No one is prepared for war and the most challenging decisions you will have to make to survive. Although each character in Refugee, by Alan Gratz, is from a different time and place, they each share similar hardships and challenges in their experiences, such as they were all forced from their homes, they all lose a family member, and their problems begin in their own country.
The book begins by discussing the historical context of the war and time period in which refugees emerge into the scene. According to Tang, “the United States publicly positioned itself as the champion of displaced Cambodians, passing the 1980 Refugee Act and casting it as a global freedom project and Cambodian refugees as needing rescue by U.S. liberalism” (15). Throughout the book, Tang discusses how the United States contributes to the constant state of captivity that refugees experience from the minute they leave home to the moment they arrive in America. The United States’ participation in the Vietnam War gave rise to Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge; these conditions caused a lot of unrest and forced many people like Ra to flee or remain trapped in captivity under the Khmer Rouge. The United States’ perspective on their actions during the war do not acknowledge their contributions to the national refugee crisis. Refugees are viewed as a solution to the war in the American perspective; thus, Eric Tang introduces the concept of refugee exceptionalism: “the ideologies and discursive practices that figure refugees as necessarily in the hyperghetto but never of it” (14). Tang effectively outlines the subsequent chapters where they each address a certain way in which captivity is maintained for Ra and other refugees. In Chapter 3 that mentions the Welfare Resistance, Ra is shown to be
If you were forced to leave your home and flee to another country because of terrorism, would you not want the people of that country to welcome you with open arms? Today, thousands of refugees in the Middle East are escaping the terrorism in their homelands to go to a free country such as the United States. These immigrants are avoiding terrorism because of what they have seen happen to others who were affected by the terrorists. An immigrant is someone who migrates to another country, usually for permanent residence and a terrorist is a person or a member of a group that uses or advocates terrorism. With the rise of Middle Eastern immigrants escaping terrorism, the people of the United States need to support the refugees in adjusting to
When enacting policies toward asylum seekers and refugees, countries always examine the impact of the economic burden that an influx of vulnerable people is going to have on the country. Accepting refuges requires to government of the asylum country to provide access to housing, welfare, healthcare and education to the new immigrants. Access to career services is also required in order for the new immigrants to receive training and certification needed for them to get employed. However, all these services cause an economic strain in the lives of citizens of asylum countries that is reflected in their taxes. In order to minimize the burden, many countries enact laws that decrease the access to social rights and educational institutions.
I am a refugee from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Thirteen years ago, I fled my country due to the war and I never went back. A Thursday evening, I heard gunshots outside my gate and I ran to see what was going on. People in the street were running back to their houses and stores were closing. Nothing was unusual because growing up, the sound of gunshots was like hearing fireworks for special occasions. There would be shooting and my family would either fled to the neighboring country for a night but then I would to school the next day. I starting running and I experience the life at a refugee camp for the first time when I was five years old, separated from my parents. However, in 2004, my tribe was targeted and we were hunted and been killed. The next day, my parents started calling our family members around to say goodbye. As I was hiding under the bed with my sisters, we held hands and started praying, asking God to welcome us in Heaven, I remember hearing shootings in front of our gate. Three men had come to rescue us but one was shot and died. My family and I were able to escape at the loss of one’s life. Ever since that night, my life found purpose. Someone had given up his life so that I can survive. I then knew that God had spared my life to help others. Moreover, that became my life’s purpose.
My name is Sandra Neema Nyamuhebe, and I am a refugee from the Congo in Central Africa. I moved to Tanzania with my family when I was 3 years old to escape wars at home. While in Tanzania, we had an extremely hard time being accepted and meeting our basic needs. My parent struggled to find work and food to feed the family. So, my family applied to be sent overseas to find refuge and more opportunity through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). We waited and hoped for 10 years to find a place to start a new life while living in Tanzania.
From 1991 over one-sixth of Bhutan’s people flee their country and take a shelter in Nepal, India and other countries around the world. The large populations of Bhutanese refugee are called lhotshamps, an ethnic group, who were forced to leave their country in the early 1990s. Among 105,000 Bhutanese I’m
Imagine not having a safe spot. A place where you don't feel protected. A place where you're not frightened. A place where you're not scared of dying if you don't leave immediately. In Refugee by Alan Gratz three characters are refugees in different times, going through the same experience of fleeing the life they knew. The 1930’s: Josef, a Jewish boy living through the Holocaust, must flee Germany on a ship headed to Cuba. 1994: Isabel, a Cuban girl living through riots and protests, flees Cuba on a makeshift boat after the Soviet Union collapsed. 2015: Mahmoud, a Syrian boy living through the Syrian Civil War, must leave Syria with his family after his home is bombed. All three of these realistic characters are experiencing the same journey,
Refugee Single Story My first encounter with a refugee was when I was about 5, my parents ran this organization in South Africa called New Communities. People from all over the world would come and stay for a year, they would learn more about God, learn how to build connections in the missionary world, it was sort of like a missionary camp. This one year a girl from New Communities wanted to branch out and go to a black church for the year that she lived in South Africa and that is where she met Luc, Luc Kabango. He was a refugee from the Congo, working at this church doing simple task like cleaning the bathroom and making sure the church was taken care of.One day he was let go and had no money, no job, and no house. So the lady who became
My single narrative on the refuguess is on my neighbor noah who is a refugee from Laos, this has been my first encounter with a refugee. he was born in a refugee camp form Vietnam and he lived in the camp for 10 years before they immigrated to the US California to be exact.
You may have heard of writer, Viet Thanh Nguyen from his Pulitzer (and other prizes/awards) winning debut novel The Sympathizer. And while the synopsis of The Sympathizer didn't really appeal to me, I was looking forward to The Refugees as my introduction to his writing. The Refugees is a collection of
There is also the health issue that surrounding the idea of a refugee. Some countries simply do not have the medical care that the specific refugee needs to survive certain condition. Sadly, people have to leave their home country to look for better health care. Countries like Haiti does not have the medical care to treat people, there some condition that requires care from countries like the United States. When it comes to someone’s health, depending on the condition, it can be a life of death situation. Marlie Casseus was a 14 years old girl from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Marlie had a 16 pounds tumor on her face, on December 14th, 2005, she undergo a surgery to remove the 16 pounds tumor at Holtz Children Hospital at Jackson Memorial. Marlie
Refugee Experience Ha as well as most other refugees have to face challenges that make them feel inside out like loss of family or things that are important to them.First of all in the book Inside Out And Back Again when they are on the boat to america Ha stated (Lai,75)” I chew grains slowly.” Ha and her family are malnourished for most of the time they are on the boat.Then in the book Ha explains how in the poem “Another Tent City”(Lai.108) “Mother amends our faith...saying all beliefs are basically the same.” Her family has to give up their religion so that they might find a home quicker.Finally In the article one of the kids that they speak to informs that (Children Of War,Brice)”Sometimes i wish we had stayed their… safe but without friends”
“With 1 human in every 113 affected, forced displacement hits record, …24 per min” (UNHCR, 2016). According to United Nations, "A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group" (UNHCR-US, n. d.). Statistics of UNHCR in 2015 shows 21.3 million refugees worldwide. Also, 3.2 million asylum-seekers and 40.8 million internally displaced people (IDP) are supported by United Nations in 125 countries. These higher numbers comparing to 2014 are due to the global rise of conflicts and war, and lower support of affected individuals by their governments. The shocking number belongs to children who constitute 51 percent of the refugee population, and 98,400 asylum-seeker children who are either separated from their parents or unaccompanied (UNHCR-CA, 2016).
Genocide: The Worst Humanitarian Disaster I am not a refugee. I am a white, middle-class, female American. I am a student at a public high school in the suburbs. My country is not being torn apart by genocide. My parents haven’t been killed. My government does not rape me. My family does not live in a tent in the middle of the desert. My community does not get by on a $1.00 per week for food, but my desires and passions connect to those who do.