A Syrian refugee family settles into a new California life

The United States has reached its target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in 2016. San Diego, Calif., has received 626 Syrian refugees since Oct. 1, more than any other city in the US.

|
Lenny Ignelzi/AP
Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh, a Syrian refugee who arrived in the United States with his family, pushes a shopping cart with sons, Farouq Nadim Jouriyeh (l.) and Hamzeh Nadim Jouriyeh, Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2016, in El Cajon, Calif.

Nadim Fawzi Jouriyeh took part in a ceremony Sunday in Amman, Jordan, to mark the United States taking in its goal of 10,000 Syrian refugees in a year-old resettlement program.

By Wednesday, the former construction worker and his family were walking grocery aisles, stocking up on roasted chicken, milk and lemons for their new home outside San Diego.

It didn't take long for Mr. Jouriyeh, his wife, and four children, ages 8 to 14, to feel welcome.

"America is a beautiful country," he said through an Arabic translator at the office of the International Rescue Committee in El Cajon, a San Diego suburb that has drawn Iraqis and, more recently, Syrians fleeing war. "The way they treat people and the people of America are very nice.... When you go down the streets, everyone smiles at you. Even if they don't know you, they just smile at you."

San Diego, the nation's eighth-largest city, has received 626 Syrian refugees since Oct. 1, more than any other in the US. Many smaller cities have accepted outsized numbers of Syrians, including Erie, Penn. (205); Toledo, Ohio (109); and Boise, Idaho (108).

California and Michigan are neck-and-neck among states for receiving the most Syrian refugees, followed by Arizona, Texas and Illinois. Cities with large numbers include Chicago (469); Glendale, Arizona (384); Troy, Michigan; (325) and Dallas (293).

Refugees are typically assigned to cities where they have family and friends or where there is an established community of immigrants who share their culture, said David Murphy, executive director in San Diego for the International Rescue Committee, one of nine organizations that help refugees settle in the U.S.

In El Cajon, population 100,000, some store signs on Main Street are in Arabic. Merchants, bank tellers and schoolteachers speak the language.

Three decades ago, an Iraqi Chaldean immigrant settled here and the effect "snowballed" into a large Arabic-speaking community, Murphy said. Iraqis have been coming for years, but Syrians are relatively new.

"It's really kind of tough to know how they're going to do. They haven't been here long enough to start businesses or anything like that," Murphy said.

Jouriyeh, who left school after ninth grade in his native Homs to work, fled his war-ravaged city for Jordan in 2014. Daily bombings frightened the children as the Syrian government retook the city. Jouriyeh had to stay indoors for three days straight because it was too dangerous to go to work.

A drive to the Jordanian border that would normally take two hours required three days as the family tried to avoid roadblocks, arrest and crossfire. Jouriyeh said about 80 people were killed in his convoy.

Extensive vetting by the International Organization of Migration and the U.S. State and Homeland Security departments in Jordan led him to San Diego.

The US said it reached its target of resettling 10,000 Syrian refugees in the 2016 fiscal year on Monday, more than a month ahead of schedule and the night Jouriyeh reached San Diego. The US resettlement program focuses on the most vulnerable refugees, including those who are subjected to violence or torture or are sick.

Close to 5 million Syrians have fled since 2011. Most struggle to survive in tough conditions in neighboring countries, including Jordan, which has nearly 660,000 Syrian refugees.

The US's future role may be tied to politics. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said Wednesday that he would suspend arrivals from Syria, portraying them as a potential security threat.

Jouriyeh said his priorities are to find a job, enroll his children in school, and find permanent housing. He wouldn't say if he would ever return to Syria.

"We hope our children succeed in education and be able to have a good future here," he said.

Their days are filled with chores like opening a bank account and getting a phone. The International Rescue Committee offers classes on English, job hunting and citizenship.

While grocery shopping Wednesday, a Syrian vendor who arrived in 2010 introduced himself to Jouriyeh and asked about his journey. The strangers chatted pleasantly for a few minutes, then parted ways.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to A Syrian refugee family settles into a new California life
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2016/0901/A-Syrian-refugee-family-settles-into-a-new-California-life
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe