The Syrians are coming

A farmer.

A graphic designer.

A university student studying computer science.

These people and dozens more were among the Syrian refugees we interviewed over the past two years while conducting research in the Zaatari refugee camp, home to 80,000 people. To keep their families safe, women and men alike gave up their jobs, their homes, their possessions, and their friends and migrated across the border to Jordan.  

{mosads}Many fled their war-torn country with little more than the clothes on their backs, navigating checkpoints, bombings, and armed militias. The refugees we met are lucky to have escaped a country where more than 200,000 people have been killed in a civil war now in its fifth bloody year.

A very small number of Syrian refugees have been granted asylum in the United States. After navigating a lengthy resettlement and approval process, they have one more obstacle to overcome – intolerance. Having learned that places like Spartanburg, S.C., and Boise, Idaho, will become the refugees’ new hometowns, some state and federal legislators are trying to keep the refugees out of their communities.

In South Carolina, state legislator Rep. Donna Hicks (R) came out firmly against plans naming Spartanburg as a resettlement location. She told “The State” newspaper that she hoped the community “can bring in somebody other than Syrians.”

Likewise, U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R), also from South Carolina, raised concerns about the refugees, asking the State Department to delay refugee resettlement in the Palmetto State. In a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry Gowdy requested “that any plans to resettle refugees in the Spartanburg, South Carolina, area be placed on hold.” He first asked 17 questions about the resettlement plans, ranging from the need for interpreters to criminal records. After the State Department answered those questions, he produced 14 more, including a request for the names of local church and community members who have supported the resettlement program.

Sixty refugees from various countries were scheduled to be relocated to Spartanburg with the help of the nonprofit organization World Relief and some 40 local religious groups. Approximately 2,000 Syrian refugees, out of a population of nearly four million, are expected to resettle in the United States in 2015. But these ordinary people who have experienced extraordinary trauma, and have been the victims of terrorism, are now sadly being labeled terrorists themselves. Although the State Department works with U.S. intelligence agencies to screen refugees, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee Michael McCaul (R-Texas) warns that Middle Eastern refugees could serve as a “jihadi pipeline” to the United States.

Officials and residents of Spartanburg and other American towns that could see refugees from Syria should know that those we met are hard working, family-oriented people. Indeed, the Syrians in Zaatari refugee camp have shown unprecedented levels of entrepreneurship, creating a thriving commercial zone nicknamed the “Champs Elysees” that now hosts thousands of small businesses in an area that a few years before consisted of nothing more than empty fields.  

Throughout the Middle East, Syrians are known for their can-do spirit. According to the Jordanian Investment Board, within Jordan, Syrians have created new jobs, opened new firms, and invested $1 billion in the Jordanian economy.  They have proven their resiliency and ingenuity during an incredibly difficult time, and they would no doubt bring these skills and qualities with them to the United States. Instead of greeting them with suspicion, American politicians like Hicks and Gowdy should help these refugees achieve their American dreams.  

The refugees told us they want jobs to give their lives meaning and to support themselves and their families, saying they were “makers” back home –they grew crops, repaired electronics and ran successful grocery stores. They want to be self-sufficient.  

In the Zaatari camp, entire refugee families are living in one-room trailers, their financial resources depleted.  Yet every time we visited them, the refugees inevitably served us coffee or tea, even when they reported running short of food for their families. This display of traditional Arab hospitality revealed how despite horrific loss and trauma, the refugees held on to their core values.   

Syrians’ enterprising business skills and their strong sense of family are qualities that could help spur innovation in the American towns where they settle. As Spartanburg and communities like it are asked to open their doors to these newcomers, the state’s politicians should open their doors and their minds.

Wall and Janbek are the authors of the forthcoming article, “Syrian Refugees: Information Precarity” in New Media & Society based on their research on Syrian refugees in Jordan. Wall is a professor of Journalism at California State University – Northridge and Janbek is an assistant professor of Public Relations at Lasell College.