“Her family was constantly watching where she was going, and she felt suffocated. For her father, Syria was a failure due to its failing economy and miserable political environment. No one was happy. It was time to make a change, so they applied again for a visa to visit the United States, and they were approved. It felt like a miracle. Reem, Rasha, and Munir were literally jumping for joy in their living room when they found it. They had been in Syria for only seven months, and already they were saying their good-byes to family.”
Rasha is absolutely unhappy in Syria. Rasha and her siblings are more at home in the USA than in Syria. The news about their second visa is pleasing because it assures them of a possibility of finding their American dream. Rasha’s father recognizes that his family cannot be unconditionally happy in Syria in the backdrop on the political strife and the unfavorable economic circumstances.
“So he decided to go to the campus meeting. There he met the other Arab students at his college and he began hanging out with them, partly from the ethnic tribalism that pervades much of the higher education( and American society at large) and partly in search of new friends.”
The students' clubs promote tribalism when the membership is based on tribes and ethnicities. It would be impracticable to find a non-Arab student in the "Arab Students Club” because as the name indicators the members are expected to be Arabic students. Evidently, learning institutions have failed in combating ethnicity by accommodating the tribally aligned clubs which are foundations of ethnocentricity.
