Opening Old Doors with New Keys
No matter how bad things seem these days, most people living in the United States cannot fathom the concept of being forced to flee persecution, war or violence. The well-founded fear in these individuals who face persecution for their race, religion or political affiliation often means they may never be able to return to their homeland safely. “Today [m]ore than half of all refugees worldwide come from just three countries: Syria, Afghanistan and South Sudan.” [1](UNHCR, 2018)
In 1933 a 54 year old German born physicist called Albert Einstein requested that notable American intellectuals including philosopher John Dewey, the writer John Dos Passos, and the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr to form a branch of the International Relief Association in New York. “Its mission, as The New York Times reported on July 24, 1933, was to “assist Germans suffering from the policies of the Hitler regime. Another group of leaders formed the Emergency Rescue Committee when Paris fell to the Nazis in 1940. As the crisis deepened into World War II, the two groups merged. And so came into being the organization that would grow into today’s International Rescue Committee. Einstein arrived in America on October 17, 1933 after he and thousands of other Jews fled persecution in Nazi Germany. “[2](IRC, 2017)
This fiscal year “America is on track to resettle only 20,800 refugees according to The Economist’s calculations—a 61% reduction from the previous year, and the fewest since 1980, when the modern system of admissions was established.
This fiscal year “America is on track to resettle only 20,800 refugees according to The Economist’s calculations—a 61% reduction from the previous year, and the fewest since 1980, when the modern system of admissions was established.
As it was during World War II, today one of the most effective and important voices in the refugee community is that of an individual who themselves is cut from the same cloth. “Kathy Tran…spent her infancy in a Malaysian refugee camp after her parents fled Vietnam; she arrived with her parents in the U.S. as refugees in the early 1980s, when she was two years old. Now 39, she has spent much of her career working with refugees and immigrants. After President Donald Trump’s election ushered in an anti-refugee administration, Tran decided to enter politics. In November, she was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, becoming the first Vietnamese American – and one of the first Asian American women – in the state’s legislature.”[4](Karas, 2018) Today Tran is working to change perspectives on the experience and talent that refugees bring to the workforce and economy of their newly adopted countries.
In 1933 the policies of the German government not only put out the light on 6 million Jewish souls, they posed a serious threat to arguably some of the greatest minds we’ve ever known as a civilization. Today the policies set forth by the latest US administration threatens to keep millions living in oppression or worse, not living at all. The work of Kathy Tran and other foreign nationals who have benefited from regulations of a given regime is key to keeping this very crucial conversation moving forward. Standing against tyranny is difficult enough. Imagine having to do it in a world where no one has your back.
[1] UNHCR (April 30th, 2018) What is a Refugee? https://bit.ly/2kMpkO8
[2] International Rescue Committee (June 20th, 2017) Rescue Timeline 1933 https://bit.ly/2mLN2Zw
[3] The Economist (April 21st, 2018) Return to sender: America is on track to admit the fewest refugees in four decades https://econ.st/2vwDeJ2
[4] Karas, Tania (April 27th, 2018) When Refugees Lead: A Conversation With An American Lawmaker https://bit.ly/2HDZrq6
