The fulfilled immigrant dream no longer satisfies young Arab Americans

Evidence

Abdel Salam had come to this country with nothing, and a generation later he was sharing a successful store with his brother and their two sons. The store is now paying for Akram’s education, and he will be the first in his immediate family to graduate with a college degree. In America’s recurring immigrant saga, Abdel Salam’s success with Mike’s Food Center is not just an accomplishment of American proportions, it’s textbook American dream. But it’s no longer enough for Akram, nor does his life in the United States satisfy him any longer. He’s looking for a way out. When he first told me of his plans to move abroad, I asked him why he didn’t want to stay here anymore, and in answer he deliberately paraphrased a line from a Countee Cullen poem: “What’s America to me?” he said, raising an eyebrow. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 480

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the ambivalence of the American dream in The Namesake and The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
• SEED: The inversion of the immigrant saga — success achieved and then rejected — could frame an essay on second-generation disillusionment in the post-9/11 Arab American community.