Marcia C Inhorn

America's Arab Refugees

Vulnerability and Health on the Margins

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Marcia C. Inhorn is the William K. Lanman Jr. Profressor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University and a former president of the Society for Medical Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association. She is the author of many award-winning books, including The New Arab Man (2012) and Infertility and Patriarchy: The Cultural Politics of Gender and Family Life in Egypt (1996).

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Stanford University Press
• Seitenzahl: 256
• Erscheinungstermin: 9. Januar 2018
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 226mm x 152mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 340g
• ISBN-13: 9781503603875
• ISBN-10: 1503603873
• Artikelnr.: 47825711

Autorenporträt

Marcia C. Inhorn is the William K. Lanman Jr. Profressor of Anthropology and International Affairs at Yale University and a former president of the Society for Medical Anthropology of the American Anthropological Association. She is the author of many award-winning books, including The New Arab Man (2012) and Infertility and Patriarchy: The Cultural Politics of Gender and Family Life in Egypt (1996).

Inhaltsangabe

Contents and Abstracts
Introduction: When Arabs Fled: A Legacy of Conflict
chapter abstract
No world region has been more affected by political violence than the
Middle East. Prior to 2011, fifteen of the twenty-two Middle Eastern
nation-states had suffered from protracted conflicts. Directly and
indirectly, the United States has participated in this violence through its
long history of military intervention, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since the Arab uprisings of 2011, three new wars have emerged in the Middle
East, including the devastating war in Syria. Arabs now constitute the
largest percentage of refugees and internally displaced persons in the
world. This chapter explores these wars, as well as the flight of Arab
refugees to the United States, and introduces readers to the Arab ethnic
enclave community known as "Arab Detroit," where the author conducted a
five-year anthropological study on the poverty, vulnerability, and
reproductive health challenges facing Arab refugees in America.
1Why They Fled: War and the Health Costs of Conflict
chapter abstract
This chapter highlights the devastating impact of war on human health.
Focusing on war "syndemics," or the interlocking health problems that
surface and often kill during times of political violence, Chapter 1
examines the health costs of war in Lebanon and Iraq, the two home
countries from which most residents of Arab Detroit fled. Wars in Iraq and
Lebanon generated physical, mental, and reproductive health problems, as
well as damage to the social structure, infrastructure, and environment.
These health costs of conflict are shown through the war stories of several
Lebanese and Iraqi men and women, who arrived in the United States after
surviving the misery of war. As their stories show, Arab Detroit is home to
many traumatized war victims, who attribute their ongoing reproductive
health problems to war and its effects.
2Where They Resettled: Poverty on the Margins of Detroit
chapter abstract
This chapter focuses on Arab refugee resettlement in the United States. It
questions the strategies of the US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP),
including the quantity and quality of assistance given to Arab refugees,
especially from Iraq. The chapter asks whether refugee resettlement in
economically struggling cities such as Detroit has been a wise decision. It
also compares the concentrated poverty and discrimination facing both black
and Arab Detroit residents. Poverty affects their ability to secure safe
housing, stable employment and education, and the means to improve their
standard of living. This chapter thus locates Arab poverty on the margins
of Detroit, now the nation's poorest large city. Arab refugees placed in
Detroit face many forms of structural vulnerability, the effects of which
are shown in this chapter.
3How They Struggle: Health Disparities and Unequal Treatment
chapter abstract
This chapter explores the health struggles and reproductive health
disparities facing Arab refugees. Drawing inspiration from
intersectionality theory forwarded by black feminist scholars, this chapter
depicts the reproductive racism faced by both blacks and Arabs, who are
seen as "undeserving" reproducers of "black and brown babies" (and future
"terrorists," in the case of Arab refugees). Yet infertility is a major
reproductive health problem for both of these populations. Among Arab
refugees, men in particular face severe male infertility problems, partly
due to the stresses, injuries, and toxins of war. In vitro fertilization
(IVF) services are costly in the United States-approximately $12,500 per
cycle-and rarely covered by insurance. Thus, affording IVF is a profound
challenge for impoverished Arab couples, who are effectively banished from
the world of test-tube baby making.
4What They Feel: Reproductive Exile between Moral Worlds
chapter abstract
This chapter examines the existential feelings of exile among infertile
couples in Arab Detroit, who find themselves straddling American secular
and Muslim moral worlds in their quests for conception. Islamic religious
authorities have condoned IVF to overcome infertility, leading to the
growth of a robust IVF industry in the Muslim world. Some infertile Arab
couples are able to undertake "reproductive tourism" back to their home
countries for this purpose. However, for Iraqi refugees, their home country
has been decimated by ongoing war, ISIS violence, and a shattered medical
system. Thus, they exist in a state of "reproductive exile," unable to
return home but also unable to access IVF in the United States, the most
costly nation in the world. Because marriage and parenthood are normative
dimensions of adult personhood for Arab couples, reproductive exile may
invoke marital crises, as Arab men and women face pressure to achieve their
reproductive dreams.
Conclusion: Arab Lives Matter: Why America Must Care
chapter abstract
The conclusion looks to the future, asking what will happen to vulnerable
Arab refugee populations around the world. Four important strategies for
improving refugee welfare are described. They include stopping wars in the
Middle East, saving war orphans and uprooted Arab families, taking better
care of Arab refugees in America, and ensuring health equity and
reproductive justice for poor Arab couples, through a global movement for
low-cost in vitro fertilization (LCIVF). Given the ongoing wars in the
Middle East and the world's worst refugee crisis since WWII, Americans must
take a stronger moral stance against war and do more to advocate for
refugee health and well-being. Given all that they have lost, Arab refugees
deserve to rebuild their family lives in America. Arab lives do matter, and
America must care.