This a thousand times over. Much of my recent work has been in refugee camps where large numbers of people (used to) get resettled to the US. The myth of America once loomed so large in these places, but in the span of a few years it has been exposed as just that - a myth.
I don't think many Americans grasp what leading the world in refugee resettlement did for the US image abroad - the extent to which the US became a beacon of hope in the wake of the Refugee Act of 1980.
The US took in nearly 3/4 of refugees resettled anywhere in the world since 1980. That helped create the myth of America in refugee camps - but it also helped close the gap between the myth and the reality in America. It brought us closer to our ideals.
Last year I was doing book research in Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya. At the time of Trump's travel ban in 2017, some 14,000 people in Dadaab were at some stage of the resettlement process. Since then, barely anyone has been resettled to the US. The door has been slammed shut.
After years of dreaming about America, people in Dadaab are realizing they were sold a lie - that the country they had such regard for has no regard for them. Some have returned home to war zones. A small number have killed themselves. None will look at America the same again.
On my UN flight out of Dadaab, there was a family on their way to be resettled in the UK. 2 little kids, neither had ever been outside the camp. I kept thinking about how they would remember this day for the rest of their lives, how it would forever shape their view of the UK.
Neither of those children was old enough to remember America as a beacon of hope. But I hope we haven't forgotten - and that we can work together to rebuild it. That's what I'm thinking about this Fourth of July.
