Home for The Arab Migrant

In this book, the main character is a Bedouin woman, Salma Ibrahim El-Musa. While still a young girl, she liked to play reed pipes to her goats. She lived with her parents and her elder brother. She came from a very conservative family, but she was a carefree girl. This carefree attitude makes her get pregnant out of wedlock by her lover Harim. A kind lady, Miss Asher, arrange to adopt Salma and take her to England. It is also arranged for Salma to change her name to Sally Asher. When she arrives in England, she is held in immigration detention for some days. She is released after Miss Asher defends her and argues that she needs asylum because she would be killed if she went back to her country.

She moves to a small cathedral city of Exeter. Like all his agemates he feels frustrated and not living to his potential. Azel is unemployed and even with his education cannot get a job because of the deplorable corruption conditions in the Moroccan government. He spends most of his days in the local cafe with other unemployed people. It is from this cafe that he stares longingly out into the Straits of Gibraltar into Spain. Azel desires to emigrate into Spain despite the lots and lots of hazardous stories he has heard. Azel is blinded by Miguel’s glamorous lifestyle in Tangier, and to his shock, he is treated as a houseboy when he gets to Miguel's villa in Barcelona. Azel is despised by Miguel's old housekeeper, Carmel who does not like immigrants.

As a result, Azel becomes deeply unhappy and lonely. The loneliness and unhappiness makes him seek affection from Soumaya, an immigrant from Tangier. In both books, the plight of refugees is clearly visible. In the first book, My Name is Salma; the main one is the fact that Salma had to her flee her home country in search of a better life in another country where she knew no one. When her brother started chasing after her to kill her, she had to flee and eventually ended up in England. She already had a home, but she was forced to flee fearing for her dear life. She is chased from her home due to an old culture that has been overtaken by time.

We can see Salma when she was still a young girl. We are not told whether or not she loved being there. She might have hated it but just stayed because she had nowhere else to go. If so she was only there as a matter of convenience, and that was not her home of choice but rather a home where her needs were met. When her brother started chasing after her wanting to kill her to purify the family’s blood, Salma seeks protection in the Islah prison. The prison serves as a temporary home for Salma. The problem of not having a home is also seen when Salma’s daughter is taken away from her mother. Salma’s daughter had a home with Salma, and no matter how difficult the scenario was in prison it was all the baby had.

When Noora pays off the warder to snatch the small baby, she also snatches the only home of the baby. The baby is then forced to go and start a new life in another place, probably not even in the country, with new people and in a place totally void of her family. To Salma’s rescue came a nun who took her out of prison. She moves and settles in Exeter. Exeter becomes Salma’s home away from home. To free herself from her troubled past she changes her name to Sally Asher. She settles and becomes more comfortable in the new environment. She starts taking English classes with the aim of having a better grasp of the language and in order to have an English accent.

She has sleepless nights because of this. Eventually she gives into the guilt in her mind, and as a result, she leaves England for her home country. How the writer writes is also show us the plight of the protagonist. The writer writes from the first-person point of view. The writing style is however not as smooth. we stink of corruption, it’s on our faces, in our heads buried in our hearts’. This huge amount of corruption causes Azel who is a college graduate of law to be unemployed. This makes him detest his own country and every day he looks over the sea into Spain hoping that one day he and his sister will be there. Azel, his sister and their mother live together in Tangier.

This is their home ever since we start the story. The writer portrays this local café as a place where Azel runs to give himself hope. He goes to this café and looks longingly across the sea into Spain. This shows how much he longs to be in Spain. In this café, he was not reminded of the rotten society where he grew up in but rather looks longingly into hope for a better tomorrow. The café becomes a second home for Azel where he can share his problems with other unemployed people who would understand him and not judge him. When Miguel’s old house help starts mistreating him, Azel tries finding a home in another place in the form of companionship.