Your Story Goes (HERE) Interview - Lu Zeidan
What’s it like to be a refugee? What exactly is a refugee? What are the struggles associated with immigrating to the United States, and what does it take to help the people who do so to thrive?
We live in a turbulent world. Every day millions of people all over the world, lose their homes, livelihoods, families, and even sense of themselves, to trivial things such as war, politics, and just plain evilness. Only a tiny fraction of people in these situations are offered refugee status here in the United States. Austin, Texas happens to be one of the major recipients of immigrants with refugee status. People like Lu Zeidan help them get settled, adapted, and ready for their new lives here. It’s a thankless task unless you are a refugee who needs a helping hand and a friendly smile.
I have known Lu for many years as part of our mutual work with Interfaith Action of Central Texas (I-ACT), and have watched her patiently and effectively usher hundreds of refugees from all over the world, into their new lives. To most of us, this work is done out of sight, and perhaps out of mind. However, it is some of the most important work being done in Austin and is a Godsend for those lives which have been touched by Lu’s generosity of spirit, and wisdom. Their story, and Lu’s story, is not often told. I think it should be. Lu Ziedan’s story goes (HERE).
Tell us what you do.
Lu Zeidan, 2022
I am in charge of a refugee program through I-ACT. It’s primarily an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) program. “Refugee” is a formal category of immigrants consisting of people who come to the US from war-torn countries, and are accepted into the US for humanitarian reasons (with the blessing of the State Department). They are here legally to settle in the US because they have nowhere else safe to go.
We teach them English because people cannot get ahead in the US without it (even though it's very difficult, particularly for adults, to learn. This is especially true for many refugees who come with a lot of trauma and bad experiences… to then deal with learning a new culture and language on top of all that life change isn’t easy).
How many refugees have you helped over the years?
I’ve been serving 500-800 refugees per year on average, especially in recent years. In earlier years, it was lower… an average of 100-200 per year for 20 years. Over the last 20 years, I’ve served 5000 people. Probably more, if you include families.
Do you consider this work dangerous?
[Laughs.] For 20 years I have dealt with thousands of people from all over the world, and not once have I ever felt threatened or uncomfortable with any of them. Anyone who thinks these people are dangerous is not speaking from a position of real knowledge of the situation.
Many times, they are the most uplifting people you could ever meet, because they have learned the value of life, sometimes the “hard way.” The fact that they have survived—considering their circumstances—is quite an accomplishment. So they value every moment.
Has this all been in Austin?
Yes, only in central Texas and I’ve only worked with I-ACT.
Why do they come to Austin?
They go everywhere, but usually, they go to big cities. It has to be somewhere where there’s work and transportation. Austin is a pretty good place (except that we’ve been getting so expensive lately, and that strain is beginning to take its toll). Even though they might have been professionals back home—such as doctors, lawyers, or engineers—they often have to start out here at the bottom again and change whatever profession they left behind. So, even things like affording a small apartment can be tough for them.
Tell us how you got into this particular expertise?
Just by happenstance. But later on, I decided it was a really great decision. I had gone through the Lebanese civil war, with the Israeli armed forces invading and the Syrians coming in. So, I had been through a certain kind of trauma—one of war and displacement. And back then, I had just had my son. So not only was I trying to save myself, I was trying to save my child, too. When I came to Austin, I saw this job had just opened up. I immediately related to it and the people coming through the program because I personally had been through it myself. Additionally, they wanted somebody who knew how to teach ESL—which I had done all my life in Lebanon, as someone who is bi-lingual in both English and Arabic. I had not worked with refugees before and had no idea who refugees were, but as I got to know them, I recognized a lot of similarities with things I had had to learn myself—only in most cases, they have it worse.
I am completely bicultural because I grew up in Lebanon but half my family is American. I have always had to be the go-between in my family, explaining one culture to the other. So I am used to this role. Being a child of immigrants in a different culture, you have a different dimension to you.
You told a story in your article in the Austin American-Statesman about how “people learn to be hidden in plain sight.” Can you retell that story, because I thought it was profound?
I saw it from the faith I was born into—Druze, which is unism. God, the world, and man are one—that’s the basis of it. When it was first founded, it had to start underground because it was oppressed constantly. So practitioners of this faith had to learn to be “somebody else.” Part of the tradition of the faith is to “take on the familiar.” That is, to hide within the prominent faith and culture of the place you live. So, it's not against the Druze faith to go to a Christian church, for instance. It’s considered a way of self-preservation. The same might be true for going to a Muslim mosque or celebrating different holidays. I have noticed this “hiding within the familiar” is the same for refugees. Usually, refugees are people that have been oppressed. It could be for different reasons, i.e. faith, politics, ethnicity, or a variety of things. So, they always have to pretend to be something else. They anticipate doing so, and have done it for years. So, when people come to the US, they come with certain ideas of what the US is like (perhaps even the wrong ideas, though this is common).
For instance, we realized that many of the people coming from Nepal were immediately converting to Christianity, and of course, as an interfaith organization, we were totally fine with that. But then we realized that they were doing this because they thought they should, not necessarily because they truly believed in Christianity. They had been told in Nepal that Americans are Christian, and if they are not Christian, then Americans will not help them. But once we realized that this was happening, we noticed that there were lots of misunderstandings and misconceptions, so it's just something we had to watch out for.
What are some of the forces that influence you the most as you do the work
One is that I feel so privileged. I have seen and lived in places that are not safe; places where there are no resources to survive. The fact that I live in this place now with all of its benefits… the least I can do is help others, who have come from less fortunate surroundings and circumstances.
The other part of it is that I have seen how valuable just a little bit of a helping hand is to people (if given at the right moment). Refugees are survivors. A little bit of help at key moments in their transition to this country allows so many to adapt and move on to a much better life. For instance, some things in this country are so confusing, but sometimes all they need is for someone to explain things to them, or to give them the language support they need to be able to take matters into their own hands. So explaining this culture, (which I have done all of my life to my relatives) is an easy thing for me to do, and seems to help the refugee clients a lot. I am also very intuitive to understand the things that recent immigrants may be missing, so it’s a pleasure to be able to offer this to folks who can benefit. I get so much back from being in that community, and frankly, it's fun too.
How do you think you come off to these refugees?
For instance, people who speak Arabic to me realize that I am a native speaker, which brings them closer and they feel like they can tell me things that they couldn’t tell others. But they also assume things based on the countries they are coming from. They believe me more when I tell them things.
As far as other communities, they see me as a mom—particularly grown men—because I am older. They trust my judgment as sort of an “elder.” Since I-ACT just deals with education and does not administer money, etc., we tend to seem less threatening. This works to my benefit because we have a lighter touch and people sometimes feel I am easier to talk with.
How do you deal with the ever-changing community of refugees coming in, depending on what is going on in the world? How do you adjust yourself to each new group coming in at any given moment? What are the commonalities?
One is that they have all been through troubled times and they all have had traumatic experiences. But for me, it's exciting to learn about each new culture we work with. One thing we have learned is to always keep an open mind and don’t come to the table with any preconceived notions of any particular culture. Don’t assume you are smarter. Humility, respect, and a welcoming attitude go a long way and should be things we have in common with everybody. Nevertheless, there are certain things specific to each culture that we have to be aware of and take into consideration.
For instance, the Afghans, which are our biggest community, are very patriarchal. So the women are not expected to go to school, go to work, or do anything on their own. So we try to find new ways to teach them about the American culture. It's all meticulous and it can be a slow process, so one of the tricks of the trade is patience.
Seems like the latest group of refugees coming in are the Ukrainians. Are you seeing very many people from that region?
Not yet. A lot of people are asking about that, but a lot of people are confused about who is a “refugee.” Many don’t know how to differentiate between someone who comes as a refugee and someone who comes as a visitor. I think the majority of Ukrainians here right now are coming in on visitor visas, but they are not here on refugee visas, for the most part. Not yet, anyway. So they aren’t yet eligible for our services. It’s expected that something might change on this very soon, but nothing’s changed yet.
So this “100,000 Ukrainian refugees” thing has not happened yet.
Not yet. We are not sure of what the visa process will be just yet. It may be a humanitarian visa—which is the same as we gave the Afghan refugees who had to be airlifted in. I am hoping that the State Department is more aware of how confusing this can be for all concerned, and will be able to do it better this time with the Ukrainians.
What didn’t you expect that has come to pass?
When I was younger, I was not yet aware of “man's inhumanity to man.” I was very privileged growing up. I just did not know the horrible experiences that people could go through under the circumstances that many of these refugees I have worked with have had to endure; people thrown in jail just because the President did not like them. Some were tortured and even murdered. I did not expect this, nor did I expect that I would be able to deal with these stories and the people who lived them without being traumatized myself. But I have learned throughout the years to compartmentalize so I don’t stay up at night worried from the stories I hear. Yes, they are still terrible; but that’s the world as I see it now, and I live with it. This is something I’ve developed over the years. It was harder at first. I’ve since had to learn to say no; people are needy.
I also did not expect to find how resilient people are; how little support they need in the long run. Americans are so money-conscious, and yet are very reluctant to spend public money on the people they think might not be able to make it, as if the money will just amount to nothing in the lives of these people. Most don’t realize how well these refugees adjust eventually. While it doesn’t happen overnight, it can, and does happen.
It does depend on what one’s definition of “adjustment” is, though. We were visiting one Senator’s office, and his aid was asking the question, “Is it really worth it? Are they able to adjust and become part of American society and culture?” My answer to that was, “Yes. If your definition of “culture” is that they are good people, that they and their families follow the laws and pay their taxes, definitely!” But if you mean, “Will the women from Afghanistan be wearing a bathing suit at the lake?” Perhaps, not. If you are talking about the basics of life, absolutely they can adjust to our culture. But we should not impose what we think the world should look like completely on them. They will find their own version of that—particularly the second generation.
What part of your story has the world not heard? There must be some parts of the story, refugee services that the rest of us don’t understand very well, and we need education on?
After WWII, the United States informally began to admit refugees. Then, after the Vietnam War, the Office of Refugee Resettlement was created specifically to help bring people who had worked for the US (or the children of American servicemen and Vietnamese) in Vietnam into the United States to resettle. Refugees are people who cannot live in the place they came from. That’s 84 million people worldwide.
Unfortunately, if we combined all of the countries that have resettlement programs together worldwide, they would only accept about one percent of this number. Everybody else remains where they are, and continues to live under very dire circumstances. They continue to live on the fringes, oppressed, in refugee camps, and on the run. We only see a very small number of these people. The rest are faceless to us.
Here’s another thing. Refugees versus asylum seekers. The difference between refugees and asylum seekers is that while the asylum seekers may be trying to escape similarly dire conditions, they are showing up at our borders, or perhaps have already entered the US under another kind of visa and are now asking for asylum. So the difference between refugees and asylum seekers may just be how they come into the country.
What would you say to the argument that we can’t take everybody, we can’t afford it, not enough jobs?
I am so amused by “we can't afford.” We are spending billions of dollars on so many types of things that might not be helping us. A recent example of the amount of money the State of Texas has spent stopping legal truck shipments at the border in hopes of catching a handful of illegal aliens.
Irrespective of the politics of it all, I answer your question by saying that we have a responsibility as Americans—and as people of privilege—to offer a helping hand occasionally. And we live in a civil society and have systems and laws which should be designed to help us help others.
For example, I have a disabled son. Should I just tell him to, “go raise yourself up by your bootstraps,” even though he can’t? No. In a civil society, the strong are supposed to help the weak until they are able to help themselves. This whole issue is so self-centered and selfish. You could say, “it's not my job to do anything.”
But consider this… it's your responsibility to help your fellow man. If there is somebody showing up at your border running away from unbelievably oppressive conditions, and you don’t try to help, how is that different from someone showing up at your door, running away from a wolf. Are you more likely to help the latter? And why do some people's willingness to help depend on how the person at the door looks or what language they speak, irrespective of the fact that the wolf is still after them?
What would you say to people who say, “If we help one person, we have to help them all”?
We have laws in place. The border is not open to all. Enforce the laws, and have enough judges in place to make quick rulings on applicants. Ensure that our borders are enforced efficiently and humanely. We are not saying let everybody in—this is a false narrative. It's pretty clear that most Americans do not understand our immigration system to think that borders are completely open. Even the immigrants understand that it is not. It's only Americans that can't seem to get their arms around our immigration system and process. There are actually very few ways that people can legally immigrate to the US; for instance, if you marry an American. There are also ways to gain immigrant status if you want a certain sized investment. And of course, we have mentioned entering under refugee status, or perhaps as someone who has applied for, and been granted asylum.
All other paths require a long and arduous process and very few undergo it successfully. This idea that millions of foreign people are entering the US legally is actually false. If they enter, it's almost always illegal.
In fact, you might be surprised to learn that there is almost no way for Mexican farm workers to enter and work in the USA legally, even though American farms have been lobbying for the increased granting of these types of visas for years. American agriculture is suffering because of a lack of qualified farm workers. One might even say that the lack of legal ways to attract some immigrants adds fuel to the fire of illegal immigration. Yet, we read every day about how many unfulfilled jobs are now available in the US, and how few employees are chasing them. We need more workers, but we also need ways to have them come, work, pay taxes, and maintain their own dignities without them having to sneak across our borders illegally. Nobody wins when the crossing is illegal. So many could benefit from an updated and well-managed system to increase legal immigration.
Is there anything you would like to leave us with?
Keep in mind that you never know where your destiny will lead you; every person has value. Never discount any one person because of who you think they are, or where they came from.
You can learn more about I-ACT on their website here.