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According to the United Nations, a refugee “is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.”
The UN has noted that we are “witnessing the highest level of displacement on record.” More than 21 million refugees, half of them under 18, have fled their homes because of war, armed conflict, and violence. They are fleeing civil war, political instability and violence driven by the turmoil in the Middle East, made worse by the chaos caused by the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
According to Human Rights First, “The U.S. pledge to resettle at least ten thousand Syrian refugees this fiscal year amounts to only about two percent” of the nearly half million Syrian refugees needing resettlement.
Refugees are required to apply for a green card within 1 year of their arrival and are eligible for citizenship after 5 years. Our English language instruction and cultural orientation services help refugees adjust to life in the contemporary United States. Iit is important to remember that the United States is culturally and ethnically diverse: immigrants have vitalized American culture by introducing new cuisines, music and dance, and poetry and literature. In time, new refugees will enrich American culture by introducing new forms of cuisine and artistic expression.
For many people around the world, the United States represents the hope of freedom from political persecution and fear, an attractive environment of ethnic and religious pluralism, and the opportunity to have a better life.
The Federal Government provides limited assistance for refugee settlement, consisting of 90 – 120 days of rent, and utilities for 6 months. The resettlement program has been designed as a joint public-private partnership with private agencies, NGOs, and community groups filling gaps in resettlement costs.
Rather than pose a risk to American citizens, refugees make significant contributions to the communities in which they settle and, overall, have settled well into American society according to a report by the Center for American Progress and the Fiscal Policy Institute that tracked the refugees settled in the United States over a ten-year period.7 Refugees are themselves fleeing violence and terrorism in their homelands. Many have additionally experienced trauma and deprivation during the perilous journeys they undertook leaving their homelands only to have subsequently faced hardships in refugee camps while they waited for their security clearances to settle in the United States.
P.O Box 8143
Bloomington, IN 47407
email: bloomingtonrefugees@gmail.com
(812)-345-0157
Peter Lenzen
(812)-325-4279