) Gamboa: Um, was I, it’s like I don’t know if it was like post election or pre election, uh, what’s her name, well, Osbourne’s daughter, Kelly, whatever her name was. She was like, “Donald Trump, who’s going to wash your clothes if you deport all the undocu- like all undocumented people, something like that. And it’s just sort of like thinking that that’s the only thing we’re good for is like not the case. Um, like, we are not, we’re not here to be like sec-…second class citizens, not here to, um, do your laundry or pick your fruit or like kill your chickens. Um, so like here to f**king live.

 

Finch: Yeah.

 

Gamboa: Um, and sort of only wanting people to be here for those reasons, um, just, again, sort of like adds to the kinds of violences that we experience, because it then sort of … What happens to the people that aren’t willing or aren’t able to work low like, um, low skill jobs, or people that aren’t like the valedictorian from their high school that got into Harvard on a full ride? Right? It’s, there’s sort of like a gap between their deserving-ness, um, to be in the country.

 

Finch: Right. Yeah. It seems very, uh, seems very dehumanizing to consider immigrants as only, uh, yeah, people of exploitation.

 

Gamboa: Or a commodity. Yeah.

 

Finch: It seems like, it is very exploitive and, yeah, it’s awful to see that, uh, seem to be dehumanized very quickly when they come here.

 

Gamboa: Mm-hmm.

 

Finch: Um, so what would you like people to know, I mean, from this interview, from this story? Are there any final thoughts, um, any other opinions you want to share?

 

(27:36) Gamboa: *laughs*. Yeah. Um, I guess like things like the Dream Act are good insofar that, like, they have material benefits for people. But they’re bad insofar that it, again, sort of plays into like, uh, undeserving-ness or like an exceptionalism narrative of immigrants. Like the only people that deserve to be here are not just like the valedictorians or the people that are like working hard or came here of their own, like, not of their own accord, like, or against their will. Like the sort of people, like myself that, like, qualify for DACA stuff, right?  Because those sorts of policies unnecessarily exclude people like our parents who should get to be here, because they worked super f**king hard to be here, um, and didn’t do anything, um, to not be here…other than like be born in a country that wasn’t this one and was honestly probably f**ked up by the US or other white people. Um, they’re like, a long process of colonialization, and like economic exploitation, like … right, so like, sort of moving away from those things and seeing like we are not free until everyone is free, um, and do stuff like that…Also, um, so like sort of, there’s an, I think there’s a, there’s a very strong need to sort of move past dreamer narratives and sort of like, “We are all Dreamers.” No, we are not all Dreamers. Um-

 

Finch: So what does that new narrative in your mind look like?

 

Gamboa: I, I just don’t …

 

Finch: Like the rhetoric of it?

 

Gamboa: … just like, I … I don’t know. I think that’s like, that’s like super layered-

 

Finch: Mm-hmm.

 

Gamboa: … right, ’cause I think it’s a product of, like a long history of colonialization that’s happened in this country. I don’t think that can-

 

Finch: Right.

 

(29:24) Gamboa: … I don’t think that necessarily can happen, um, without like fixing a bunch of other issues. Um, moving on from that, I guess it’s also important to like, I think vilify the Democratic Party, they don’t give a shit, they never have, they never will. Um, they didn’t, they don’t want to help us. The only thing they’re doing is seeing potential voters, uh, at the end of the line…um, like a bunch, or like, uh, like the sort of holding a ho- or attempting to hold the country hostage in order, um, in order to get a DACA deal, um and just not actually being able to do anything or not… pressing hard enough.  They only care so much as to like be, do things that are put on paper, right, like Clinton was the one that passed a bunch of border security, or border security legislation in the ’90s. Obama deported a bunch of people, more than, I think like Clinton and Bush combined. Um, loved deporting women and children, um, he’s like a piece of s**t, like, it’s important to understand that no one at, like, I’m very hard pressed to believe that any politician actually cares about immigrants, um, because at the end of the day they don’t really have to, um, and we’re always sort of a population that is like pushed on to the sidelines. It’s like we have to do these things, and then we’ll figure out immigrants. But there is always something that gets pushed to the top of the docket before we’re ever considered in anything. Um, so it’s sort of like fore-fronting our needs and like people have to start caring about people as people, or like thinking it, seeing people as people before like they can do anything. Otherwise we’re just like the people who are going to clean your clothes and pick your, pick your fruit.

 

Finch: Yeah. It’s very problematic. Anything else you’d like to add?

 

Gamboa: I don’t think so.

 

Finch: Okay. All right. Well, this concludes my interview with, uh, Fernando Gamboa. This is William Finch, 5:50, March 12th, 2018.

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download

Arsalan Syan: The Refugee Experience

Interview with Arsalan

by Maria Matlock

On the 24th of February 2018, I interviewed Arsalan Syan, an Iraqi-Kurdish refugee and case worker at Church World Service refugee resettlement office in Harrisonburg, VA, as part of the Immigrant Harrisonburg project conducted by Dr. Morales’s History of Immigration to the United States course at James Madison University. This project seeks to collect oral history interviews of immigrants to Harrisonburg, VA, and document their experiences of immigration, resettlement, and life in the United States.

Arsalan agreed to do this interview after I reached out to Church World Service, asking if they had anyone who had immigrated to Harrisonburg who would be interested in participating. Arsalan hoped that by sharing his story he could help people gain a greater understanding of the refugee experience in America, and help foster more compassion and understanding towards them. As a case worker with a refugee resettlement agency, and as a refugee himself, Arsalan is familiar with a wide range of issues that impact refugees to the United States and is thus an extremely useful resource for modern immigration patterns and experiences.

Going into the interview, I must confess I did not know that much about Iraq, or even the Kurds. As such, when I conducted the interview I didn’t ask as many questions about Iraq that may have been useful for future historians. The purpose of this piece is to help anyone using this interview as a resource to understand the historical context that Arsalan grew up in, and to help them understand what led to some of the immigration policies he’s personally dealt with. Below is a timeline of Arsalan’s life alongside one of major events in Iraq, which are explained in more detail below.

Timeline of Arsalan’s life alongside a timeline of major events in Iraqi history.

To help orientate the reader to the cities discussed in this piece, I have made the below map which marks where the cities of Kirkuk, Erbil and Baghdad are.

Early Life in Iraq:

Arsalan was born into a Kurdish family in Kirkuk city, Iraq in 1969. The Kurds are a stateless ethnic group that form minorities in Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran.[1] They have faced persecution in Iraq, and have tried for decades to assert their independence and establish the country of Kurdistan (the land of the Kurds). This desire for independence, much to the chagrin of the Iraqi government, has over the last few decades led to several violent confrontations between Kurdish nationalists and the Iraqi government in the northern part of the country.

Arsalan was born a year after the Ba’thist party, which had carried out a campaign of “Arabization” in the mid- 1960s that had displaced several thousand Kurds, had taken control of the Iraqi government. In order to preserve their fragile hold on the government, he party had negotiated a ceasefire with the Kurds in 1970, and had recognized the rights of Kurds in an interim constitution that year. It was a short-lived peace though, and hostilities between the two resumed in 1975. During this war, 600,000 Kurds were displaced and sent to collective settlements, while over 1400 Kurdish villages were obliterated. In Kirkuk, the Kurdish population was reduced and replaced by Arabs.[2] During my interview with Arsalan, he mentioned that he did not grow up in the city he was born in (Kirkuk), but instead spent his childhood in the city of Erbil, which is further north.

Arsalan was ten years old when Suddam Hussein became president of Iraq, assuming the role after his cousin, Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, had stepped down. Facing threats to his power from Shiite Muslims in Iraq, the Kurds in the north, and from Iran, Hussein started the disastrous Iran-Iraq War in September of 1980 in order to curb Iranian influence in the region.

Saddam Hussein circa 1979, the year he assumed the Iraqi presidency. Photo credit: Wikipedia.org

Young Adult Life in Iraq:

During the war, Iran supported the Kurdish resistance in northern Iraq, which prompted retaliation from Hussein in the form of the Anfal (Spoils) campaign against Iraqi Kurds in 1987.[3] The campaign involved the destruction of hundreds of Kurdish villages, with the use of chemical weapons in many villages, and the clearing of Kurdish civilians to holding facilities.[4] Human rights investigators estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 Kurds were killed during this campaign.[5] The violence only stopped after eight years of fighting between Iran and Iraq. After fighting each other to a stalemate, the United Nations brokered a ceasefire on August 20th, 1988, and Iraq was left economically drained, and in debt.

Possibly to counteract some of the economic difficulties that Iraq faced, on the 2nd of August 1990 Hussein invaded Kuwait. Arsalan had recently begun his studies in engineering at the University of Baghdad when this conflict began. The international community condemned the invasion and called for Hussein to withdraw. When he refused, a US-led coalition began an areal bombardment campaign against Iraq, which started the Gulf War (17 January-28 February 1991).[6]

Along with the bombing of Iraq, the coalition also cut power and water lines to the capital city of Baghdad which made conditions in the city so horrible that Hussein risked an uprising. As a final effort to draw the coalition into a ground war, where Iraqi forces could hopefully beat them, Hussein set the Kuwait oil fields on fire on February 22, 1991.[7] This proved disastrous, as the Iraqi forces were crushed by the coalition who drove back the Iraqi forces on the 25th of February 1991. Iraq was forced to surrender, and on the 28th of February, UN resolution 687 laid out the terms for a ceasefire and placed restrictions on the Iraqi government. Under this resolution, Iraq was required to destroy all their weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and submit to UN investigations to show their compliance.[8]

There was relative peace in Baghdad for a time after the war, and Arsalan was able to graduate in 1992 with his degree in engineering. Soon after he began working as the head of the mechanical department in the Ministry of Municipalities and Tourism in Baghdad, helping to rebuild the infrastructure of Iraq. In 1993 he married his wife, Sakar Mahmood, and began to raise his family. While living in Baghdad the couple had four sons: Sivar, Danar, Renar, and Ali.

 

The Iraq War- Arsalan begins work as a translator:

It wasn’t long before war came to the country again, however. In the wake of 9/11, United States President George W. Bush claimed that Iraq was continuing to produce WMDs, and that they were aiding the terrorist organization Al-Qaida. Against the advice of the international community, Bush issued an ultimatum to Hussein on March 17, 2003: Leave Iraq willingly in 48 hours or be removed by the US military.[9] Hussein did not comply, and on March 20th the United States military invaded.

The force swept rapidly through the country, taking the capital city of Baghdad on April 9th. By December 13, the US had apprehended Saddam Hussein, turning him over to the Iraqi forces in June 2004. He was convicted of committing crimes against humanity and was publically executed on December 30, 2006.

Following the deposition of Hussein, the Bush administration approached Nouri Kamilal Maliki, a Shiite politician, and convinced him to run for prime minister. As a political unknown, the Bush administration felt that he would help to curb the growing sectarianism between the Sunni and the Shiite.[10]Maliki was successfully elected as prime minister in May of 2006, and helped ease the conflicts between the Sunnis and Shiites, along with several other key factors. One factor that helped bring more stability to Iraq was the “Surge”. In response to the growing unrest in the country, and to help the country transition into democracy, President Bush committed another 50,000 troops to Iraq in January of 2007.[11]It was during this time that Arsalan began working as a translator for the US military based in Baghdad.

Lunch with Military Personnel and Families with the Prime Minister of Iraq. Photo credit: The White House Archives

The Bush administration and Pentagon officials hoped to keep US forces in Iraq past 2011, as the country was still in a fragile state and Maliki was beginning to show sectarian tendencies that concerned them. However, when Barack Obama was elected to the Presidency in 2008, the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq was one of his priorities. In 2009, Obama officially announced that all US troops would be recalled from Iraq by the end of 2011.[12]

With the Obama administration’s gradual withdrawal of troops, and without the Bush administration keeping restraint, Maliki began to consolidate his power and displayed strong bias in favor of Shiites. These actions deeply concerned officials at the Pentagon, who strongly urged Obama to keep a residual force in Iraq. Obama did not, and in the spring of 2011 the United States military fully disengaged from Iraq.[13]

The Rise of ISIS and Migration to the US:

With all restraints gone, Maliki began a violent crackdown against Sunni Muslims in the government and military. This sparked outrage from Sunni Iraqis, and led them to enlist the support of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIS) and former Ba’thists in 2014. Together, this combined force took Fallujah, Mosul, and Ramadi. Maliki revived the Mahdi army to try and combat this force, but was crushed by the opposition. Obama was forced to order 300 military advisors back to Iraq to deal with these developments.[14]

As the war against ISIS continued, Arsalan was finally granted his Special Immigration Visa (SIV) thanks to a program established by the Bush administration through the National Defense Authorization Act of 2006. This act authorized the issuance of fifty Special Immigration Visas to Iraqis or Afghanis who had served as interpreters for the US forces, and who met certain requirements. The Bush administration recognized the dangerous risk that many translators like Arsalan took in aiding the US forces, as they became targets of extremists who accused them of aiding the US occupation, and so established this program to provide them an avenue to the US. Under this act, any Iraqi or Afghani translator who had worked for the US forces at either the Baghdad or Kabul embassies for at least a year could apply for an SIV.[15] When this program was made known to Arsalan in 2007, he reached out to the US ambassador at Baghdad to see how he could apply for one.

Arsalan was one of the lucky few able to obtain one of these visas, although it took him nearly ten years to receive it. In November 2016, he and his family boarded a plane for Washington, DC, where they continued on to settle in Harrisonburg, Virginia. On this visa, he was treated as refugee, and the Church World Service refugee resettlement office helped him and his family settle into the US with a government stipend and with assistance in procuring a job.

Arsalan’s experience with the United States refugee program is typical of many. While the government assistance helps tremendously, he did mention that many refugees do not get enough assistance in learning the English language. In his view, this is one of the biggest hurdles for refugees, and can inhibit their ability to find work and get through the system. He was lucky, in that he was already familiar with English, but many others struggle immensely with it. Another issue with the refugee program is that it does not provide health insurance beyond the initial three months, which becomes an issue of great anxiety for refugees who otherwise cannot afford it.

Arsalan’s interview provides powerful insights into the experience of refugees in the United States, through his discussion about his work as a case worker at a refugee resettlement office. He is also a valuable source of information for events that occurred in Iraq and led to the establishment of the Special Immigration Visa Program. Future interviews could yield more useful information for historians.

 

[1] “The Time of the Kurds,” Council on Foreign Relations, October 4, 2017, accessed April 14, 2018, https://www.cfr.org/interactives/time-kurds?gclid=CjwKCAjw2dvWBRBvEiwADllhn-lWPGdaz2vF0hY3osX_NT-J-AplWTIRn_0LAOgnfUdqU0VT3-Z34BoC2FIQAvD_BwE#!/time-kurds?gclid=CjwKCAjw2dvWBRBvEiwADllhn-lWPGdaz2vF0hY3osX_NT-J-AplWTIRn_0LAOgnfUdqU0VT3-Z34BoC2FIQAvD_BwE.

[2] Phebe Marr, The Modern History of Iraq (Westview Press:2012) 233-237.

[3] Phebe Marr, 298.

[4] Martin Van Bruinessen, “The Kurds Between Iraq and Iran,” MERIP Middle East Report, no. 141 (1986), 14.

[5] Phebe Marr, 300.

[6] Daniel Beers, PhD, “The New Humanitarianism: “New” Wars of the 1990s,” (lecture, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, March 15, 2018).

[7] Phebe Marr, 334-335.

[8] Daniel Beers, PhD, “The New Humanitarianism: “New” Wars of the 1990s,” (lecture, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA, March 15, 2018).

[9] The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, “Iraq War,” Encyclopedia Britannica (Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.: December 6, 2017) Accessed April 15, 2018, https://www.britannica.com/event/Iraq-War

[10] Losing Iraq (PBS:2014) Accessed April 16, 2018, https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=96579&xtid=114698.

[11] Phebe Marr, 451.

[12] Losing Iraq (PBS:2014) Accessed April 16, 2018, https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=96579&xtid=114698.

[13] Losing Iraq (PBS:2014) Accessed April 16, 2018, https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=96579&xtid=114698.

[14] Losing Iraq (PBS:2014) Accessed April 16, 2018, https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=96579&xtid=114698.

[15] U.S. Department of State- Bureau of Consular Affairs, “Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) for Iraqi and Afghan Translators/Interpreters,” U.S. Visas, accessed April 18, 2018, https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/immigrate/siv-iraqi-afghan-translators-interpreters.html

For a more detailed history of Iraq and US immigration policy, view the research paper produced for this project, Historical context-Arsalan Syan

Maria Matlock: 00:01 This is Maria matlock interviewing Arsalan Syan for the
immigration, uh, 439 immigration history course at Jmu. OK. So,
um, uh, when, and where were you born?
Arsalan Syan: 00:19 Kirkuk City in Iraq. A in nineteen- nineties, uh… 1969.
Maria Matlock: 00:27 And, um, did you grow up there or did you grow up somewhere
else?
Arsalan Syan: 00:27 Excuse me?
Maria Matlock: 00:34 Was that the, the place where you grew up, where you had you
spent your childhood or did you grow up in another place?
Arsalan Syan: 00:39 Yeah, I grew up in Erbil cities, a city around one hour distance
between my own city, and other city. Uh it’s called Erbil City.
Maria Matlock: 00:49 OK. Um, and what was it like living there? What was it like living
there?
Arsalan Syan: 00:56 What was like,
Maria Matlock: 00:58 yeah, I’m like, what kind of experiences did you have living? Um,
in that place?
Arsalan Syan: 01:04 You mean my graduation and my experience or?
Maria Matlock: 01:08 Yeah, just like, um, what was your childhood? Um, like. Um,
what kinds of things did you do as a kid? Um you know where,
did you go in that city
Arsalan Syan: 01:18 when? Uh, when I first six years I started the study and uh, uh, I
completed, uh, my engineering degree dsc engineering in
Baghdad city, that’s the capital of Iraq. It’s far from my city
around three, maybe five hours driving.
Maria Matlock: 01:18 That’s a long drive.
Arsalan Syan: 01:53 I thought, “I will stay in Baghdad, not moving daily, so it’s just
stay there and
Maria Matlock: 01:53 [Arsalan’s wife comes in] Hi
Arsalan Syan: 01:53 I, uh, this is my wife, by the way. She’s named Sakar.
Sakar Mahmood: 01:53 Hi

 

 

Maria Matlock: 01:53 Hi, how are you?
Sakar Mahmood: 01:53 I’m nice, thank you.
Maria Matlock: 01:53 I’m Maria, it’s nice to meet you.
Sakar Mahmood: 01:53 Nice to meet you.
Maria Matlock: 02:08 Um, let’s see. Um, so what did you study when you were in
school? You mentioned engineering earlier.
Arsalan Syan: 02:19 Yes, I just uh, After I graduate high school, I joined with the
university that I studied, mechanical engineering, general
mechanical engineering. And I graduated at 1992. Then after
that I started working my job. So I work with the government,
uh as the head of the mechanical department, in the ministry of
municipalities and tourism, and I spent it the around 23 years,
but I moved to different places, like a different position higher
than that, What I started. But the last job that I, [coughs] Sorry. I
was a deputy of general director. The ministry after that, I
supervise at the 120 meter, as I mentioned to you before we
start, I think that’s the biggest road in urban city.
Maria Matlock: 03:30 Right and how did you meet your wife? When did you get
married?
Arsalan Syan: 03:30 We married at 1993.
Maria Matlock: 03:38 And um, how did you meet her?
Arsalan Syan: 03:40 Actually, uh, uh, me and her cousin. Uh we was student in
university together and we have a far relation with this family.
But, I didn’t meet her before. I just meet with her cousin, and
we are students together. I feel that this family is a good family.
So I can find someone from this family that’s going to be my
wife for future. I ask him if, uh, they have a year, like a to
compare with my age is going to be OK with me. And he offered
to me, uh, his cousin, uh, because his wife, a sister with uh, my
wife, so he say that uh, uh, we have uh, my cousin and you
come speak her, and if you on if you feel that you can, Eh,
interesting together you kind of do the process. And I meet her
one time in the marriage ceremony. I feel that I am interested
with her. So we start the process. And we married. yeah.
Maria Matlock: 05:00 And You said that you had four children earlier.
Arsalan Syan: 05:00 Yes.

 

 

Maria Matlock: 05:04 Um, how old are they and what are their names?
Arsalan Syan: 05:10 Uh the old one, His name’s Sivar. He’s 24 years now and he’s
working like a team leader in Shenandoah Grows. And the next
semester, on the summer semester he was starting his study in
a college community, that’s in Blue Ridge.
Maria Matlock: 05:10 Ok.
Arsalan Syan: 05:29 Yeah in Bridgewater. And then my other son who’s named
Danar, he’s 22 years. He’s already student in the college, uh
Blue Ridge uh, what you call it? college. uh Besides his study, he
is working on the weekends in Marshall as a forklift driver. And
the other one, his name is Renar, he’s 16 years now. uh, Sixteen
years. Ah, he’s a great kid in high school. Harrisonburg high
school. And Ali, he is the small one, and he is uh only seven
years. And he is in Smithland elementary school, grade one.
Maria Matlock: 06:13 All right. Um, so when did you leave Iraq?
Arsalan Syan: 06:17 I leave Iraq a actually, I arrived at United State on the twenty-
nineth, uh November 2016.
Maria Matlock: 06:28 Ok, Um, so right in the middle of the presidential elections.
Arsalan Syan: 06:30 I have uh, uh, because we, we, uh, we have a special
immigration visa because after we arrived with united, because
after two weeks or maybe three weeks, we received our green
card. So we are permanent resident now.
Maria Matlock: 06:48 Um, so what was it like coming in here during that time in
America? It was a very fraught political time. And especially with
um like the, the candidates that we had.
Arsalan Syan: 06:48 Um, I don’t understand your question, excuse me.
Maria Matlock: 07:06 Um, so what was it like seeing the elections going on here in the
us? like um seeing now President Trump and Clinton going
against each other in the election? um like, what were your
reactions to that?
Arsalan Syan: 07:22 Uh, I think that’s not the effected on us, because when we
arrived he had not started to be a president. After we arrived,
then he uh a president of the United States is a political

decision, is sometimes is difficult for us as a refugee. But the, I believe he sometime speak something going to, uh, after that, uh, it’s something would be changed. So he, uh, maybe change

 

his mind sometimes. I believe it’s a little confusing for us
sometimes, when he make a decision. And after that it’s going
to be clear, uh, the change of decision. In the beginning when
he, uh, when he, uh, president, he decided to get out all non-
United States resident to outside. But after that he changes that
plan to, for example, people who’s coming so big already on
there legally they can’t stay. But only the people who is not
coming, uh, like a closing border the yellow, they have much
anymore in the United Stated. And I don’t know if this is the
things that they use them sometimes for like people like us.
Maria Matlock: 08:57 So what made you decide to leave Iraq? Why did you leave
Iraq?
Arsalan Syan: 09:05 Uh, we have, I forget to inform you that I worked at the, uh,
behind the United States army and I serve as the United States
army in our country, more than one year as a translator and
interpreter. Uh, so, uh, there is a law in united state, I believe is
that any county that the United States army to go to that
country and use the Army, and any people who leaving this
country help the United States army for more than one year
they have a right, and um their family, to get the visa and the
immigration process through to move to the United States after
the United State army leave that country. So after 2007 when
the United States Army is moving to outside, with the president
George w Bush when he make a decision the time, uh, after
that, uh, this immigration processes was open for people
whose, uh, was uh, working with the United States army, so I
just a send an email to the United States embassy in Baghdad
and I requested, for me and my family, our situation after the
United States Army moved. We are feeling, we are not safe in
this country anymore. So they make a decision and the forces
after that, we moved to the United States.
Maria Matlock: 10:44 And um, did you come straight to Harrisonburg or were there
other areas that you stopped in?
Arsalan Syan: 10:44 No, straight directly to Harrisonburg.
Maria Matlock: 10:44 Ok.
Arsalan Syan: 10:52 And I mean the fly when we, uh, arrived to Washington dc, and
directly to, uh we not stay in Washington DC, we direct to
Harrisonburg.
Maria Matlock: 10:52 What made you decide to come here?

 

 

Arsalan Syan: 11:05 I actually, we have no aid here before we come. Uh, which city
is better than the other in the United State? I, I just researched
something to find which city is more safe, more comfortable for
us. But the, actually we have some, uh, like a Kurdish
community here. In Harrisonburg.I hear that. And uh, we have a
relative, his name Uhmed, he was live here before we come and
he told me about this. This is area is fairly safe, and very good to
people who’s coming new. And jobs available, easier than other
places. Uh, uh, that’s why we decided to come to the city that
there’s some Kurdish people like a community with us. In the
beginning, you know, it’s not easy to go to the other country
and you not find in the city Anyone speaking your language is
going to be difficult. Uh, but, uh, anyway, uh, he was like, our
US tie with us and help us in the beginning, first month to find a
house, uh and Church World Service also provided services,
medical services for us. But he’s also helped with the two
biggest of our sons to the schools and health insurers. Um, uh,
that’s, it’s like a relative. It’s good. Better for us.
Maria Matlock: 11:05 Um, so, um how did you start working at the CWS?
Arsalan Syan: 12:55 Um, actually when we arrived with the United States, the CWS
provided many, many things, uh, services for me and for my
family. Like you’re finding house for us, furnishing the house,

provides food, help us to register for the food stamp in the beginning before you start to work, and they help us to find a job for me, for my sons, for my wife. In the beginning I worked in Ariake, because it’s, you know, when you arrived to other like United States you cannot find a job for. I have BSC degree in engineering, but I believe that’s not easy for you to find a job equivalent to my experience, so I decided to start any job available in the beginning to …to get some income for me and my family and I work at as a mechanical, uh mechanic operator in Ariake, but after two, three months I feel that this job is very hard to me because it was a night shift starting from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM. All the night. It was very hard job. Then I, eh, feel that I’m not healthy and I visited a doctor. He told me, you cannot continue with this job so you have to move to other positions. After that…that this job actually not CWS find to me. Social services, because I applied for ten-up also. So they provided this offer to me, eh but I told them that I cannot do this job anymore. And they try to find some position, like a cargo marshall. I feel that this job also is maybe it’s not. Then I decided to find a job by myself. I searched through the internet, and try the civil cases. And then finally I find the job is filling a machine operator, a second shift in Andrews, uh, Andrews Food North of America. Uh, I feel that this position is OK me, especially working at a computerized, and you can by the

 

computers control the machines and it’s easier and closer to my
experience. So I started seven month, eh, working there. And
they’re finally, Lucia, I think you know her, she’s a caseworkers
in CWS. She’s called me and she offered to me that there is a
position available that case worker for Polish, Arabic, and
English language. If I am interested in, I can go on and fill out
the form and apply for this position. Then I decided that this
position is OK with me, uh, and it’s office work, not that hard
like uh planned places. Uh, so I decided to go and fill out the
form, and eh make the interview. And then they decided that
I’m qualified for this position. And it was supposed to be a
temporary job for three months. After the, eh during this
agreement, if I prove it that I am qualified person for this
position, they make a decision to be available to employ for that
long time and staying with them. After two month, not three
month, they decided that I’m qualified for this position.
Maria Matlock: 12:55 Oh, that’s great!
Arsalan Syan: 16:56 So they make the decision, eh yeah, that I’m staying be a regular
full-time employee with them as a case worker.
Maria Matlock: 17:00 Ok, and what do you do as a case worker?
Arsalan Syan: 17:04 As a case-worker I am, um, working on the RMP, RMP
replacement and the replacement of placement. That’s a
position is there for the people who’s new coming on the first
three month we provide on… uh, before they come, we
know…we get a notification that, the capacity of the family,
how many, and if they have a disability or they have uh big kids
or small kids… daughter, son. We, we, we know everything
about this family. Uh, then we try to find the house for them.
We have some sources, like agencies help us as the CWS to find
the house, compare with the capacity of the family. And then,
for example, if they have a disability, we know not find an
apartment on the third floor, for example. We have to think
about all these issues, uh, uh, after we find the house or we do
a, like a, an inspection for the house to see if it’s healthy or not.
Uh that’s our responsibility. And after we make sure that the
house is ok, we make an agreement with uh, the uh, land
owner.
Arsalan Syan: 18:22 And then, uh, we furnish a simple furnishings that require to the
family, like a sofa, like a kitchen table. Uh, the kitchen should be
available with all the things that are like to open and you no,

[coughs] excuse me, the simple requirement. It should be available like the eh hot water, cold water, electricity, a heating system, the AC system should be available in that house. And

 

then we provide a depot one day, uh, before they come. Uh,
we, uh, we bring some foods are going to be like a, a normal
foods you’re using for one week or two weeks or keeping in the
house for the family. And in the day that they arrived, eh, we
have to go to the airport to escort him to the house. Sometimes
we not do that, we waiting an hour or… this because IOM
arrange these things with us, uh, for example, a renter to
provide the transportation for them to our office and we are
awaiting them on in our office, so when they arrived we just
introduced ourself as a CWS, and we are the case worker who’s
covering their cases. Then we pick up with the house and we
explain everything to him that said, for example, the open
house. How is the house working? Every details of the house, if
it’s um, if they arrived in the night we not take a long time with
them because, you know, we feel that they are very tired,
maybe because they have a long trip.
Arsalan Syan: 20:15 So we just give him some simple things. And then there we have
a next-day visit. The next day is very important and it’s required
for us as a case worker to make sure that everything is OK with
them. So the next day we’re going to visit him to see if they
need anything, that they are all healthy or they need some help
there, emergency things. Also that you signed the agreement
between the landlord and the newcomer. And also we, uh, uh,
be given to him some cash money in case they need it, that’s
also required. Per adult is 50 dollar, per child is 25 dollars. That’s
maybe simple things they need. And then, uh, within seven days
we have to arrange an appointment with him, let’s call it, uh,
orientation, uh, the family they are, we pick up into the office
and we have several people that’s working in different fields like
education, like a help, like a job, like a community.
Arsalan Syan: 21:38 So we meet together with this family on each one, provide the
service that he’s specialized in. For example, you have uh

Megan, she’s specializing in the accounting issues. And Sara, she’s in education. If they have a… kids that need to go to register to the school Sara is going to help them. If they need a, for example, for Medicaid and other issues, uh, Megan, she’s responsibility. For the food stamp in the beginning because they have no job for the … because, uh, also they need, uh, uh, some, uh, like a help, like a food stamp. So a that’s my responsibility to fill out the form. And also we have to register the, and make an appointment with the social security administration to get them social security card. That’s my responsibility also. And uh, we have to enter another appointment with the social services. That’s one, the staff for snap and food stamp and if they need to apply for the tenant.

 

Arsalan Syan: 22:46 So you have to arrange also another appointment. That’s all the
things that we have to do in the first week. Uh, we another
program, we call it the MIC. That’s for the parents who have a
kids say under five years, uh, we have to apply also for these
services. Also beside that, we have a match grant, that’s a
matching grant. That’s the other program. It’s also a CWS
provided to the family before they start the job. But it’s a little
like… a complicate. If he applied for tenant, he cannot apply for
the matching grant. If he apply for matching grant he cannot
apply for [tenant]. So we had to organize these thing eh with
that family. And uh, we explain everything to him to make him
understand that the, which one they, they decide to involve
with. Eh, also, I forget eh during the orientation, we do explain
everything to that family about the United States, about the job,
about how money is, how much is important the job in this
country to, people have to work and they have no disability
toward a up the. We have another visit, a family visit. It’s before
30 days. I think I’m speaking a long time.
Maria Matlock: 24:18 No, you’re fine.
Arsalan Syan: 24:18 It’s ok?
Maria Matlock: 24:18 Yeah, absolutely.
Arsalan Syan: 24:21 OK. Because I want to explain everything to you.
Maria Matlock: 24:24 No, that’s absolutely fine. It’s good to like here exactly, like, how
you’re helping these people getting settled here.
Arsalan Syan: 24:34 Yeah, yeah because I believe it’s very important for the people
to know what we are doing at the CWS. Um, after, uh, before
thirty day we make a, like a home visit, next home visits to the
family to make sure that everything’s OK with them. And then
the unit this time our colleagues register those kids to the

school if they required or if their ages are OK with the school. Um, uh, we invite the in the household or like a mother and a father to our office if they have a kid’s over 18. They need to, they need to starting job. So we tried to find a job for these families, on some of them online. Some of them is a, uh, like a face visiting to work with a place and apply for them until they get the job. Then, uh, we just, uh, provide the, if they need in case any other issues, help. Uh, and we also decided that we have a one person, she’s a responsible to, eh, learn them how the transportation to the city, for example, if they need anything, any places they do like a training for him, for the transportation, how they use it. And they provide the ticket. Is pretty good for them, for the beginning to not spending their

 

money. It’s like a service now, CWS provided. After that, when
they passed three months they changed it, they transfer it from
the RMP to RSS. RSS, if they, you know, they are not much
involved with a match grant we not providing and not give them
any other money. Uh, but just we, uh, help them to, if they need
a job, we’ve helped them. If they need the uh, any health issues
we can help them. And also about the education, in case they
need any other extra help, we can help them for this. That’s our
responsibility.
Maria Matlock: 26:52 That’s great! Um, so, so when you came here to the United
States, were there any culture shocks when you came here? Or
was there anything that really surprised you?
Arsalan Syan: 27:03 Actually, it’s not surprised me a hundred percent because of,
you know, I worked with the United States army in our country,
and, uh, during my job with them as interpreter sometimes we
would, uh, like a friendly, we speak together. And I learned how
the people living in the United States how, for example, how
much they have to pay for rent, how much they have pay to use
electricity, the internet and all these things. I collect some
information before we arrived, but. But it’s, you know, it’s not
like people, eh speaking something and you go into the place
and see what’s happening there. It’s totally different.
Maria Matlock: 27:03 Yeah.
Arsalan Syan: 27:03 You understand what I mean?
Maria Matlock: 27:03 Yeah.
Arsalan Syan: 27:55 It’s a little bit surprised but a too much. But maybe it’s a
surprise for, for other people. Who’s not having communicate
with United States people before going to be like a totally
different.
Maria Matlock: 28:20 Yeah. Have you liked living in Harrisonburg? Have you felt
welcomed in this community?
Arsalan Syan: 28:29 Yes. I like Harrisonburg so much. It’s a very quiet city. The
people here is very nice. I like to be on, also is good for like a,
for the family. It’s a very good area to live and I decided, also
uh, decide that I’m now starting to process to buy a house for…
Maria Matlock: 28:29 Oh Wow!

 

 

Arsalan Syan: 28:51 myself on my family because you know, decided that we
staying here, and we prefer to stay in Harrisonburg, not that
other places in United States. So we staying. Yeah. We decided
to stay here.
Maria Matlock: 29:09 That’s great! See, so you mentioned that there’s a pretty strong
Kurdish community here.
Arsalan Syan: 29:09 Yes.
Maria Matlock: 29:13 So, I know that last year there was a referendum about Kurdish
independence. How did the community react to that?
Arsalan Syan: 29:13 I’m not understanding what you mean?
Maria Matlock: 29:23 Um, so last year there was the referendum on Kurdish
independence. How did the Kurdish population, like the Kurdish
community in this area feel about that?
Arsalan Syan: 29:35 Uh, actually, uh, it was, uh, uh, we communicate with each
other about the independence referendum, it was easy for us to
apply. It’s a online so we just register and apply online to say yes
to independent. And we applied. Me, my wife, my sons.
Maria Matlock: 29:59 And you all voted for independence?
Arsalan Syan: 29:59 Yes. I like independence.
Maria Matlock: 30:06 Um, So what was it like when you found out that, uh, they
actually weren’t granted their independence?
Arsalan Syan: 30:13 Ah, I’m not understanding what you mean?
Maria Matlock: 30:16 Um, so I believe in the referendum they ended up not getting
independence. So how did that feel seeing them not getting
that?
Arsalan Syan: 30:29 Well, I feel sad about that. Because, uh, uh, you know, the, the
referendum is a, like a first step, the first step that the people
who’s living in the same places that they are decide to be
independent with the other parts. It’s like, our right. It’s our
right to say that’s our dream. But if the political situation in the
world is against this decision, that’s not our fault.
Maria Matlock: 30:29 Yeah.

 

 

Arsalan Syan: 31:03 That’s the work the for that and not accepted the this uh, uh,
it’s a democracy process. So we applied a democracy process to
get the independent with other parts of Iraq, that’s our right.
And we not say that we are going to eh, use a military for this
issue. Just we have a vote. So I think totally is democracy for us
to ask the world to accept that we are a Kurdish people, we
have a dream to be independent with other part. Especially, you
have a totally different culture, different language, uh,
everything we are different, not like other people, so we have a
right to have a independent, and to have our flag in there, in the
United Nations.
Maria Matlock: 31:58 Um, so do you think that they’ll maybe have another
referendum on that? Or do you think independence is still
something that they can have?
Arsalan Syan: 32:05 Eh, Kurdistan people make it a referendum and they register,
they voted for the firm. So I believe it’s not needed to do that
another time. Because already it’s available, and registered, and
all the world know that uh, uh, around eighty or eighty five
percent of the Kurdistan people, they have a dream to be
independent. So I believe it’s not necessary to do this process
again. Even even if, uh, if we do that because you, it’s
complicated. Because, uh, uh, Kurdistan, the big country of
Kurdistan, it was a separated after the Second World War. To,
four places, four countries. So part of us with Iraq, part of us
was the other part of Syria, and the other Turkey, and the other
Iran. I believe if we, uh, make another referendum that’s not
only for our part. Is going to be like a majority for all the Kurdish
people in the world. In those countries, together. And maybe
it’s going to be useful also to do, another referendum, but
including all the parts together.
Maria Matlock: 33:30 Yeah, so how has the conflict in Syria affected, uh….like have
you gotten any refugees from Syria in recent years? Or what
kind of, what areas do the refugees you work with come from?
Arsalan Syan: 33:40 Actually, after I started working there is no refugee coming new
um, from uh, Iraq or Syria. Only I received one refugee, who is

also on a special immigration visa from Afghanistan. The family’s from Afghanistan, uh, they arrived 2017 to December. So only this family I recieved now. But uh we have a newcomer. But during this time there is some family from coming, but they is from Cambodia, from Eritrea, or from other places, not in Middle East.

 

Maria Matlock: 34:20 Yeah, So do you think that has something to do with President
Trump’s travel bans? Or maybe just the growing, um, hostility
towards refugees from that part of the world in this country?
Arsalan Syan: 34:38 I believe yes, Mr. Trump effect it. Effective to not the people
coming from Iraq or Syria or the Middle East, totally. Uh, maybe
that’s his decision effected negative on people, and it’s not
going to be easy for people who’s a already applied to come to
United State. And they have a right, because the law of the
United States that allow him to, to come to United State
because, uh, they have, uh, cases, um, it’s approved already.
And there’s many, many cases approved from the Special, eh,
special agencies that are responsible for that. But uh, maybe I
believe it’s a Mr. Trump’s, eh Trump’s decision that these
people is not coming anymore, and that’s affecting negatively.
Maybe. Because some people need really to come here to the
United States. They are not safe in these countries. Yeah.
Maria Matlock: 35:50 Well, I believe that’s all the questions that I have. Um, let’s see.
Is there anything that you would like to talk about? Like maybe
your experiences either in Iraq or here in the US?
Arsalan Syan: 36:03 We’ll, uh, for the people that I believe when they arrived to the
United States there is two challenge. The first one is the
language and the second one is the health…health insurance.
That’s, two things is like a challenge for everybody. If he came
from any other country he have to face-to-face with these two
challenge. Especially the language, if you… the key to, to the
language is the key to, to, to be a part of this, uh, country. To
understand, to communicate with people. So I prefer, and I
suggest is also to CWS, to make focus on this issue for the
people, especially when they come to the United States in the
beginning and they have no language. They have no skill to
speak English. So, uh, but it’s not easy to find, like a special
places to learn English. There is some places like a Skyline, like
other businesses in the JMU, you also.
Arsalan Syan: 37:37 Last year it was some classes, but this is not available. I’m not
happy with that. Last year there was a semesters for the people
who’s coming. They just pay $25 per semester. It’s was, uh I was
very happy with that service available at JMU, but I don’t know
why this year they decided to not the provide the services to
the refugee. Uh, from there I asked him again…ask the JMU to
open this service to the refugee because it’s really important.
Excuse me…
Maria Matlock: 37:37 Oh, it’s fine!

 

 

Arsalan Syan: 37:37 [Speaking to his son, Ali, in Arabic]
Arsalan Syan: 38:09 And also, uh, uh, as I mentioned, uh, the language and the
health insurance. The health insurance is in the United States,
the process is, I believe it’s very complicated for a newcomer. In
the beginning, a social service provide the Medicaid during the
six or one year to the newcomer family. But after that they not
provide these services. And the people have to find a, uh,
insurance by themselves or during [their] job. And during the
job, you have to spend monthly or weekly, you have to pay for
that and it’s going to be like a extra load to the new family. I
believe if the social services or United State health department
make a decision or help his people for at least three years, at
least three years, they provide medical insurance to those
families who’s coming new. And then after that, maybe they
learn better. For me, for me myself, uh, I speak English good,
and I have a graduate university, and I maybe have a mind for
how to arrange these things for me and my family. But there’s
people coming, they cannot, believe me, They need to learn
how they opened the door. They need like a lecture to open the
door or how to use the…excuse me… how to use the showers.
They coming from Africa and they have no experience for
nothing if they live in the open area before they come.
Arsalan Syan: 40:01 So these people need at least three years health insurance to
be, to be a learning. Uh, after that they did this three years, It’s
helped them to learn English and they find a job. And doing the
job, they learn how they communicate with people and what is
the required to the family. Like a health insurance, like a
transportation. There’s people who come to here, and maybe
they not use the card. So these kind of people is not easy for
them. Maybe for me it’s easy to, to, to involved with the new
country, like the United States, or any other country. But for
other people it’s not easy.
Maria Matlock: 40:01 Yeah, I’m sure it’s very difficult.
Arsalan Syan: 40:52 Yes, very difficult. That’s why I maybe many, many of the
refugees, they are not happy. Because these two things. First
the language assistant and the second thing the health
insurance. That’s my opinion.
Maria Matlock: 41:04 I’m sure it’s difficult. I can’t even imagine, you know, picking up
and moving to a completely new area like that. Um…
Arsalan Syan: 41:04 You find any question?

 

 

Maria Matlock: 41:16 Um, I think that’s, that’s everything. Thank you for talking to us.
This is very interesting. Is really awesome. Getting to hear your
story.
Arsalan Syan: 41:22 Thank you so much for you. Throw a house and the discuss this
position together. Hopefully it’s going to be like a a voice to to
tell somebody in the United State that these things is happening
and this is required. Especialty for that new refugees and I thank
you again for coming.
Maria Matlock: 41:22 Yes, thank you so much.
Arsalan Syan: 41:22 Have a great day and hopefully you pass this project! I am
happy you are here.
Maria Matlock: 41:22 Thank you so much.

 

Loader Loading...
EAD Logo Taking too long?

Reload Reload document
| Open Open in new tab

Download