Arguing the American Dream à la Canada: Former Soviet Citizens' Justification for their Choice of Host Country

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Abstract
This paper utilizes data accumulated from interviews with persons who claimed refugee status in Canada from the former Soviet Union, in order to assess the motivations claimants have for choosing particular host countries and the argumentative tactics employed to articulate the decision. The autor argues that refugee claimants face innumerable obstacles once they have made the decision to leave the country of origin, not the least of which being the question of why they chose one country, in this case Canada, over another, and that their justification is often articulated through reference to the American Dream. This Dream can function as a point of rapprochement between the claimant and the adjudicators because both parties are presumably in agreement concerning the basic tenets of the claim, as well as a kind of tacit agreement concerning the character of America that the claimant asks the country to uphold. Assessing the character of the Dream, as described by claimants, also permits assessment to be made of the perception that potential claimants have of America, based upon the information available to them in the country of origin

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