The issue of money was often a great challenge for
newly arrived, Nuer refugees.
They came from a place where there was little need or
use of money, where wealth was bound up and cows and other animals.
This shift to a cash economy that involves working jobs for
money is something that many refugees find difficult.
It's not simply the change in how they generate wealth, but
rather that in America there is a constant need for money.
A situation that Holtzman calls vexing for the immigrants.
One man that Holtzman interviewed told him how excited he was when he received
$250 from a resettlement agency when he first arrived in the United States.
This seemed like an enormous sum of money based on his perspective from Sudan,
but he quickly realized
how little this amount of money would get him in the United States.
This is actually a conversation that I have had many times with Tanzanian friends
who live in rural areas and work with me on my own research.
They often ask about hourly wages or yearly salaries of Americans, and
are shocked at what seem to be large sums of money that people make each day.
However, when I explain to them about the costs of daily life in America, housing,
food, transportation, clothing,
they quickly realize how these seemingly large salaries may not go very far.