Refugees in America
Today, there are over 65 million refugees in the world. That means that one in every 113 people in the world is a refugee. To many, this number may seem extremely alarming. Many refugees struggle to find a place to resettle. America, along with other developed countries, has often been considered dreamland for these displaced people, making many wanting to get out of their war-torn houses and camps. Refugees immigrating to America have been displaced from their original homes, face frustrating immigration policies, and have difficulties starting a new life in a new land.
Refugees do not simply choose to be “refugees.” There are many aspects that go into account when displacement occurs. War is often associated with refugee displacement. Even a simple task of walking in the streets can be dangerous. In an interview with Time magazine, Syrian refugee Faez al Sharaa says that he was held up at gunpoint with three other people in his homeland after soldiers accused him of being a terrorist. "We felt death upon us," Sharaa said (Altman 24). His backyard turned into a battle ground, while young kids were fighting for their lives (Altman 24). War
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zones force many people out of their homes, forcing them to stay in unconventional places such as refugee camps, and even abandoned buildings (Refugees & Health). In addition to war, poverty is also a big reason for displacement. When poverty strikes, it strikes hard. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Often times, refugees are forced to stay in refugee camps. While these camps do usually provide food and shelter, they are by no means healthy. Camp conditions vary. Some are nicer than others, but many of the camps have sad living conditions (Clarke 94). Makeshift homes fill the overcrowded area, while trash fills the premises. Food and water are often limited. One refugee, Karzan, commented on living in a camp with these conditions. "We have never lived like this before. We feel like we are dying slowly" (Gentleman). Few refugees are fortunate enough to be resettled. If the opportunity does come, it can be a very long and tedious process. Americans have also become increasingly cautious about allowing many refugee in, with 53% saying that they did not want to let in any Syrian refugees (Connor and Krogstad). Refugees are often related to the term "terrorists." This misconception has appeared after many terror attacks have taken place, such as 9/11, and the attacks on Paris, Brussels, and Nice. More recently, Americans have focused in on radical Islamic groups, and have been led to believe that many refugees are part of the groups (de Rugy 16). "Americans are frightened that terrorists might hide among refugees brought into the country. This is a nonsensical construct built on ignorance; ISIS does not need refugees to infiltrate the West" (Eichenwald 12). These misconceptions are often what make moving to America (or any other country for that matter) difficult for refugees. The resettlement process is not easy to go through. There is a long process that one must go through to get resettled. "Refugees undergo more rigorous screening than anyone else we allow into the United States" (Pope). According to the 2016 Screening Process for Refugee Entry, the process starts by collecting identification documents, performing an initial assessment, and completing an interview. After these steps, only a select few are chosen to move on. Less than one percent of the refugee population actually gets past the interview (Pope). Applicants are then received by a resettlement support center. Security screening comes next. If the refugees pass this step, they are interviewed again, but this time by trained USCIS officers. After this, a few more security checks take place, such as collecting the refugees fingerprint, and a medical check follows. If the refugee qualifies after all of these steps, then they take a cultural orientation class, and receive a location for resettlement. This process can be very frustrating. Many of the steps can be repeated multiple times. If new information is added, a security check follows. Re-interviews can take placebo fingerprint results bring up new information; which can be a major setback if a refugee is placed on hold. Refugees are constantly being checked for security reasons, and are only resettled of they have passed every step and security check. More recently, a new question has started to arise: who should get the control over refugees, congress, or the states?
In 2015, more than two dozen governors objected to the federal plan of accepting refugees. In the end, it was clear congress had more power over the situation (The Constitutional Question). In Article one, section eight, clauses three and four of the Constitution state that the powers of Congress include: the power to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes", and the power to "establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States." (U.S. Constitution). By citing the Constitution, it becomes clear, that congress does, and should have more control over
refugees. Once in the United States, a new set of challenges begin. Refugees start out by flying to their resettlement location; resettlement agencies help with this. Once they have arrived, each refugee family is given an apartment or house, clothing, and food. They are also provided with funds to help pay for necessities such as the rent, food, furnishings, and clothing. Although this may sound nice at first, they are expected to pay almost everything back. This includes the plane ticket, and the funds given to them (The Reception and Placement Program). Starting a new life in a new land can be very difficult. To start off, many refugees come into America not knowing English. This can be a major problem. Knowing English is essential for many tasks such as finding a job, going to school, making friends, ordering food, and so on. To help with this problem, many refugees take classes, but learning English is not a quick task. It can take months and even years just to become comfortable with the language (Nuñez). Next comes sponsors. "Families who are not sponsored have to pay for all their furniture, household items, and food out of the very small resettlement fund given to them by the government. It is a huge advantage to a family when a group sponsors them." (Salzman). This is saying that it can be very difficult for unsponsored families to pay the bills. Finding a job and going to school can also be challenging. Again, not knowing the language can be a big set back.
The three topics I picked are gender, race, and religion. However, my views on these subjects have not changed because I considered myself to be a very open-minded person. After reading "The Berdache Tradition" I learned that the several Native American tribes had a different kind of cultural construction of gender within their group. I was very fond of their origin myth that was about several worlds and crossing over them to find equal ground for everyone. I found this reading to be very interesting because it seems that no one takes the chance to mention the subject of having more than one gender. Usually people are focused on physical differences of sex and the expectations that are associated with gender. The same goes for the group in
A Refugee is a person who has been forced to leave their country because of the war or the
“War torn nations left bullet-ridden ruins, native people forced to flee and find new homes in foreign places-this is the reality of the refugees.” First of all what is a refugee? Refugees are normal everyday people who are forced to flee their homes because they are afraid to stay in their home country. And when they do flee, they may be obliged to leave behind family members, friends, a home, a job, and other special possessions. One of these refugees is a war-torn child who suffered the harsh realities of the 1975 Vietnam war.
According to the 1951 Refugee Convention, refugee is a term applied to anyone who is outside his/her own country and cannot return due to the fear of being persecuted on the basis of race, religion, nationality, membership of a group or political opinion. Many “refugees” that the media and the general public refer to today are known as internally displaced persons, which are people forced to flee their homes to avoid things such as armed conflict, generalized violations of human rights or natural and non-natural disasters. These two groups are distinctly different but fall ...
Immigrants were first welcomed in the late 1700s. European explorers like Walter Raleigh, Lord Baltimore, Roger William, William Penn, Francis Drake, John Smith, and others explored to the New World for religious purposes and industrial growth. The first European settlers that settled in the late 1700s were the Pilgrims. After the Pilgrims first settled in Virginia, the expansion of immigrants started. Then in 1860 to 1915, America was growing with its industries, technology, and education. America’s growing empire attracted many people from Europe. The factors that attracted many people to the American cities where job opportunities with higher income, better education, and factory production growth. As the population grew in the American
In this essay, I will be talking about social work problems faced in the UK and how they are addressed. I will be focusing on asylum seekers particularly Unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC). These are children who are under 18yrs of age and applying for asylum in their own rights. I aim to highlight key areas in understanding the needs of these children while recognising that these are by no means homogenous, and therefore explain how these needs are addressed by social policies, legislature and social workers.
For centuries, migrating has been a life changing decision for people that choose to enter the United States in search of a better future. Therefore, immigration is the permanent residency of people that choose to move to a new country. There are debates concerning the immigrants who enter the United Stated illegally and as the daughter of immigrant parents, I am fortunate to be born in this country.
About seventy-five thousand refugees enter the United States each year. These refugees come from all over the world. Their lives turned inside out and back again, just like Ha’s life. Ha and universal refugees both had to face hardships because they had to escape terrible situations, survive long journeys, and adapt to life in a new place.
Refugee is an important term and concept existing in international studies. In order to understand the problems confronting refugees, we must first know the definition and the concept of refugee.
The Mental Health of refugees is an important factor that can play into how they adjust to, and live in a new area or country. It can be more difficult for a refugee to adjust to a new country if that country is on the other side of the spectrum when it comes to development. Some refugees immigrate to new countries to have a better life; most of those countries are high income countries. Today Syrian refugees are finding different ways to get into better counties in Europe. Many are coming in by boats loading as many people as possible, which results in dangerous journeys for the refugees and a large amount of people flooding European countries. Reported by the news network CNN, as many as 30 refugees are piling onto a small inflatable boat along the Turkish coast just to paddle their way to Greece (Watson). Many are just trying to create a better life for themselves or for their families. Refugees transitioning to these new countries can often experience culture shock once they enter into their host country. Researchers have found that refugees can be affected by post-traumatic stress disorder and
Which at its very core is how the United States came to be. In unit one we discussed demographic characteristics of race how the population anticipates to shift and grow overtime. The conversation seems to be a revolving circle of protecting the border, balancing diversity and reforming the policies. The article does a great job of contrasting the history of the refugee and asylum policies enacted by law. “Under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and the 1967 protocol, and adopted into U.S. law, the U.S. must recognize refugees that fear persecution and are not able to get help from their home country.” (Barr, Luke). Often times these are poor individuals from countries classified as third world that flee for fear of persecution from government, war, crime, and other oppressive behaviors. That do not have the resources to maintain a life without fear or hardship most times these individuals are poor desperate to start a new life and provide a stable foundation for their
What is a refugee? A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, and disaster. This happens because if a country is going through war, it makes it hard to live there under the circumstances to live there and this causes refugees to want to take shelter in America. Refugees should not be welcomed into America because America has its own problems to deal with. Refugees would not only incite fear into our community’s but they also increase the chance of terrorism, insufficient space, drain us of our resources and cause chaos within our borders.
A refugee is defined as an individual who has been forced to leave their country due to political or religious reasons, or due to threat of war or violence. There were 19.5 million refugees worldwide at the end of 2014, 14.4 million under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), around 2.9 million more than in 2013. The other 5.1 million Palestinian refugees are registered with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). With the displacement of so many people, it is difficult to find countries willing to accept all the refugees. There are over 125 different countries that currently host refugees, and with this commitment comes the responsibility of ensuring these refugees have access to the basic requirements of life; a place to live, food to eat, and a form of employment or access to education. Currently, the largest cause of refugees is the Syrian civil war, which has displaced over 2.1 million people. As a country of relative wealth, the United States should be able to provide refuge for many refugees, as well as provide monetary support to the refugees that they are not able to receive.
U.S. immigration law is very complex, and there is much uncertainty as to how it works. The Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA), the body of law governing current immigration policy, provides for an annual worldwide limit of 675,000 permanent immigrants, with certain exceptions for close family members ("How the United States Immigration System Works: A Fact Sheet"). Around the world there are so many immigrants/refugees who are in the hunt for a fitter life. Some come from places where civil war occurs or some suffer economically trying to support their family. Knowing the fact that they are desperate to seek for a better life, the best option is to migrate to the U.S, the land of opportunities. The problem lies in the migration to the U.S. What are the quotas for new immigrants arriving to the U.S? What are the eligibility requirements to becoming a permanent citizen in the U.S? With much inquiry, this topic has become very intriguing. What people must understand is that
Refugees are people who flee their countries because of war, natural disasters, or poverty. Many refugees flee to neighboring countries where they find refuge. They try to stay in places called “refugee camps” for refugees to stay. Currently, over half population from Syria are fleeing because of a serious civil war. For this reason, most refugees from Syria go into Jordan. In Jordan, refugee find many problems.