Refugee? Immigrant? Is there any difference? Absolutely!
An immigrant is someone who chooses to resettle in a foreign country and then opts (or not) to follow the legal process to do so. I am in a fourth generation immigrant family; my family chose to come to America and then settled themselves in the Pacific Northwest. Immigrants are not settled by placement agencies and are not usually given the level of support afforded to refugees. They place themselves and independently find a support network.
A refugee is someone displaced from their home/country by war, persecution or other actions that endanger their lives. They have to apply for refugee status and that can sometimes take years. They have to prove that it is too dangerous to return to their home and country. This process is long and arduous and it is not uncommon for a refugee to live in a tent city for up to ten years.
Some refugee children have only known a tent city as their norm. They have been living in these primitive conditions for years and may not have the same level of education that our children have been given. When the children come to America, they are often placed with children of their own age; previously they were probably matched with children of their level of proficiency. I have heard stories of refugee children tweaking their birthday so that they would get more education in a longer period of time. Maybe an 18 year old would say he or she is 16 years old and would graduate at 20 years old instead of 18 years old like his or her peers. I have also heard of multiple children in a family all having January 1st as their birthday. What if the parents don't have access to a calendar? This can be tricky if we are helping multiple moms with the same name and the same birth date!
Refugees are usually partnered with a placement agency in the US. In my area, Catholic Charities has caseworkers assigned to multiple families. At the start they are given a cash allowance, per family member, to provide food for the family. After Catholic Charities places them in homes, they help the families get social security numbers. If the refugees have social security numbers, they can sign up for food benefits like SNAP. Catholic Charities also helps the parents enroll their children into school and assists the parents in job hunting. Usually the placement agency can only assist the families for 3 to 6 months.
Suddenly the family is on their own and has to navigate the technology rich society of the United States. This is where the City of Refuge comes into the picture. We help refugees and immigrants set up email accounts, find doctors, and find better jobs. There was a group of young men who were skilled in climbing trees to harvest coconuts. These young men were a perfect fit for a local tree cutting business! It was a win-win because the tree service "flourished" (pun intended) and the young men were doing something familiar.
Recently a refugee passed away and the family turned to City or Refuge to help plan the funeral. I can tell you from personal experience that funeral planning is stressful and difficult. Can you imagine how hard it would be to plan a funeral if you were not a native born English speaker?
I found an excellent article from CNN here if you are interested in learning more.
And of some have compassion, making a difference: Jude 1:22 KJV
All opinions expressed here are solely mine and are not a reflection
of the opinions of the Americorp VISTA program or of City of Refuge
in Columbia, MO.
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