Between 2008 and 2019, the United States resettled over 96,000 Bhutanese refugees throughout American Rust Belt cities like Syracuse, Erie, Scranton, and Akron. Hailed as the most successful large-scale resettlement project of its kind globally, and celebrated in local American newspapers, the Bhutanese refugees have provided a convenient image of both humanitarian success and urban revitalization. However, the work experience of newly arrived Bhutanese refugees suggests a different reality.
Based on transnational ethnographic research with Bhutanese refugees, this talk examines how newcomers come to understand their role in a city like Syracuse, which has emerged as a major refugee resettling city. By tracing how the discourses around “American work life” that circulated in refugee camps in Nepal reemerge upon arrival in host cities, this talk asks the following: How are newcomer refugees absorbed into the postindustrial labor force? And what do they reveal about the political economy of the Rust Belt that is insistent on labeling itself as a refugee welcoming region?
