Pursuits
Refugees Who Fled Aleppo Adapt to a New Life in Phoenix
- The Brimos left a charnel house for Sunbelt subdivisions
- For refugees who navigate hurdles, the U.S. lets them thrive
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Omar Brimo wants the Arabic proverb to come true in Phoenix: “Once you live among people for 40 days, you are one with them.”
In Aleppo, Syria, his Kurdish family fled civil war. In Turkey, he failed to find a niche in an economy overrun with refugees. But seven months after Brimo, his wife and four of his children landed in Arizona, he has two Kia vans, a job as an electrician and a financial foothold.