City of Refugees

For readers of Caste,this intimate portrait of newcomers revitalizing a fading industrial town illuminates the larger canvas of refugee life in 21st century AmericaMany Americans imagine refugees as threatening outsiders who will steal jobs or be a drain on the economy. But across the country, refugees are rebuilding and maintaining the American Dream. In City of Refugees, journalist Susan Hartman shows how an influx of refugees helped revive Utica, New York, an old upstate manufacturing town that was nearly destroyed by depopulation and arson.Hartman follows 3 of these newcomers over the course of 8 years as they and their families adjust to new lives in America. Theres Sadia, a bright, spirited Somali Bantu teenager who rebels against her formidable mother; Ali, an Iraqi translator who creates a home with a divorced American woman but is still traumatized by war; and Mersiha, a hard-working and ebullient Bosnian who...