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World Refugee Day turns spotlight on millions of displaced people worldwide
"The students and the people asked for democracy, but the one party in Burma didn't accept it," Say said in a telephone interview. "The military shut down the movement, arresting people, some went to jail, some disappeared, many students fled to Bangladesh, to the Thailand-Burma border. I was one of the people who fled to the border."
Say lived along the Burmese border with Thailand for 10 years, working as a teacher and moving on average every two years, often during the dry season "when the fighting came." He married on the border, and in 1997 Say, his wife and their baby crossed into Thailand.
"Since 1997, we move to Thailand. There was no way to go back. There were landmines set up in my area, in civil war they use landmines a lot," he said.
Without passports or "official identity," the family had no other option but to move to a Thai refugee camp. Say's second child was born there.
In 2005 Say and his family applied to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHRC) for resettlement in another country. On Nov. 6, 2008, they landed in Louisville, assigned to Kentucky Refugee Ministries (KRM), an affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM).
EMM will host a Eucharist and panel discussion focused on the plight of refugees, webcast live from the Episcopal Church Center in New York on June 19. The UNHCR has designated June 20 World Refugee Day -- on this day annually, celebrations and events are held around the world to bring awareness and attention to the more 16 million refugees and many more millions of people seeking asylum worldwide.
"Refugees are largely forgotten, invisible, and voiceless. Our church must call attention to the plight of refugees worldwide," said Deborah Stein, director of EMM. "World Refugee Day provides the opportunity to lift up our neighbors who are uprooted by conflict and facing persecution, who seek daily to achieve safety and security for themselves and their families. It also gives us the chance to celebrate the gifts that resettled refugees bring with them which enrich our local communities and our country."
Refugees are men, women and children who have fled their country to escape violence and persecution often related to their race, religion, politics or social groups. Life in a refugee camp is also a challenge, where food is rationed and opportunities to work are limited.
"We got a shelter in Thailand and as much as possible, they do something for us," Say said. "We are not allowed to go outside, and need permission to go outside and not more than one week. The problem is people need to find some food and need to have some money to buy food … people need to go outside and work, and you are not allowed. If you go outside you are arrested, we are just allowed to stay in the camp."
Eighty percent of the world's refugees and displaced people live in developing countries, (1.8 million in Pakistan) according to the 2008 UNHCR Global Trends report released June 16.
The U.S. accepts the most refugees
The U.S. Department of State works with and funds nine volunteer agencies -- five of them faith-based including EMM -- and the State of Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services to resettle refugees in the United States. Congress and the president determine the number of refugees permitted to resettle in the U.S. each year. The 2008 quota was set at 80,000, however, 60,192 were actually resettled.
"The U.S. is the largest resettlement country in the world," Stein said, adding that EMM oversees the arrival of six percent of the refugees entering the United States.
(Australia, Canada and Sweden line up behind the United States in accepting the largest number of refugees, according to the Global Trends report.)
Say and his family are members of a Burmese ethnic minority, the Karen, who have suffered severe persecution under Burma's military junta. Refugees from Burma represent the largest group resettled in the United States -- 18,139 people -- in 2008. Iraqis represented the second largest group.
EMM organizes the refugees' case before they arrive and assigns them to one of its 30 resettlement partner agencies in 27 dioceses. KRM handled the Say family's case.
"When we agree to accept a case from EMM, we have six to eight weeks before they (the refugees) arrive," said Carol Young, director of KRM (which also partners with Church World Service). "We try to find a church sponsor to assist with the initial resettlement. We have to find an apartment, provide furniture … if we have a church that can do some or all of that, it helps, but less than 30 percent have church sponsors."
Each refugee is given $900 upon arrival: $450 goes to the resettlement agency to provide services; the rest is designated for rent and security deposits. KRM resettles an average 550 people per year on a $2 million budget. Half comes from the federal government, the rest from grants and private donations. In Kentucky, sponsoring churches are asked to provide $2,500 to $3,000 per family. But lack of money shouldn't be prohibitive, Young said.
"We are much more interested in churches that have volunteers. If a church says we can only pay one month's rent, but we have 10 really committed volunteers, that's perfect," Young said, adding that smaller churches with volunteers often partner with larger churches with money.
Refugees revive inner-city congregation
Refugees revived Resurrection Episcopal Church in Louisville, beginning with the lost boys of Sudan, the more than 27,000 boys orphaned or displaced by the country's 1983-2005 civil war.
"Resurrection is a result of two failing urban congregations that merged in 2003, at the same time the lost boys of Sudan were coming over," said the Rev. Jerry Cappel, rector. "They were Anglican and we were the closest church to where the majority of them were being settled."
The Sudanese worship in Dinka, their native language, in a separate service.
Resurrection also serves the Karen community, which chose to blend with the existing congregation rather than worship separately. The Karen now make up the church's majority: the sermon is translated into Burmese; the music is moving toward half in English, half in Burmese; and liturgy translation is under consideration.
"This is a reflection of the neighborhood," Cappel said, adding that some of the church's old-timers resisted change. "Where we are in an inner-city, international community, that's what we need to be."
When Young approached Cappel to ask that his congregation sponsor the Say family, Cappel suggested they co-sponsor: "We don't have any money, but we have the language."
Aside from food and shelter, language is most important to refugees, and can be a major barrier to jobs. The goal is for refugees to find employment within 120 days of arriving in America, a requirement that has become increasingly difficult in today's economy.
"We've had a very rough year," Young said, adding that the hotels, the small meat-packing plant, and the hospitals and nursing homes that typically hire refugees have had an influx of American applicants.
"It's become more difficult competing with Americans; most refugees don't speak English. They have to be outstanding … that is our greatest challenge," Young said. "They know they are supposed to be working and they want to work; the whole employment issue has us trying to find other ways to raise money. Government benefits end after 120 days, and cash and medical benefits end after eight months."
It's taking between six and eight months for refugees to find work, she said.
Despite the competition with American workers, Young said refugees have not suffered discrimination or been the target of animosity, at least in Louisville and Lexington, where KRM also operates.
"Refugees don't really choose to come to the U.S.; it's their only hope. Being here with a roof over their head is better than where they came from," she said.
"When people say 'why don't you just stop for a while?' when there are 12 Americans before one refugee in line for a job … I remind them that this is a humanitarian effort that our government has committed to."
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