An ideal and its renewed challenges

(Winooski, Vermont) Pistachio pastries, fermented yogurts, colorful candies, imported preserves: The small Nada Market in Winooski caters to fans of Middle Eastern flavors. The Arab community is not large in this Burlington suburb, but it is well received, says business manager Ahmad Aref.

“People are really nice, very friendly,” the 51-year-old insists in a hushed voice.

Winooski is more than 5,600 miles from his native Baghdad. Neither he nor his wife would leave Vermont, where they moved in 2009 with their three children — a fourth was born on U.S. soil — following in the footsteps of a relative who arrived before them.

“For me, the American dream means living in a safe place, in a peaceful place,” says his wife Ohood Abdulkhaleq, her face framed by a black hijab.

An American Ideal

The notion of the “American Dream” was popularized in 1931 by historian James Truslow Adams and his book The Epic of America. “In a very broad sense, it’s this idea that personal aspirations are achievable,” says historian Jim Cullen, author of numerous essays, including The American Dream: A Short History of an Idea That Shaped a Nation.

The concept is not unique to the United States, he says. “But I think it’s pretty close to being central to the notion of American identity, that it’s also at the root of American patriotism, an idea that people embrace,” he adds.

In the current political context, divisions are brought to the fore. But a certain ideal is part of the continuity.

The Sine Institute of Policy and Politics, part of American University in Washington, surveyed adults ages 18 to 34 two years ago to find out what a “reimagined American dream” would look like for the younger generation. Their answers seem to be in line with… the 1776 Declaration of Independence and its right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

Regardless of their political orientation, ethnicity and gender, a strong majority of them responded that “feeling personally happy and fulfilled” was the most important element of this “reimagined dream.”

Freedom to make decisions, meaningful interpersonal relationships and financial success were also among the most popular items.

But young people remain aware of the obstacles in their path: lack of financial resources, feelings of anxiety and helplessness, lack of trust in institutions are the greatest challenges cited by respondents.

In danger

“The American dream has not lived up to the ideals it was built on, and we have to constantly work to try to make that idea as real as possible,” Bill McKibben, a Vermont author and environmental activist, said by phone.

For this 63-year-old man, a pioneer in the fight against climate change, the American dream is in peril. “For me, what defines it is that we live in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and that’s also the idea behind its creation, to govern ourselves,” he says. However, climate change is changing its geography and threatening its inhabitants, he laments.

And like most Americans of all stripes, Mr. McKibben worries about the future of democracy.

Today, he fights for his ideals, both ecological and democratic. This supporter of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders fears a return to power of Republican Donald Trump, and mobilizes older Americans on the issues that are dear to him, with his organization 3rd Act.

“It’s important to be interested in young people, but the vote of the older generation is also important,” he recalls. “After all, we are old longer than we are young.”

Difficult citizenship

The immigrant who arrives in the United States with a few dollars in his pocket and manages to climb the social ladder is also a persistent myth of the American dream. Hundreds of thousands of foreigners continue to set sail for the United States each year, hoping for a better life.

But the path remains strewn with pitfalls.

“In the United States, there is public peace and laws, but for people with low incomes, it is a place of survival,” says Uzima Bora, originally from Congo. “A good country to live in if you are rich.”

The 30-year-old and her 43-year-old cousin, Mwajuma Ntirampeba, sit in a room at the Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV) in Burlington. They speak in Swahili, accompanied by an interpreter.

Life is better in the United States than in their war-torn country or in the Burundian refugee camp they fled six years ago, Ms.^me Bora. The caregiver, however, is eager to obtain her citizenship for good, feeling “stateless”; the Immigration and Citizenship Services has been experiencing significant backlogs in processing asylum applications for 10 years. The two cousins ​​do not yet have their American citizenship.

Mother of seven children, M^me Ntirampeba says she has become disillusioned over the years. “It’s not at all what I expected,” laments the woman with the big brown eyes.

Her hopes for a more peaceful life were particularly tarnished by run-ins with social services, which she attributes to her family’s naivety.

“I’m fighting the system, I’m fighting systemic racism and I’m so mentally stressed that there are times when I feel like I would rather go back to Africa, because at least my sources of stress there were familiar to me,” she says, hands folded on the table.

Common challenges

In addition to the difficulties affecting newcomers, such as learning the language, recognizing skills acquired abroad and finding work, there are also challenges common to the entire population, such as the significant increase in the cost of living, underlines Yacouba Jacob Bogre, executive director of the AALV.

“Since COVID, housing prices have increased astronomically,” illustrates the man from Burkina Faso, in French.

In the hallways of the organization, community members are invited to help themselves to boxes of green sprouts and fresh vegetables laid out on a table. While AALV was originally founded for African immigrants, it now offers assistance to all newcomers.

On the wall of Mr. Bogre’s office, a framed illustration of a tree is read, with the words “Gratitude: flourish where your roots are planted.”

He has “not yet sensed too much fear” among newcomers, despite the turbulent election year and the anti-immigration rhetoric favored by a fringe of politicians. He emphasizes Vermont’s particularly welcoming side, as Mr. Aref and Mr.^me Abdulkhaleq.

For Independence Day, the Iraqi-born family, now U.S. citizens, planned to go to a park to watch the fireworks.

“It’s for the youngest, he wants to see everything,” says M, smiling.^me Abdulkhaleq. The boy, born in the United States, speaks English better than Arabic. “I am proud of my children and their ease in expressing themselves in English, they teach me a lot,” she adds.