Today we did a simulation on refugees asking countries for political asylum. What are your thoughts on today's activity? Who were you, what was your role/story/criteria?
Refugees have a hard and difficult path to follow. I found out in our simulation that countries are very discriminatory when choosing which refugees to accept. Countries consider religion, country of origin, languages spoken, and economic value. People who have valuable skills are more likely to be accepted. For example, the first flood of Cuban immigrants was filled with highly educated, wealthy Cubans that were quickly welcomed into the U.S. The next stream of poor Cubans had a very difficult time being accepted and received a cold welcome. Countries, whether they admit it or not, do not normally rejoice at the thought of opening their borders to displaced people who might drain their resources and create tension.
During today's simulation on refugees I was a Western European interviwerer. My partners were Marc and Michelle. Coming up with intrview questions was not very difficult. We chose to question the refugees on their purpose for seeking asylum, their work experience, and their plans on potentially returning to their country. In our overview on our region we were told to be concerned with the economic contribution of the refugees. The other groups asked questions involving health, which I found to be practical. Overall the activity was very effective. It was helpful to see what regions consider to be contributing factors in determining who they let into their country.
I don't have a lot of time, so this will be short.
My refugee character was highly educated and trained as a doctor in his country of origin (Sri Lanka.) As a result, all of the countries receiving immigrants accepted me, most of whom even guaranteed me positions in government hospitals. However, I think that in real life, the countries would discourage my character from taking away positions of natives of that country. Most likely the doctor from Sri Lanka would end up in a low income blue-collar job regardless of his previous occupation and education.
I found this simulation really interesting. I was a young refugee, Aisha, who was being persecuted because of her religion and had fled to a Bangladesh refugee camp. The university i had been attending had closed and i thought my best hope was to continue my education. Then i would get a good job and maybe be able to send money back to my parents in Myanmar. I found it extremely interesting that only one country accepted me, which was Indonesia. They took me because they were willing to invest in new people who could help and contribute to their society in the future. What i did not like is that i had been discriminated against as a woman. But i could understand how a country might not want to invest in a refugee who might return home eventually, and they would not want to waste resources on a foreigner. I realized just how hard it must be for actual refugees to get help. If we were only dealing with a few people, then countries must be overwhelmed by the numbers. We can sit back and say that they should take more people and be less strict about who they take but countries must think about what is best for themselves. This sounds horrible, but refugees will have an impact on the country they flee to and it must be taken into consideration. They will want the people who can benefit the country and give back, they do not want free loaders who get help and do nothing in return. I agree that more should be done to aid refugees, it is the logistics which takes time and this does not always look good in the international light.
i would hate to be a refugee. me and liv more specifically looked into the desperation, and stuggles that each refugge goes through by asking our applicants seeking assylum to complete difficult tasks. As much as it was funny to watch...vagisha laughing...it put into perspective what the refugees have to think about, and wiegh against the idea of saftey.
This was a pretty fun and interactive activity. Alex, Peter and I played the role of a medium sized, predominantly Muslim "emerging nation." The main thing that we focused on was the future. We told the applicants that if they were willing to invest their time and money in our country, we would help educate them and find them jobs. We accepted all four of the refugees under different terms because we felt that they could each serve our country in a different, productive way.
when we were first learning about refugees i foundit much more difficult to relate to their situation and sympathize with them than with most of the other material we covered. however when acting as a state and hearing how and why the other states picked their refugees it made much more sense as to how horrible it would be. it is an extremely difficult process and countries dont want refugees. even though when we were learning about it i kept thinking just take them! they're people too they deserve a place to stay and its your job to do it as authority figures! but when i was put in that very situaion i thought about my countries personal needs and weighed their acceptance on that alone.
when we were first learning about refugees i foundit much more difficult to relate to their situation and sympathize with them than with most of the other material we covered. however when acting as a state and hearing how and why the other states picked their refugees it made much more sense as to how horrible it would be. it is an extremely difficult process and countries dont want refugees. even though when we were learning about it i kept thinking just take them! they're people too they deserve a place to stay and its your job to do it as authority figures! but when i was put in that very situaion i thought about my countries personal needs and weighed their acceptance on that alone.
CTY2008-Human Rights blog is an opportunity for students to express their views regarding subject material, class activities, and their CTY experience in general.
8 comments:
Refugees have a hard and difficult path to follow. I found out in our simulation that countries are very discriminatory when choosing which refugees to accept. Countries consider religion, country of origin, languages spoken, and economic value. People who have valuable skills are more likely to be accepted. For example, the first flood of Cuban immigrants was filled with highly educated, wealthy Cubans that were quickly welcomed into the U.S. The next stream of poor Cubans had a very difficult time being accepted and received a cold welcome. Countries, whether they admit it or not, do not normally rejoice at the thought of opening their borders to displaced people who might drain their resources and create tension.
During today's simulation on refugees I was a Western European interviwerer. My partners were Marc and Michelle. Coming up with intrview questions was not very difficult. We chose to question the refugees on their purpose for seeking asylum, their work experience, and their plans on potentially returning to their country. In our overview on our region we were told to be concerned with the economic contribution of the refugees. The other groups asked questions involving health, which I found to be practical. Overall the activity was very effective. It was helpful to see what regions consider to be contributing factors in determining who they let into their country.
I don't have a lot of time, so this will be short.
My refugee character was highly educated and trained as a doctor in his country of origin (Sri Lanka.) As a result, all of the countries receiving immigrants accepted me, most of whom even guaranteed me positions in government hospitals. However, I think that in real life, the countries would discourage my character from taking away positions of natives of that country. Most likely the doctor from Sri Lanka would end up in a low income blue-collar job regardless of his previous occupation and education.
I found this simulation really interesting. I was a young refugee, Aisha, who was being persecuted because of her religion and had fled to a Bangladesh refugee camp. The university i had been attending had closed and i thought my best hope was to continue my education. Then i would get a good job and maybe be able to send money back to my parents in Myanmar.
I found it extremely interesting that only one country accepted me, which was Indonesia.
They took me because they were willing to invest in new people who could help and contribute to their society in the future.
What i did not like is that i had been discriminated against as a woman. But i could understand how a country might not want to invest in a refugee who might return home eventually, and they would not want to waste resources on a foreigner.
I realized just how hard it must be for actual refugees to get help. If we were only dealing with a few people, then countries must be overwhelmed by the numbers. We can sit back and say that they should take more people and be less strict about who they take but countries must think about what is best for themselves. This sounds horrible, but refugees will have an impact on the country they flee to and it must be taken into consideration. They will want the people who can benefit the country and give back, they do not want free loaders who get help and do nothing in return.
I agree that more should be done to aid refugees, it is the logistics which takes time and this does not always look good in the international light.
i would hate to be a refugee. me and liv more specifically looked into the desperation, and stuggles that each refugge goes through by asking our applicants seeking assylum to complete difficult tasks. As much as it was funny to watch...vagisha laughing...it put into perspective what the refugees have to think about, and wiegh against the idea of saftey.
This was a pretty fun and interactive activity. Alex, Peter and I played the role of a medium sized, predominantly Muslim "emerging nation." The main thing that we focused on was the future. We told the applicants that if they were willing to invest their time and money in our country, we would help educate them and find them jobs. We accepted all four of the refugees under different terms because we felt that they could each serve our country in a different, productive way.
when we were first learning about refugees i foundit much more difficult to relate to their situation and sympathize with them than with most of the other material we covered. however when acting as a state and hearing how and why the other states picked their refugees it made much more sense as to how horrible it would be. it is an extremely difficult process and countries dont want refugees. even though when we were learning about it i kept thinking just take them! they're people too they deserve a place to stay and its your job to do it as authority figures! but when i was put in that very situaion i thought about my countries personal needs and weighed their acceptance on that alone.
when we were first learning about refugees i foundit much more difficult to relate to their situation and sympathize with them than with most of the other material we covered. however when acting as a state and hearing how and why the other states picked their refugees it made much more sense as to how horrible it would be. it is an extremely difficult process and countries dont want refugees. even though when we were learning about it i kept thinking just take them! they're people too they deserve a place to stay and its your job to do it as authority figures! but when i was put in that very situaion i thought about my countries personal needs and weighed their acceptance on that alone.
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