I think it's necessary to devote a post to explain WHY refugees come to the states. The HOW of refugee resettlement can be found anywhere on the internet, so if you are interested in the actual process, by all means, please research it. What I want to explain is what you won't read about online... the events that cause these foreigners to land on US soil. The most common misconception about refugees is that they are the same as immigrants... leaving their homes in search of a future with more opportunity. In actuality, refugees are forced from their homes when they had no desire to leave. Many would love to return to their homes and live the rest of their lives in their village. All of them are making the best of their new lives here, but many would return if they could. But they can't. They are never allowed back to their homes that they love and miss daily. The land of their language, culture, food and familiarity. Where they know the lay of the land, the traditions, the people. The very fabric that makes them who they are -- to be stripped of that, and for it never to return... Lord help us understand even slightly!!
War is the #1 reason people are forced to flee their homes. Imagine being invaded by another country (Iraqi refugees), or having your own countrymen rise up against you (Burmese refugees), killing your loved ones and destroying your home. I do not write my opinions about these wars, but the effects they have on the people caught in the middle. If this happened to you, and you would die if you remained in your homeland, you would be forced to flee to a neighboring country. You would be left without options and on the run. This is hard to imagine for an American mind, unfathomable in fact. Nevertheless, it is reality for millions.
If they make it out alive (quite literally), a neighboring country will accept them as refugees and place them in a refugee camp on the border. Hundreds of thousands of people live in these camps, and the refugees we meet in Phoenix have spent as much as 18 years in these camps. They rely on bags of rice to be delivered by international aide organizations, they become dependent for years on end. They were used to working many hours a day in fields and farms, and now they are dependent upon bureaucracies for their most basic needs.
The 2009 World Refugee Survey reports there are over 8 million refugees who have been confined to camps for 10+ years, and 62 million refugees worldwide (unconfined).
http://www.refugees.org/FTP/WRS09PDFS/WarehousingMap.pdf
Like I said earlier, the process of resettlement can be found online so I won't go into that - but I hope you have gleaned a glimpse into their lives. Until next time...
War is the #1 reason people are forced to flee their homes. Imagine being invaded by another country (Iraqi refugees), or having your own countrymen rise up against you (Burmese refugees), killing your loved ones and destroying your home. I do not write my opinions about these wars, but the effects they have on the people caught in the middle. If this happened to you, and you would die if you remained in your homeland, you would be forced to flee to a neighboring country. You would be left without options and on the run. This is hard to imagine for an American mind, unfathomable in fact. Nevertheless, it is reality for millions.
If they make it out alive (quite literally), a neighboring country will accept them as refugees and place them in a refugee camp on the border. Hundreds of thousands of people live in these camps, and the refugees we meet in Phoenix have spent as much as 18 years in these camps. They rely on bags of rice to be delivered by international aide organizations, they become dependent for years on end. They were used to working many hours a day in fields and farms, and now they are dependent upon bureaucracies for their most basic needs.
The 2009 World Refugee Survey reports there are over 8 million refugees who have been confined to camps for 10+ years, and 62 million refugees worldwide (unconfined).
http://www.refugees.org/FTP/WRS09PDFS/WarehousingMap.pdf
Like I said earlier, the process of resettlement can be found online so I won't go into that - but I hope you have gleaned a glimpse into their lives. Until next time...
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