New home, new traditions: Migrants celebrate Fourth of July

Almost a year ago, Ahmad, his wife and their son and daughter celebrated their first Fourth of July in America by going to the parade in Pleasant Hill — a friendly small-town bash where cheerleaders caper, local dignitaries ride in classic cars, and spectators decked out in red, white and blue wave little flags.

After applying for asylum, the Iraqi family was still getting its bearings. Somewhere in the crowd, Ahmad lost his wallet. He and his wife frantically searched for it; replacing his identification cards while getting settled in a new country would have been arduous.

“Thankfully, some kind person found it and took it to the police station,” said the gregarious 42-year-old, who wore a polo shirt and stylish glasses. (He didn’t want his last name disclosed for fear of putting his family in Iraq at risk.)

We were sitting in their cozy two-bedroom apartment while the children finished their afternoon snack of spaghetti. Despite rising anti-Muslim sentiment in this country, the family members say they feel welcome here. Every day, they work at putting down roots, and in the process, become American.

“People in the Bay Area have shown us nothing but kindness in trying to help us out,” Ahmad said. His bubbly wife, Abeer, in an off-the-shoulder striped top, pushed back her wavy chestnut hair and urged me to eat the snacks she’d prepared: fish sticks, pasta salad, two pizzas and a pile of croissants.

The family is among the millions who have fled war and other violence in the Middle East. In 2014, the United States accepted 19,769 refugees from Iraq, and 629 were granted asylum. (Both programs offer refuge to people who have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution; refugees refer to people who apply from outside the United States, while those seeking asylum do so here.) According to the U.N. refugee agency, more than 65 million people worldwide were displaced last year, a record high.

Ahmad sympathizes with families now making the treacherous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, refugee crossings rise during the summer months.

“I feel what they feel. They want to lead a normal life. They don’t want to worry about their kids getting bombed. They want to go to work every day and feel their house is safe,” he said. “Nobody is choosing to change all their life without a reason. They have no guarantee for their life, they have no guarantee for what they will do next, but they have to take the risk.”

For more than a decade, he had been working as an architect in the United Arab Emirates, where he met his wife, also a native of Iraq. But with his employer set to shut down, he would lose his Emirates residency permit and his family would be forced to go back to Iraq.

As returnees, they would have been targeted by the Islamic State. “These people want to demolish the history of thousands of years, wipe up everything, and take us back to the Stone Age,” he said.

They decided to travel to the United States and seek asylum. Though the upheaval in Iraq has scattered his family and his wife’s to Canada and the Emirates over the decades, they keep in touch via the Internet. He worries about those in Iraq, struggling and in peril, and able to make only sporadic contact. They are vivid in his memories and in the precious black-and-white photos scanned by his sister and shared among siblings.

Ahmad and his family had to leave most of their possessions behind to come here, joining the ranks of “the homeless, tempest-tost” immortalized in the poem engraved on a plaque on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal. Their asylum application is pending. Eventually, they want to apply for green cards and U.S. citizenship.

To help their children fit in, he and his wife volunteered at their elementary school. Ahmad corrected spelling and grammar and stapled papers, whatever the teacher asked of him, while Abeer joined field trips. Their 6-year-old daughter loves to draw and their 8-year-old son is a fan of “Minecraft.”

After getting his work permit, Ahmad worked as a supervisor at an electronics shop, but continued looking for a position that matched his experience. San Francisco’s Upwardly Global — which provides training and support for skilled, college-educated immigrants — set up a few interviews.

Recently, Ahmad was thrilled to start working at a kitchen design firm as an AutoCad drafter. This summer, his wife and children will take classes to improve their English. They’re establishing new traditions, too, by attending the local Fourth of July parade. “It’s wonderful.” He chuckled. “But this time, I won’t bring my wallet.”