The Perception of refugees in Dina Nayeri’s "the ungrateful refugee": what immigrants never tell you 2019 between “strangers to themselves” and othering
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Date
2023
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University of Oum El Bouaghi
Abstract
Under unfavorable conditions such as wars, conflicts, political instability and religious persecution, refugees forcibly leave their homelands and arrive as foreigners in the host countries. In the journey of seeking acceptance and new home in the West, they find themselves othered and looked on as strangers. Dina Nayeri, an Iranian writer, represents the experience of refugees and the difficulties they face while setting up in the Western countries; gathering stories of various characters who she encountered during her journey as a refugee. So, this research aims to examine Dina Nayeri'sThe Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell you (2019) through shedding light on the theme of Othering; the sum of difficulties refugees typically face during that journey. In the process of Othering, the refugees give up a part of them and become strangers to themselves. To this end, I find a way for Julia Kristeva's concept of the "foreigner" to be applied in this study. Moreover, the research aims to show that being "Strangers to themselves" does not only pertain to the refugees, but also and interestingly can be used to refer to the westerners. In other words, it can be said that a person's perception of strangeness is not only limited to the "other" but can extend to all people; both refugees and Westerners are strangers to themselves.
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Keywords
Refugees; Foreigners; Strangers to themselves