Unlike immigrants, refugees who come to the United States usually are not drawn here primarily by the opportunities this country offers. Rather, they are fleeing war or persecution or other conditions of danger and deprivation. Today on New American Voices a refugee from Bosnia talks about her experiences in coming to America.
.
Sanja Mehmedinovic is a dark-haired, blue-eyed woman in her early forties. She came to the United States with her husband, a writer, and thirteen-year-old son in 1996, after surviving almost four years of war in her native Sarajevo.
Ms. Mehmedinovic says that by late 1995 the family was in pretty bad physical and psychological shape. Her son, whose hair at age thirteen was turning gray, had had only intermittent schooling in the past four years. He wanted to go to America. In Sanja Mehmedinovic?s words, , so the family decided to leave Bosnia and apply for refugee status. They were accepted by the United States, and the resettlement agency that was assigned their case - the International Rescue Committee - sent them to the hot desert city of Phoenix, Arizona.
The International Rescue Committee rented a small apartment for the Mehmedinovic family, gave them some money for the first month?s expenses, and helped them apply for food stamps -- a government subsidy to help low-income people buy food. Other than that, the family had to fend for itself.
After five months the Mehmedinovics borrowed some money and moved to Washington, D.C., where there was a small Bosnian refugee community that could offer them emotional support. But they were determined to make it on their own.
Six years after coming to the United States, Sanja Mehmedinovic works as a case manager for a resettlement agency, helping people like herself with their first steps in this country. Her husband is publishing his work in English, as well as Bosnian, and their son has a scholarship to attend a prestigious theatre and film program at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Sanja Mehmedinovc says that she feels the decision her son encouraged her to make, to leave Bosnia for America, was a good one.
Next week on this program Sanja Mehmedinovic talks about how her experiences help her in her job with a refugee resettlement agency.