Oral history interview with Salsabel Al Masri, 2020 January 5

This oral history interview with Salsabel Al Masri was conducted by Dora Totoian and Sankar Raman on January 5, 2020. The interview was recorded for The Immigrant Story, an organization that documents and archives the stories of immigrants and refugees in the United States.

In this interview, Al Masri discusses her early life and education in Daraa, Syria, and talks about her love of math and her ambition to become a doctor. She discusses the beginnings of the Syrian civil war in 2011 and her experiences moving to Irbid, Jordan, the next year. She talks about her life and education in Jordan from 2012 to 2016, including racism she experienced and her feelings upon learning that her home in Syria had been bombed. She describes the process of immigrating to the United States, and describes adjusting to life in Portland, Oregon, including learning English and attending American high schools. She shares her experience wearing headscarves in Portland, discusses her parents' jobs, and talks about family still in Jordan. She closes the interview by reflecting on her immigration experience.