Just after 10:45 p.m. at Pittsburgh International Airport on a Tuesday night in mid-May, shining steel elevator doors opened to reveal three generations of Congolese refugees coming to join family for a new start in America. Having flown from Kenya to Amsterdam to Pennsylvania, they wore their exhaustion lightly, except for the sleeping infant swathed in a cotton sling suspended on her mother's back.
Their waiting family members exulted. One man, a single dad who'd arrived with his children a month prior—to protect his privacy, I'll call him K—blurred across the space to embrace his mother, brother, sister, and her family. Their small group's chances for survival had just advanced exponentially: His mother could watch over the children, allowing K and his sister and brother-in-law to get to work to support the family.
Read Full Article »