Unending saga of displacement

In a new book, Dina Nayeri uses memoir and reportage to explore what it means to be a refugee.

“Say this city has ten million souls/ Some are living in mansions, some are living in holes:/ Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, yet there’s no place for us,” writes W H Auden in his poem ‘Refugee Blues’, poignantly capturing the undesirability of refugees in a city-scape. Being a refugee is undoubtedly one of the most terrifying and humiliating experiences, one that reduces a human being into something else. Refugees often experience loss, vulnerability and a perpetual sense of awaiting even as they strive to belong somewhere.