Nineteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Migration is a complex phenomenon. Indeed, it is difficult to determine a grand narrative of migration given the overlapping and conflicting experiences of individuals who leave their homes for another. In the United States context, one important theme through which it is possible to explore such tensions is the notion of the “American Dream.” Drawing on a set of 14 interviews with immigrants, broadly defined, to the US from the Middle East and North Africa, this essay explores how participants articulated their interpretations of life in the US as either confirming or undermining belief in that dream. Across interviews, some participants articulated their experience of immigrating to the US as fulfilling the promise of the American Dream while others conceived of migration as an “uprooting” that involves “mourning” the loss of one home while finding another. For some, issues such as discrimination against immigrants, social and economic hardship, and the recognition of the US’s geopolitical role in the world that causes mass displacement punctured the widely circulating notions of the US as a “land of opportunity.” In addition to examining interviewees’ contrasting conceptions of migration to the US, this essay closes by wrestling with the challenges of accurately representing the breadth of research participants’ experiences, even when those interpretations perpetuate problematic discourses such as the American Dream.