Nebraska has led the nation in resettling the most refugees per capita, according to Pew Research. Between October 2015 and September 2016, the state welcomed 1,441 refugees, or 76 per 100,000 Nebraskans, a good portion coming from Syria.
According to the Washington Post, Trump’s executive order banning refugees and people from seven majority-Muslim nations has “elicited complicated feelings about the state’s relationship with refugees. Many Nebraskans had supported attempts to keep the country safe but still wanted to show their heart for people fleeing terrorism and war.”
Fatema Aljasem has recently resettled from Syria along with her husband, Ahmad and their five children. She recounts a recent conversation with her sister, who lives in a refugee camp in Jordan, where she wanted to know if America was still a good place to live. Aljasem paused at the question, and then told her sister how her children have made new friends at their Omaha school. How no-one has treated her differently or disrespectfully. How she now has Jewish friends who have taught her English and driven her to appointments. How her husband has found work in a factory. “The country is good,” she told her sister. “It’s really good. It’s still good.”
