Heated rhetoric has characterized much of the American presidential campaign over the past year, and refugees and immigrants have suffered repeatedly at the hands of inflammatory, misguided and stereotyping remarks. However, while refugees have made headlines in the United States repeatedly, whether for certain states refusing to accept them or for the struggling asylum infrastructure of the European Union, the common image of refugees is of masses disembarking from rafts onto the shores of Greece or Italy. While obviously an important part of the general discussion on the global refugee crisis, the masses in Europe imagery isn't representative of the current state of refugees in the United States, and also robs refugees of their individuality and agency.
The United States continues to take in refugees from all over the world every year, as it has done since long before the current crisis. While most attention is currently paid to the plight of refugees from Syria and Libya, they represent just two groups out of the multitude that make up official refugees within the U.S. While I interned with the International Institute of Buffalo last year, an organization chartered in 1918 to resettle and advocate for refugees arriving in the U.S., I worked with individuals and families from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Bhutan, Myanmar (Burma) and Syria. Although the number of Syrian refugees is certain to increase as applications continue to be processed, the refugee population in the U.S. will continue to be incredibly diverse and represent individuals from an innumerable amount of backgrounds and histories.
The United States currently stands as a very stable and prosperous superpower on the world stage, exerting its international influence to protect its many interests abroad and, ideally, to work towards a better future for its citizens. The country was built on immigration, not just from Western Europe but from all over the world, too, each person and culture enriching and diversifying the U.S.'s society, as well as bringing some of the best and brightest to hone the country's global competitive edge.
The United States not only can and does accommodate refugees, but gains from it, a fact unfortunately undercut by fear-mongering politics. Refugees arriving in the U.S. have already undergone a rigorous screening and application process, but more than that, arrive as individuals fleeing religious and ethnic persecution, war-torn states or any number of other horrors. These are people who are often coming from refugee camps where they have lived for years, if not decades, in a state of limbo, barred from entering the society outside the camp fences for fear of destabilizing fragile economies and societies. Refugees, just like every other person, are individuals with histories and stories. Unfortunately, their lives are too often colored by tragedy and horror.
Not every refugee is a saint, nor is every refugee going to revolutionize the country. Each one is, however, an individual and a part of communities that have been contributing to the culture, economy, diversity and prosperity of the United States for decades, if not centuries. Refugees can come from any part of the world, and do not deserve to be stereotyped and rejected as a group. They continue to be an integral part of the United States and should be accepted as such, rather than thrown together into one suspect mass.
