Many studies deal with the representation of migrants and refugees in literature and on screen; however, only few are dedicated to the works of Arab writers from Iraq. This paper examines violence and its aesthetic figuration in Hassan Blasim’s short stories "The Truck to Berlin" and "Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes." Situating both narratives at the intersection of migrant diaspora literature and Arab studies, I examine how Blasim's short stories use stylized forms of violence to represent the figure of the refugee and migrant as a potential agent of change, defying national binary distinctions and representations of victimhood. While “The Truck to Berlin” contextualizes illegal immigration in terms of language, religion, race and ethnicity, “Nightmares of Carlos Fuentes” centers on the crisis of identity that is often part of the immigrant experience. However, in each story, Blasim includes violence into the narrative in ways that shed light on the hardship encountered by migrants and refugees across borders. By combining art and terror and by depicting grotesque acts of violence that he incorporates aesthetically into his narratives, the author displaces the refugees' real day-to-day encounters with violence into aesthetic form in order to press governments for social and political change. My paper draws on Hannah Arendt's and Theodor Adorno's writings which probe the link between the aesthetics of violence and politics, in order to explore the democratic potential of Blasim's writings. Using these theoretical discourses, the paper will identify the kind of relationship that exists between the mere act of stylizing violence in Blasim’s narratives and the dynamics of his calls for democratic change and a human rights framework that secures more protection for refugees and migrants.