Discrimination: How do Americans Treat Refugees?
By: Ilyana Rich, Rise Against Hate Research Intern
Global war and conflicts have increased in huge measures over the course of my lifetime, and The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees,¹ the UN Refugee Agency, says 82.4 million people worldwide have been forcibly displaced from their homelands. Displaced from their homes, but still placed… living in the middle of what was, and is. Living in this grey area, refugees and asylum seekers become vulnerable to discrimination as they are often forced to reside in a country where they don’t know anyone.
In the United States, these displaced families may face many challenges including: discrimination based on skin color, ethnicity, or religion, language barriers, and not to mention extreme poverty, inequality and violence; all forms of discrimination that can effect their health and overall wellbeing.
As of September 2021, roughly 8,500 displaced Afghans are being housed at “Liberty Village,” a tent city on Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst,² southeast of Trenton, New Jersey. It is reported that some may remain on the base for up to a year.³
We know that sexist and racist discrimination is wrong in part because biology has clinically proven that there are no inherent differences in mental ability across race or sex.⁴ We know that gender is a social construct thanks to anthropology, destroying any argument that transgender people are broken or morally deficient. So, what does this mean for refugees? It means that we have a humanitarian duty to ensure that they are treated fairly and equally.
The refugee crisis is a global issue, but it’s an opportunity for us to do our part. We can expand our awareness while maintaining our pride in being American. By recognizing that continuing culture, learning new languages, and sharing heritage, we can immerse ourselves in a worldly experience. We must be willing to accept that there are many different cultures, races, and religions, none better just different. If not anything else, what is America, but the melting pot of the world?
References
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Figures at a Glance,” UNHCR, accessed November 12, 2021, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html.
- Luke Broadwater, “The Senate Rejects a Republican Bid to Curtail Help for Afghans Who Were Evacuated during the U.S. Withdrawal.,” The New York Times (The New York Times, September 30, 2021), https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/30/us/politics/senate-afghan-aid.html.
- Final Environmental Assessment (EA) For Temporary Shelter of Afghan Special Immigrants at Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst, New Jersey § (2021).
- Vivian Chou and Daniel Utter, “How Science and Genetics Are Reshaping the Race Debate of the 21st Century,” Science in the News, February 27, 2019, https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/science-genetics-reshaping-race-debate-21st-century/.
