Wednesday, June 20, 2012

World Refugee Day

Photo courtesy of UNHCR - http://www.worldrefugeeday.us












Today is World Refugee Day.  It's a day to acknowledge the millions of people worldwide who have been forced to flee their homes because of violence or persecution.

Only a small fraction of those refugees end up permanently resettled in North America, the U.K. or Australia, but it's those "lucky few" that I would especially like to remember today.

I get the impression that many Americans believe that once refugees arrive in the U.S., most of their problems are over.  They've gotten out of the war zone and arrived in the land of wealth and opportunity: education, healthcare, and technology are at their fingertips.

Yes.  In many ways, life is safer and better here.  I would never want to deny that, nor how grateful most refugees are to come.  However, arrival in the U.S. doesn't magically fix everything.  Refugees still face language barriers, un-/under-employment, unfamiliar customs, and the aftereffects of trauma.  Many are separated from at least part of their family, sometimes permanently.  Many go without healthcare or food simply because they don't know how to use our systems.  Many want an education but their long work days make it almost impossible.

Those are the big things, though.  It's the "little," moment-to-moment challenges that I think we overlook most often.  The things in life that are so much a part of our lives that we don’t even realize we ever had to learn them.

What a refrigerator is.  How to hold a pencil.  How to buy food at a grocery store.  How to read the walk/don't walk symbols  at crosswalks.   How to know that when you buy toothpaste it comes in a box, even though when someone hands it to you it's in a tube.  How weekly garbage-collection works.  How to stand in a line.  Not only how to read, but--in some cases--how to understand that marks on paper can even have meaning.  

Picture encountering that much bewildering unfamiliarity, on top of the other "big" challenges.  Picture leaving a home where you were eloquent and skillful and respected, only to find yourself in a place where you don't even know how to prepare dinner or how to greet your neighbor; a place where people assume you're stupid.

In spite of all of this, most refugees who come to the States approach their new surroundings with an astounding level of energy and success.  Most I've met are quick to smile and eager to learn.   It's a beautiful testament to human resilience and the courage of the individuals themselves.

It's never easy, though.

I'd like to call people out today, to pray for the world's 43.7 million refugees and displaced people.  Pray for the people who are in the middle of fleeing and don't know where to go or if anyone will take them.  Pray for the people sitting in over-populated refugee camps, sometimes for decades.  And pray for the small fraction of refugees who have been resettled in our land of opportunity, that they would be encouraged and blessed and thrive in their new home.  

Pray also for us, as a resettlement country, that we would see and remember and love these people among us. 

Some places for more information about refugees and their lives:
What would you do? (an interactive tool to see the dilemmas faced by refugees)