It’s a
complicated process gaining legal status as a “Refugee.” People just can’t
catch a flight to New York, and walk up to Customs and say, “Hey, I’m a
refugee. Let me in!”
The process
involves extreme vetting by international agencies, US immigration agencies,
and domestic non-profit organizations. It then requires acquiring sponsorship
by a resettlement agency, such as World Relief. The entire process usually
takes over 10 years to complete.
But
recently, the US State Department has significantly lowered the number of
refugees allowed into the country. Although this is not unprecedented, it has
created a wave of financial cutbacks in non-profit refugee resettlement
services, and has led to an increase in fear and anxiety among the refugee community.
Moreover, many people are backing away from helping or volunteering with agencies
servicing local refugees. They feel it’s too political, or too controversial.
So, why are
we still serving the refugee community in our area?
Imagine
Imagine what
it would be like if you had to run from your apartment or house in the middle
of the night, leaving behind everything that couldn’t fit into a bag or
backpack. Then, imagine you find safe passage out of your city, and are granted
access to a UN supervised refugee camp … in Mexico. There you are given a new
home, which might be little more than a shack with a blue tarp roof. You have no
air conditioning, nor any indoor plumbing; you eat the basic staples provided
by the UN refugee commission; you are given second hand clothing supplied by volunteer
groups; you have no access to the internet (oh, the horror!); and then you have
to learn a new set of survival skills when human traffickers roam through the
camp, shopping for human flesh. Then, imagine that ten years later, you’re
selected to resettle in a new land … but that new land is Singapore, which has a
very different culture, a foreign language with a different alphabet, and a
people with a different story to learn. Consider the trauma you’d experience, and
then you can appreciate the journey of a refugee.
