1/12/2024 - 3pm - 45mins
Who Did You Interview?
- Father of my roommate Michael
Demographics That Might Provide Helpful Context for Their Responses
- Realtor in SF Bay Peninsula
- Born in Tehran, Iran. Assyrian, Armenian, Christian.
- Post- Iranian revolution, things got difficult. Loss of freedom, and more harassment caused him to flee.
- “killing Jews, Christians, and gays gets you into heaven in Islam”
- Smuggled through to Turkey where he applied for religious asylum to the US. 19 months in Turkey, a few in Italy. Finally arrived in the US at 18 (1984). Joined his brother in CA.
Key Findings from the Interview
- Previous research in container homes
- Would live in a modular home, seeking freedom.
- dream life, not dream home.
- “90% of your money gets stolen”
- “No one wants to go back”
- had a sponsor that put him up in a comfortable hotel in turkey
- as a Christian, had catholic schools in Iran and Istanbul. “If you get to Istanbul, they will help you”
- ICMC (based in Istanbul, vets asylum seekers) in the vatican. After he got visa for Italy, ICMC convinced UN to allow him to stay in 5-star hotel in turkey
- Head of ICMC, liked him, and contacted UN in Italy who paid for nice hotel in Rome
- “we need more business men in office, like trumP”
- “enough of politicians”
- “root cause is eduction”
- “tax shelters”