Saturday, December 3, 2016

Walk a Mile in their Shoes: Immigrants & Refugees Episode

You are a 5th grade student.  You were born in the United States.  Your parents were not.  New laws are enacted that will cause your parents to be deported.  But not you.  How does that make you feel?

You fall in love with a person from another country.  He or she comes here legally.  You enjoy the life you had planned.  But suddenly a huge push for "English Only" occupants is brewing.  How does that make you feel?  What if he or she gets deported?  Even without the threat of deportation, just knowing that the majority is against your love, making him or her feel awful.  Alone.  Unwelcome.  Who wants that?

You live in a country where your lives are in daily threat.  You take your children and come to the US.  You do so legally.  But you have three children and you cannot get a job that pays enough to keep them fed and housed.  In fact, you cannot get enough jobs that cover basic expenses.  Yet even though you came here legally, and even though you have legal jobs, you cannot apply for government subsidization for at least 5 years... if not more.  How do you plan to get through these years?

Immigrants.  They come from everywhere.  They look like us or they look different.  They talk different.  They may have different mores and customs.  Yet there's a funny thing about them-- they are still people.  And they came here in hopes of improving their situation.  The land of the free, the home of the brave.  The place for your poor, hungry, and, well, you know:
"From her beacon-hand glows the world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame" (Lazarus, n.d.).  And of course, the great one: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (Lazarus, n.d.).  Does that not sound inviting?  I mean really inviting?  Like, to all?  So what went wrong?

I am trying to learn to do handstands.  I'm still in the phase where I need the wall, so I use my hallway since there is a free & clear space.  While I'm chilling upside down, I look at my bookshelves and admire all of those yummy books I want to read.  There was one that kept calling me; "What is the What."  I first heard about it years ago with my old book club.  We never read it together but it was definitely discussed and I went ahead and purchased it.  I finally (FINALLY!!!) got around to reading it (oh, only around 7 or 8 years later...) and though it took me a while to get through, I was blown away at how much emotion that stirred in me.  Refugees.  It's like people think they want to run from their land and to leave everything behind.  It's like we expect them to just be able to "fix" their situations and deal with it on their own.  This is sheer terror that causes so many of them to flee.  Not terror as in riding a freaky roller coaster, terror as in seeing their families and friends burned, tortured, beaten, shot, beheaded, etc. right next to them.  I'd run too!  Refugee.  What does that even mean, exactly?  According to Oxford Dictionaries, it's "a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster" (Refugee, n.d.).  Forced to leave.  Do they have a few months to get their affairs in order before taking off, or time to say goodbye to loved ones, a forwarding address to give them in hopes of reconnecting in a few months?  No, not usually.  They run in the middle of the night.  The kids, if they are lucky, can take a comforting stuffed animal or blanket.  Others aren't even "lucky" enough to be able to take a change of clothes.  Or food.  Or pictures like those that so many of us hold dear.  Imagine just suddenly having to get up, right now, running out your door, and never coming back.  Imagine losing everything that you have ever worked to acquire without any hope of seeing it again.  I can't do it.  I honestly cannot imagine what it must be like. I've read books about it, seen the news clips, read articles on the 'net and in the paper, but I cannot wrap my head around getting up, running away from here for fear of my life, and never coming back. 

I got to go on a field trip the other day to the Japanese American Museum.  With all of the talk about the concentration camps that the Nazis were running, it seems like the "camps" here in the US are often overlooked.  The Japanese, whether US citizens or not, were rounded up and sent to these camps for their safety.  "Their" safety.  At least that's what they were told.  What were they being kept safe from?  The docent of my little group the other day was born in one of these camps.  She had first-hand knowledge of the living conditions, the weirdness of it all, and the sacrifices that were made during that time.  She explained what her family experienced, what she saw first-hand, and gave these stories a very personal feel.  Personal because she is a real person.  What are we learning from history?  Anything at all, or are we trying to do the same things over and over again in hopes that the results will be different?  I don't get it.  Read "What is the What" if you want to experience life in a whole new way.  After you're done, let's try to come up with the answers. 


References
Lazarus, E. (n.d.). The new colossus.  Retrieved from http://www.libertystatepark.com/emma.htm
Refugee [Def. 1]. (n.d.). Oxford Learner's Dictionaries, retrieved December 03, 2016 from http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/refugee

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