Mohammed Amer's new series explores the tragedy and comedy in the refugee experience

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/23/ [login to see] /mo-amer-netflix-series-refugee-experience
It's a story comedian Mohammed Amer says he's had in his head for two decades and started writing nine years ago. Now, on Wednesday, Mo will be out on Netflix.

Co-created by Amer and Ramy Youssef, the show is a semi-autobiographical look at the trauma of displacement. Amer's family was forced to leave home and travel to another part of Palestine in the 1940s. They were displaced again to Kuwait and then again in the 1990s during the Gulf War. He and his family ended up in a suburb of Houston as refugees.

"It speaks to a second generation statelessness, right? And the ripple effect that happens from being stateless," he told Morning Edition.

Amer finds the comedy and tragedy in his family's tale. He explores the way the wounds that come from being forced from your homeland by war and occupation are passed down, as his character navigates a 20-year journey through the asylum process in the U.S.

"Once you're waiting for your asylum to be granted, you're just out there, no home on paper," he said. "All a person like that wants is to feel like he belongs, and feel like they're seen, and feel like they're equal to their other human counterparts."