What does it mean to be a refugee...
Maybe you saw this post today on Facebook by former President Barack Obama:
My favorite parts of his post:
...are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents’ arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together? Do we look away, or do we choose to see something of ourselves and our children?
To be an American is to have a shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve the chance to become something better.
That’s the legacy our parents and grandparents and generations before created for us, and it’s something we have to protect for the generations to come. But we have to do more than say “this isn’t who we are.” We have to prove it – through our policies, our laws, our actions, and our votes.
My two favorite books on this topic are REFUGEE by Alan Gratz and Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate.
From TEDEd:
To learn more about global forced displacement, a good place to start is the website of the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). This includes plenty of information and resources; including a basic explanation of the Refugee Convention and an annual report on patterns of forced displacement. The website also looks at individual stories, trying to match the statistical data with more personal accounts of displacement.
To further investigate the challenges faced by those who seek to begin a journey from war to safety, the missing migrants project looks broadly at those—both migrants and refugees—who have died along migratory routes (both at land and at sea). For more detailed information, you can read this report by the International Organization for Migration.
To further investigate the challenges faced by those who seek to begin a journey from war to safety, the missing migrants project looks broadly at those—both migrants and refugees—who have died along migratory routes (both at land and at sea). For more detailed information, you can read this report by the International Organization for Migration.
In this TED Talk, Melissa Fleming (UNHCR) tells the story of two refugees and their harrowing journey towards safety. In another important TED Talk (and written article) journalist Anders Fjellberg and photographer Tomm Christiansen remind us of the personal nature of these stories, writing that “everybody has a name, everybody has a story and everybody is someone.” In this interview with Antonio Guterres, the former High Commissioner of UNHCR, Guterres calls for a multilateral turn toward acceptance and respect.
It is important to realize that arriving at the destination and obtaining refugee status does not mean the end of problems. Refugees and IDPs in camps often face difficult conditions, including limited infrastructure, overcrowding, temporary shelter with inadequate insulation/protection from the weather, lack of economic opportunities and/or education. Psychologically, life in a camp can be highly alienating and take a heavy toll.
Refugees living outside of camps also face hurdles including gaining access to health, education and other social services, and finding adequate shelter. Refugees are frequently in need of assistance for rent, and financial considerations can prevent them from finding adequate housing, forcing them to live in substandard accommodations such as abandoned or unfinished buildings or in informal dwellings. These run the risk of lacking adequate access to water, sanitation, waste management, or electricity and are unfit for the winter season.
Finding a job is often one of the most complex and difficult tasks, even though refugees may have had access to a good education in their home countries or had jobs that require a high level of education. And even for those refugees that obtain asylum in a country where more socio-economic assistance may be available, the trauma of having to rebuild a life and integrate in a very different context is a major challenge.
At the same time, we should keep in mind that refugees are courageous and strong human beings with their own unique skills and talents and with the ability to make plenty of positive contributions to their host countries. They have a lot to offer to their host societies and their full potential should be embraced. Here you can find a few ways through which you can help and empower refugees in your city or country.
Refugees living outside of camps also face hurdles including gaining access to health, education and other social services, and finding adequate shelter. Refugees are frequently in need of assistance for rent, and financial considerations can prevent them from finding adequate housing, forcing them to live in substandard accommodations such as abandoned or unfinished buildings or in informal dwellings. These run the risk of lacking adequate access to water, sanitation, waste management, or electricity and are unfit for the winter season.
Finding a job is often one of the most complex and difficult tasks, even though refugees may have had access to a good education in their home countries or had jobs that require a high level of education. And even for those refugees that obtain asylum in a country where more socio-economic assistance may be available, the trauma of having to rebuild a life and integrate in a very different context is a major challenge.
At the same time, we should keep in mind that refugees are courageous and strong human beings with their own unique skills and talents and with the ability to make plenty of positive contributions to their host countries. They have a lot to offer to their host societies and their full potential should be embraced. Here you can find a few ways through which you can help and empower refugees in your city or country.
Currently, the United States government is separating families of refugees, asylum seekers, and migrants at the border. To find out more about what's going on on America's southern border, click HERE.
Questions:
What do you think it means to be a refugee?
What do you think it means to be an American?
When former president Obama says:
After all, almost all of us were strangers once, too. Whether our families crossed the Atlantic, the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we’re only here because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, how our last names sound, or the way we worship. To be an American is to have a shared commitment to an ideal – that all of us are created equal, and all of us deserve the chance to become something better.... can you trace back in your family's history to when your family was a stranger in America?
What are your favorite books on this topic?
Thanks!
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