A with Daad Serweri

July 2018

Daad Serweri arrived to the U.S. in 2017 from Afghanistan with a special immigrant visa he obtained working with the U.S. Armed Forces.

Now he works as an IRIS case manager, helping refugees & immigrants with the same challenges he’s experienced leaving his home & starting over in Connecticut.

Do you have any goals you want to achieve in the U.S.?

We have a strong ambition but first, we have to be able to empower ourselves in terms of education. I have a Bachelor’s degree in international relations but I would like to continue my education and so does my wife. My wife has a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry. So if I’m in the United States, we do have ambition that we should add value to the society. We should share some of the experiences we have that could be fully utilized here too, as well as leave new experiences to better society.

How do you like living in the U.S.?

What I really love and respect about the United States are the values — tolerance, diversity of opinions, diversity of religions and beliefs. People like me coming from underdeveloped countries, they definitely suffered from a lack of these strong values. But here, I enjoy them. I’ve enjoyed it from the first moment I got off the plane.

How did you get involved working at IRIS?

I joined IRIS because I thought I could play a small role helping IRIS to deliver services to our clients, coming from different parts of the world. My experience helped me because I went through the system and the challenges. It’s not only language, it’s culture, custom, and tradition.

How does it feel to raise your kids in America?

The reason you leave your country is a mixture of many hopes but there is a bit of a struggle. They are much luckier than their dad because they live in a better society where everyone can practice their opinion freely and they can get a better education and work for a better future.

How was your transition moving from Afghanistan to the U.S.?

When you leave your country because of a number of issues and then come to a new country there are new issues. In general, because we were re-settled through IRIS, I have to admire the way refugees benefit from the services by IRIS – starting from housing, helping with rent, connecting refugees to social services, enrolling my children into public school, employment opportunities — I thought it was fantastic. We found it very useful. We really felt like we were in good hands.