"Refugee" Revised

After reading the UNHC report on Protecting Refugees my eyes have been opened much wider to what it means to be a refugee. While before reading the article I really just looked at refugees as people who had fled their home country from racial and religious tensions, and in my first blog I explained this a little bit deeper, I now have come to know and understand the plight of a refugee on a much deeper level. While the definition crafted at the 1951 convention relating to the status of refugees stated “A refugee is someone who ‘owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country…’” which is very similar to my initial definition of a refugee, I was completely unaware of the many levels that one can be a refugee. 

While the status of “refugee” is most well known, I was most surprised by finding out about other statuses such as “Asylum-Seeker”, “Internally Displaced Person”, and “Stateless Person”. Much like Native Americans that have been relocated from their native lands to “equal” lands in Oklahoma and the Dakotas, those who are under the status of Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) suffer the same fate. While they are still in their same home country and are claimed to have the same rights as they had before, they are essentially trapped in isolation. They were forced to leave their homes, which in many cases on both sides were the homes of many generations of family, and while given legally “equal” rights to those not under governmental or other political control, it is clear that their rights are in fact quite limited, as to not create further conflict. 

In terms of the African Community Center, I could not be more excited to begin working with the group. Already this year I have volunteered once a week at the Somali Community Center of Colorado, which like the ACC, helps refugees in their assimilation and new life in America. I assist in the tutoring of students grades K-8 on their daily homework as well as longer-term projects. In working with the Somali Center, I have come to have a deep respect for those I work with, many of which who are first generation immigrants from Somalia. I have learned about each of their diverse stories, and this is something that I also look forward to doing at the ACC. Like working at the Somali Center, I wish to help those who have come to this country in search of refuge and as well as not only helping them, I wish to grow my own horizons by learning about their own stories and knowledge, coming from such a different background than my own.