Why is this refugee’s American Dream on hold?
Rami Sakaan just wants to be a doctor. He is a smart, gentle spirit with a kind heart. I would be eager to hire him at Church Health, but it is not that easy.
He grew up in Aleppo, Syria, where he fell in love with wanting to help people through medicine.
In 2011, he had completed four years of his six-year medical training program
The Rev. G. Scott Morris
(that is the way it is done in British-influenced countries) when things began to fall apart in Syria. Inspired by the prodemocracy movement, a group of school boys in Syria began writing antigovernment slogans on walls. The government reacted by rounding up the boys and torturing them. Protests broke out. The Syrian civil war had begun.
Through the early days of the war, Rami kept going to school. Then one day, for who knows what reason, he was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in a dark basement. His family had no idea what had happened to him or where he was. He was just gone.
His cell was too small to lie down. He was fed once a day. He could hear other prisoners being tortured. After three months, he had lost 60 pounds. He was then asked, “Are you sorry for what you did?” He hadn’t done anything, but he said, “I am sorry.” And just like that he was let go.
His parents knew they had to leave Syria. They escaped through Lebanon and came to where they had family in Memphis.
Rami arrived in Memphis in 2012. He did not speak a word of English, so he took ESL classes at the University of Memphis and spent a year learning English. His desire to be a doctor had not waned. Because Rami had never graduated from college in a U.S. system, attending an American medical school was not an option. So he applied to a school in the Caribbean. He effectively had to start over, but he was determined, and he did very well.
I met him through his cousin who cooks wonderful Syrian food at the Global Café at Crosstown Concourse. I was shocked when I learned that this truly remarkable young doctor was stymied in moving on in his training to become a resident physician because of his circuitous path through medical school. His credentials do not match up the “proper way,” so training programs, including the one based at Church Health, are prohibited from offering him a position.
At the beginning of John Steinbeck’s classic novel, “The Grapes of Wrath”, Oklahoma farmer Tom Joad is forced off his land due to the dust storms and the Great Depression. He tries to determine in his mind who is responsible for the plight of his family, but he cannot find the villain. He concludes that no one he knows would do this to him out of meanness. When his options are exhausted, he decides that the culprit is “the bank.” Not any particular banker; just “the bank.”
In Rami’s case, I cannot even blame the bank. It would be a true tragedy except for his remarkable spirit. He doesn’t blame anyone, not even his captors in Syria. He is just determined to be a doctor who will serve those who are un-served, either in Memphis or back in Syria.
There is some good news. A small hospital in the middle of Mississippi has found a way around the paperwork obstacles. If I am right, come March 15, there will be a way forward for Rami and his dream to become a physician. Until it actually happens, I will offer a prayer for him every day. The issue is not just Rami. There are refugees, displaced workers, and victims of poverty all around us who have great talent that is going unrealized. We need those talents in Memphis, yet artificial barriers prevent these individuals from becoming fully engaged citizens.
We need everyone operating at their highest level of ability for Memphis to be fully extracted from the throes of poverty. It shouldn’t matter where someone is born as long as she or he desires to work to improve our city. We have people with skills and abilities that must be put to work. We have more talent in this city than we realize. It is just that much of that talent is not being fully utilized. I hope we can begin to change that reality.
I feel blessed that God put Rami in my path. His grace and determination are inspiring to me. I believe that in a few years he will be a leading physician in Memphis. Yet the fact remains that as of today, Rami is a young, well-trained physician working part-time at a job well below his skill level.
He is not alone. In our clinic, I regularly treat individuals who are physicians, accountants, lawyers, teachers and former business owners from places like Venezuela, Syria and India who are working at near-minimum wage jobs because of not having the right “papers.”
How does this make any sense, when we need young professionals willing to help Memphis grow and thrive?
Dr. Scott Morris is CEO of Church Health, which provides affordable healthcare to uninsured working people and their families, and gives people tools to live healthier lives. For information, visit churchhealth.org.