We Thought It Would Be Heaven – Refugees in an Unequal America

"Sharply analyzed, richly detailed, and intricately humane, We Thought It Would Be Heaven exposes the bewildering maze of rules and regulations that trap refugees in Kafkaesque fashion as they navigate the US bureaucracies charged with their resettlement. Highly recommended for everyone, especially for scholars, policymakers, and anyone who cares about the lives of some of the most vulnerable groups in society today."--Cecilia Menjívar, Dorothy L. Meier Social Equities Chair, University of California, Los Angeles

"This extraordinary book exposes how the gap between the American dream and its reality is, for many refugees, filled with administrative burdens. With We Thought It Would Be Heaven, Blair Sackett and Annette Lareau have written a book that is not just exhaustively researched and theoretically rich, but urgent and actionable. It demands both our attention and our capacity to rethink how to ensure that the most vulnerable immigrants are not lost in a bureaucratic maze."--Donald Moynihan, McCourt Chair at the McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University

"Fleeing the deadliest wars since World War II, refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo were the top nationality group resettled in the United States from 2014 to 2022. Blair Sackett and Annette Lareau follow forty-four Congolese families who came to America thinking it "would be heaven," but instead have encountered a bare-bones and hollowed-out resettlement infrastructure, not to mention a bewildering and disconnected maze of American financial, educational, social, and legal institutions that, built upon the twin logics of cost-cutting and racialized surveillance, presents hurdle after bureaucratic hurdle to block their progress. Only with the most committed of cultural brokers and institutional advocates do a few of these families manage to get ahead. We Thought It Would Be Heaven is a must-read for anyone looking for an understanding of the dismal state of US refugee admissions and for fresh ideas on what can be done to improve the outcomes."--Helen B. Marrow, Associate Professor of Sociology, Tufts University

"As the former leader of one of the bureaucracies that the refugee families in Sackett and Lareau's book traversed, I can only hope that my peers will have the wisdom to read this book. The United States can fulfill its promise of being a beacon to those fleeing persecution only by heeding this book's lessons."--León Rodríguez, Former Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

"We Thought It Would Be Heaven eloquently shows the many challenges and resources needed for refugee families in navigating different institutions in America to start a new life after having spent years surviving in refugee camps and civil wars. Its captivating and often heartbreaking accounts of these families' struggles reveal how American institutions meant to help any family in need can end up hurting families through a series of seemingly innocuous yet endless bureaucratic missteps and hurdles."--Leslie Paik, author of Trapped in a Maze: How Social Control Institutions Drive Family Poverty and Inequality
> "This deeply humanist ethnography explains how refugees who fled persecution confront new challenges as they resettle in the United States. We Thought It Would Be Heaven follows four Congolese families as they fight their way through bureaucratic circles of hell to make a new American life."--David Scott FitzGerald, coauthor of The Refugee System: A Sociological Approach