An examination of Arab asylum seekers who feel compelled to package their tales of disenfranchisement and suffering to satisfy a deeply reluctant immigration system.

From the overloaded courts with their constantly changing dates and appointments to the need to prove oneself the “right” kind of victim, the asylum system in the United States is an exacting and drawn-out immigration process that itself results in suffering. When anthropologist Rhoda Kanaaneh became a volunteer interpreter for Arab asylum seekers, she learned how applicants were pushed to craft specific narratives to satisfy the system’s requirements.

Kanaaneh tells the stories of four Arab asylum seekers who sought protection in the United States on the basis of their gender or sexuality: Saud, who relived painful memories of her circumcision and police harassment in Sudan and then learned to number and sequence these recollections; Fatima, who visited doctors and therapists in order to document years of spousal abuse without over-emphasizing her resulting mental illness; Fadi, who highlighted the homophobic motivations that provoked his arrest and torture in Jordan, all the while sidelining connected issues of class and racism; and Marwa, who showcased her private hardships as a lesbian in a Shiite family in Lebanon and downplayed her environmental activism. The Right Kind of Suffering is a compelling portrait of Arab asylum seekers whose success stories stand in contrast with those whom the system failed.

• A Compelling Portrait of Asylum Seekers:
  • The Right Kind of Suffering offers a deeply humanizing look at the lives of Arab asylum seekers, exploring how their personal histories are reshaped and often commodified by the demands of the immigration system.
  • The book serves as a critique of an asylum system that prioritizes specific forms of victimhood over the totality of an individual’s lived experiences.
• Scholarly Contribution:
  • This book is a critical contribution to migration studies, human rights, and Arab-American studies, shedding light on the ways institutional structures shape the lives of vulnerable populations.