BEYOND FEAR AND SUSPICION

A social scientist enmeshes herself in the Ethiopian refugee crisis on both sides of the Atlantic in this nonfiction work.

Working for a refugee organization in Australia, Pinpin-Feinstein developed a deep interest in learning about displaced people. When she returned to her home in Washington, D.C., she found that the nearby neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland, had transformed into a “Little Ethiopia” with a thriving network of bars, cafes, groceries, and restaurants comprising the world’s largest Ethiopian population outside of Ethiopia. Seeking to learn more about her new neighbors, the author returned to her academic roots (she has graduate degrees in the social sciences and has worked at times as a college instructor) to learn as much as she could about Ethiopian history, culture, and the experiences of refugees (“I was keen to find the connections between us, maybe even form friendships along the way”). Pinpin-Feinstein was born in the Philippines; the author’s personal familiarity with dictator Ferdinand Marcos helped her to draw connections between her own life and that of Ethiopians who have been unable to escape a string of authoritarian regimes across the past half-century. Pinpin-Feinstein’s observations are informed by the author’s experiences with two distinct groups of Ethiopians: those with whom she formed close personal friendships in the Washington, D.C., area and those whom she met while traveling to Ethiopia in 2017. Her rigorous analysis blends scholarly research on the history of the East African nation with interviews conducted with the Ethiopians themselves. Readers learn of the rich cultural legacy that unites many Ethiopians throughout the diaspora; the author also explores complex questions of identity among refugees as they grapple with America’s unique racial dynamics and increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies. While the text is informed by the scholarly literature on the topic, Pinpin-Feinstein’s intimate prose style is designed to acquaint lay readers with an often-misunderstood population. The work includes ancillary materials such as full-color maps and photographs, an Amharic pronunciation guide, suggested readings, a glossary, and a timeline of Ethiopian history.

An informative and impassioned primer on America’s growing Ethiopian community.