The politics surrounding immigration and refugees are complicated. But the effect this issue has on humanity is very real. The power of books is that they allow you to glimpse inside the experiences of other people and experience things you might otherwise never know anything about.
I just finished reading North to Paradise by Ousman Umar. At age 12, he sets out across the desert from the jungles of Ghana, hoping to reach the Land of the Whites. He almost dies several times on his fraught five-year journey across the African deserts and eventually in a tiny boat crossing the ocean to Spain.
Ousman’s journey is unimaginable and yet it happens. Daily. To thousands of immigrants dreaming of a better life.
Here are two quotes from North to Paradise.
On my journey north, I saw so many people behaving worse than animals, motivated by such greed that they had no humanity. But then a person who was more vulnerable and exploited than I was reached out and shared what little she had. These are the moments that I try to remember, moments of our shared humanity.
One of the saddest things I learned on my journey is that in this life, no one gives you anything for free. They always want something in exchange: it’s human nature. Or at least, it’s the nature of the system that humans live in. If I hadn’t been able to trade my wallet, even though it was hot in the desert and I was close to death, those children probably wouldn’t have given me the water. I wasn’t asking for a car, I wasn’t asking for treasure-just water, because I had been walking through the Sahara for weeks. But that’s how the world works.
I challenge you to look through the books, movies, and podcasts below and choose at least one to consume.
Take it in. Pause. Reflect.
Other books about immigrant journeys and experiences
Reading even one of these books opens your eyes to all that these people experience before they even set foot in our country or any other country of refuge. Read. And imagine yourself in their place for even a day.
The Distance Between Us
Reyna Grande describes her childhood torn between the United States and Mexico, and shines a light on the experiences, fears, and hopes of those who choose to make the harrowing journey across the border.
There is also a young readers edition of this book.
A History of Burning
The story begins in 1898, when Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor for the British on the East African Railway.
Pirbhai’s children are born in Uganda during the waning days of British colonial rule, and as the country moves toward independence, his granddaughters, three sisters, come of age in a divided nation. Latika is an aspiring journalist, who will put everything on the line for what she believes in; Mayuri’s ambitions will take her farther away from home than she ever imagined; and fearless Kiya will have to carry the weight of her family’s silence and secrets.
In 1972, the entire family is forced to flee under Idi Amin’s military dictatorship. Pirbhai’s grandchildren are now scattered across the world, struggling to find their way back to each other. One day a letter arrives with news that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, to secure their own place in the world.
The Illegal Gardener
This story is about a relationship that develops between two people from very different backgrounds and cultures, an English woman living in Greece and the Pakistani illegal immigrant who becomes her gardener and “house boy”. Each comes with their own problems and their own past baggage.
Aaman has travelled to Greece from Pakistan illegally. Desperate to find a way out of poverty, his challenge is to find work and raise money for the harvester his village urgently need to survive.
What he imagined would be a heroic journey in reality is fraught with danger and corruption. Aaman finds himself in Greece, and with each passing day loses a little more of himself as he survives his new life as an immigrant worker; illegal, displaced, unwanted and with no value. Hungry and stranded, how will he ever make it back home to Pakistan?
In what begins as an uncomfortable exchange, Juliet hires Aaman to be her gardener, but resents the intrusion even though she needs the help. Aaman needs the work and money but resents the humiliation.
In spite of themselves, as the summer progresses, they get to know one another and discover they have something in common. Pieces of their lives they have kept hidden even from themselves are exposed, with each helping the other to face their painful past.
When Stars Are Scattered
This is a graphic novel about growing up in a Kenyan refugee camp after fleeing from Somalia.
Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.
Heartbreak, hope, and gentle humor exist together in this graphic novel about a childhood spent waiting, and a young man who is able to create a sense of family and home in the most difficult of settings. It’s an intimate, important, unforgettable look at the day-to-day life of a refugee.
The Library Bus
This one caught my eye at the library because I’m also interested in bookmobiles. The author, Bahram Rahman, was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, and grew up during the civil war and the Taliban regime. He came to Canada as a refugee in 2012.
Inspired by Kabul, Afghanistan’s first library bus and colored by family memories, The Library Bus is a snapshot of one innovative way girls received education in a country disrupted by war.
It is still dark in Kabul, Afghanistan when the library bus rumbles out of the city. There are no bus seats—instead there are chairs and tables and shelves of books. And there are no passengers—instead there is Pari, who is nervously starting her first day as Mama’s library helper. Pari stands tall to hand out notebooks and pencils at the villages and the refugee camp, but she feels intimidated. The girls they visit are learning to write English from Mama. Pari can’t even read or write in Farsi yet. But next year she will go to school and learn all there is to know. And she is so lucky. Not long ago, Mama tells her, girls were not allowed to read at all.
More books that I haven’t read yet
- Little Brother: A Refugee’s Odyssey – a journey that crosses through many of the same areas that Ousman went through on his way to Spain
- My Fourth Time, We Drowned – investigation into the migrants detained in Libya. Hayden’s book is based on interviews with hundreds of refugees and migrants who tried to reach Europe and found themselves stuck in Libya once the EU started funding interceptions in 2017.
- Notes from My Travels – Angelina Jolie’s book about her time as a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and all she experienced as she traveled to to Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Pakistan, Cambodia, and Ecuador
- Wishes – a picture book about leaving in the middle of the night
And here are a few book lists with even more titles
The fact that there are so many of these books highlights the fact that this is a widespread, impactful issue affecting thousands (millions?) of people worldwide every day.
Refugee and Immigration Stories from Around the World
Movies
The Displaced (NY Times Magazine)
A podcast series about refugees
https://www.withgoodreasonradio.org/episode/seeking-refuge
More thoughts…
None of us choose our first home. Some of us are born into opportunity and safety. Others have to migrate to find it.
@morganlinzy (sorry – can’t find the user/original post again – this is what I wrote in my notes)
It is easy to get complacent and comfortable in our first world country lifestyle especially if you happen to be more privileged. But when was the last time you stopped to think about the view from the other side?
Yes, there are problems with the immigration system in America and yet… Two things can be true at once. Our system can be flawed and also people can benefit and be saved from a cruel existence by coming to our country.
It’s easy to say that they’re doing it wrong, that it’s illegal, but… If you were in their position, what choices would you make?
And a final thought from Ousman to close us out…
Given all the hardship I’ve experienced, it would be easy to think that the world is full of bad people, but I prefer to think that most people are good. It’s just that the good people make less noise.
Sharing is Caring
Books offer a window into the real lives behind refugee headlines, helping us imagine, understand, and empathize with experiences far from our own. This curated list invites you to walk a mile in someone else’s story—through powerful fiction and nonfiction that reveal the human side of the global refugee crisis.
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