Displaced: What happened to the people who fled the terror in Chechnya.

For Foreign Policy,I explained how Chechnya’s experience of war led to displacement, and that it is eventually what brought the Tsarnaev brothers to America.

As a result, many Chechens who fled to Central Asia did not find refuge, just harassment and continued uncertainty. It should not be surprising that thousands moved on, as apparently the Tsarnaev family did 10 years ago. The United States has been a country of refuge for people fleeing conflict in the former Soviet Union — and not just in Chechnya. After the 2005 massacre in Andijon, Uzbekistan, for example, many Uzbeks who fled the government crackdown were able to settle in the United States. The United States has granted asylum to some Chechens who’ve fled the wars there, though we don’t yet know if the Tsarnaev family was among them.

We’ll have to see if any of this sad history is relevant to this week’s bombing in Boston. Chechens have had a raw deal, chased from country to country and rarely integrating well. The community where the two brothers were apprehended, Watertown, has a large Caucasus population, though it’s unclear how many are Chechen. There are also enclaves of Chechens in California, and a few live in Washington, DC. But it is difficult for such small numbers — perhaps only a few hundred in the whole country — to form supportive expatriate communities.

Read the whole thing over at Foreign Policy.