For the podcast, I interviewed Lina Abdulnoor, with the intention of exploring the intricacies of refugeehood by analyzing Lina’s refugee experience. Lina lived in Iraq with her family until they began receiving death threats due to their religious beliefs. Convinced that they needed to flee the country to survive, they left Iraq as refugees. After leaving Iraq, they settled in Jordan, where they waited two years until the U.N. to approve their request to move to the U.S. in 2012. Lina and her family initially settled in Virginia, where she experienced culture shock as she adapted to American culture and the English language. However, Lina did not feel accepted in Virginia; her experiences in the state led her to think that Americans treated her according to negative stereotypes of Iraqis. After living in Virginia for several months, Lina and her family chose to resettle in San Diego, California, which harbored a larger Iraqi population than Virginia did. Supported by San Diego’s Iraqi community and various refugee organizations, Lina flourished, and she currently studies at UCSD while holding a stable job. Lina emigrated from Iraq because someone who held different religious beliefs than those of Lina’s family threatened her safety. Linda Trinh Vo states, “Unlike most immigrants, refugees do not leave their country voluntarily, but are compelled to leave by life-threatening circumstances or are forcibly expelled” (291) in her work “The Vietnamese American Experience: From
Comparatively Lina's life in America was a big concern for her family because she was a young girl who struggled to acquire personal independence from her traditional Arab parents. Thus she became a typical American teenager, like many high school kids, she wanted to find her identity so she dressed and dated like them and her mom got furious about it. Lina was sent to Iraq to embrace the culture and her roots as an Arab women. Especially seeing how Iraq has no rights and values like America has all because of Saddam Hussein. Being young and Arab in America is not always about discrimination or being the target of a crime they did not commit, being a young Arab can also mean being a part of the teenage culture and its consequences. In Lina's
As a first generation U.S citizen, I understand what America means to refugees. I I see it in my mother’s look of hopefulness for us, even after her long shifts at work, that leave her fingers cracked and bloody. It’s my grandmother’s late night calls, urging me to do well, and to succeed. It’s my uncle’s reminders to be grateful, for I have the education and opportunities he did not have. For many, America symbolizes hope and opportunity.
A refugee is generally thought of as an individual who flees their country due to (but not limited to) racial, religious, or ideological persecution. These people often leave war-torn countries where violence and tyranny strips the very freedoms and opportunities that are the inalienable backbone of the United States. It is no surprise, then, that immigrants from every stretch of the planet have settled in America, freely practicing their beliefs and often playing a critical role in the entrepreneurial development of our capitalist foundation. One such group is the Chaldeans. Hailing from small villages in the north of Iraq—a place historically referred to as Mesopotamia—where the ancient Babylonians once made their home, the Chaldeans are a Catholic group of people who speak Aramaic, the language of Christ. Throughout the last century, the introduction of Saddam Hussein and the
This book, and the lessons Mrs. Song taught through it, were some of the most eye-opening experiences of my academic career. Mrs. Song was immensely fond of multi-faceted ways of teaching. She took us on a field trip to the refugee offices in Nashville, TN where I learned that most people do not understand how difficult it is to integrate into American culture, and also how important it is to adjust wholly. These experiences have fueled my desire to learn more about refugees in my community and how to serve them. Following this Nashville visit, Mrs. Song introduced us to her friend who was a refugee from Liberia. She currently owns a local sewing shop, and she invited us to her shop to discuss her life and journey as a refugee. My eyes were opened to the hardship, courage, and perseverance required of immigrants. Learning of their hardships encouraged me to persevere through difficult situations.
Earlier this week The New York Times issued an account in their Sunday paper discussing the critical topic in regards to America accepting Refugees from the Middle East. The Times honed in on this topic in the column “ U.S Will Accept More Refugees as Crisis Grows”, written by Michael R. Gordon, Alison Smale, and Rick Lyman. The feature begins to discuss the problems that are being raised in the Middle East. Hundreds of thousands of men, women, and families in countries like Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Bhutan are in danger due to the fact that their countries are facing war. This leads to the people of these countries being forced to leave in order to escape the war and oppression. These people are called Refugees. The problem cultivates as wealthier neighboring countries become reluctant in helping these refugees because of their anti-refuge politics. Refugees are then forced to travel as far away as they can, paying until they can no longer go any further. They are then forced into labor, later leading them to escape in an unsafe and deathly manner across the Mediterranean sea to Europe. This being the cause of the many deaths of men, women, and children across the Middle East as they had hopes of a better life elsewhere.The Washington Post also reflects on this subject in their column, “Refugees in America: Syrian family rebuilds life in the U.S” by Deepti Hajela. Hajela interviews a Syrian family, the Roustom. The father Hassan Al Roustom exclaims,
After spending two decades of the chaotic life in a refugee camp, I ended up immigrating to the U.S in April, 2009 as a part of resettlement program offered by the U.S government with the hope of bright future, freedom and opportunity. However, transition to an American society is daunting.
Meg, When I search for the phone recording for this incident, nothing came up and I’m sure that during this time the phone recorder was down in CDU-Hamilton. But I did get the initial radio recording of us calling SSP (attached).
A common misconception about refugees is that America is allowing the wrong people to relocate here, this, however, is not the case. In her article, “How Syrians
This poignant photograph of a refugee girl named Hudea so anxious by the crosshairs of war that she gazed into a camera’s telephoto lens and subsequently mistook it for a barrel of a gun and raised her arms in submission has been shared around the world.
Recently, the city of Mosul in northern Iraq, home to over two million residents has been occupied by IS forcing residents to flee and seek refuge. According to the British Broadcasting Company, over 5,000 people have crossed the border into Syria since October 9th, 2016. They all have migrated to the al-Hol refugee camp over 100 miles away from Mosul. The al-Hol refugee camp is fitted to house 7,500 refugees; currently it is overcrowded at nearly 9,000 residents. The al-Hol camp is expected to receive around 3,000 more residents in the next 24 hours.
Actually, I learned a lot through training in International center of Kentucky (the refugee center), my experiences and my knowledge has increased in various fields. Center provides to the intern the opportunity to work in different departments, also, external work. By working within the center, it was my job varied between immigration departments, and taught English ESL class, and I have worked for several days at the reception. In addition the routine office work to help managers like make some phone calls, fax, and copy forms. Add to that the translation of some letters and articles from English to Arabic and vice versa. That because there are refugees from Iraq, they speak only Arabic.
However, the agencies assist them in staying together. In Houston, there is a hospitable environment for refugees where there are, welcoming people, great economy, generous people and better employment. Interfaith took the news hard just like any refugee service would do to ensure Al Hadan was resettled. This shows they are concerned about other people’s welfare. Interfaith Ministries believe in their country’s tradition of welcoming families fleeing violence and persecution. Raequel Roberts asserts that our experience displays that the refugees are normal humans with abnormal circumstances. This is the key to overcoming fear. The challenge of long duration process of getting citizenship. This is depicted whereby the green card is applied within a year while the citizenship takes 5 years. This challenge should be curbed if only they protested for a faster procedure to acquire citizenships. It is only that a country shows its progress and beauty when it renders its people their rights and responsibilities whether natives or refugees. The hour long interviews and the vetting agencies should also be reinstated. However, the Interfaith Ministries has shown ethnicity in their tradition which has helped to brighten the refugees
As I looked over to snowy meadow I wondered if we would ever convince Strong horn we can't leave this place, as I stood up to walk over to the nearby flowing stream. This was the only body of water our flock had access to, as I watched the crystal clear water flow down the diagonal slope I saw my reflection in this water there I was a young Ram still being a trained killing machine to keep our flock together Bruce Defender of the Strong horn flock I thought to myself. There were also two other flocks the Bighorns and the Broken horns these clans were divided up by our family name.
The issue of refugees coming to America first surfaced during World War II, when millions of Europeans fled their homes for a better future. Since then, there has been a large amount of dispute over this issue. This became a much bigger problem after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and with concerns of future acts of terrorism in the country, this topic has become a big controversy. The United States should accept refugees under the following conditions, minors should come into the country with an adult, there should be a higher security in case of terrorists, and we should have more job opportunities aimed towards refugees so that they have a better future here in America.
a topic of great debate for many years, both in the UK and across many