Refugee Services of Texas Austin (RST) is a not-for-profit social services agency that provides services to newly arrived refugees, asylees, parolees, survivors of human trafficking and any other expatriate escaping persecution appertaining to race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, and/or political opinion. Since its initiation in 2003 in Austin, TX, RST has provided resettlement services to over 15,000 refugees. RST is funded by both state and national partners and includes former refugees on its staff, who collectively speak over 16 languages appropriate for this program. The agency allies with organizations in the local community, public and private groups, as well as faith-based entities to augment and strengthen…
With higher risk of gang brutality and homicide, many children, teenagers, and families are choosing to leave their countries and seek asylum in the United States. For example; July, a 32 year old woman dealing with the violence in her town alongside her three children. “For eight years, July’s family has been struggling with the gang and narco-cartel violence that has overtaken many areas of her country. On Oct. 29, 2007, her brother, Carlos Luis Pérez, a skinny 22-year-old, was kidnapped and then found dead two days later in a sewage ditch, his hands and feet cut off.” ( Sonia Nazario. “The Refugees at Our Door.” nytimes.com. October 15, 2015. Web. January 6, 2016.) With regular killings, the danger of living in gang infested towns…
-Canada has a long history of accepting refugees seeking asylum, from accepting British loyalists and escaped slaves during the American Civil war to accepting Hungarians fleeing soviet oppression during the Hungarian revolution. Since those times Canada has long been considered a safe haven for those coming from war torn nations.…
John Layton published this book in his dying days, and in it he talks about the time his ancestors first settled in Canada and the support they’ve received from Mi’kmaq a tribe of first nation’s people. To Layton’s ancestors, this was a warm welcome after being deceived that they had property in Pennsylvania by the investors their family invested in before fleeing Germany in 1765. Then his ancestors were guided by the ways of the Mi’Kmaq into building a small town that now withholds 300,000 Canadians. What Layton brings into discussion is that the many homeless people we now see, in Canada, are first nation’s people, and how the economy offers no help to the original people of Canada and just watches them suffer. He describes that this has to do with the politics of the country, and how the government oversees the issue of many Canadian who cannot afford housing. This is also because housing production has been privatized, which means all houses built want to be sold for the highest possible price. He also mentions that it has to do with politicians paying too close attention to lowering taxes, and other political issues, but housing. But overall, the main point is that people nowadays are all for themselves; no one offers to care for or help the homeless, and he finds this tragic because if his ancestors received no help, they would have never survived the harsh conditions of Canada, which they were not used too. Layton was requested by councillors and mayors to set a team to respond to homeless situation that many Canadians suffer.…
The subject on refugees has become more and more like a taboo. If a man from Persia is called a racist word, he will be very upset and he would probably call you something back. A lot of countries are in war and people are escaping their own country to find a better one to live in. It happens often that someone is against people entering, illegally in a country and says and does what they can to stop it. Some even call the refugees bad words and people do not like that some doesn’t speak of the refugees in a nice way. This is what Adam Taylor discusses in his article.…
From World War One to present day, a positive change is visible on Canadians’ views on refugees. Due to historical events during the world war years, post war years and the past few decades, certain amounts of refugees have come to Canada. Furthermore, these certain amounts of refugees has only been increasing to larger amounts because of the diminishing of discrimination in society. As the differences in faith, ethnic and race stops mattering to Canadians, more and more refugees have been accepted into Canada, resulting in a drastic change in Canadians’ views on refugees. Moreover, since World War One, Canadians’ views on refugees has transitioned from being negative to more supportive.…
I believe that this is very important not only to these refugees, but what Canada stands for. We stand for freedom and equality, whether someone was born here or not is of no consequence to them. We help those who need the best we can, we weren’t always so helpful though. Once in 1938 Jewish refugees who were fleeing from Nazi rule had requested refugee status in Canada, the Canadian government refused to accommodate these people who had requested our help. This refusal to help was essentially a death sentence for all those who applied. From then on we have helped as many as we could, as we have learned from our mistake. Our helpfulness is very important, we are peace keepers above all else while in conflict, if anything it is one of the biggest factors in all Canadian…
Very often, people do not know what a refugee is, and what they have to go through, and once they do get informed about whom they are and their characteristics, they compare them to immigrants. What they don’t know is that these two peoples are very common but only come to a new country because of different reasons.…
To do this, I will first provide some background of the Syrian Refugee crisis and examine the findings of a selection of literature addressing the past economic experiences of refugees settled in Canada. Then, I will evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of Canadian policies and make recommendations for improvements. This will lead to my main argument that while Canada performs well in providing basic social services for refugees to establish themselves in Canadian society, more work needs to be done in addressing the economic disadvantages and underemployment experienced by refugee…
As most of us know, recently there was an attack at Paris by a popular group of terrorist known as Isis, although this is not their first attack, whether or not refugees are to be accepted into the U.S. has brought more attention. ISIS stands for Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and they are a group of religious extremist and their main goal is to create a group of Muslims who will all follow their extremist beliefs. The problem with that is that now many Muslims are being shamed because of this group, even if all theses other poor people may have nothing to do with ISIS, they are being dragged into their problems, Now many other states are refusing to let thousands of innocent refugees into their land for the sake…
A refugee is a person who leaves his or her country due to a well-founded fear of persecution because of his or her race, religion, nationality, political views, or membership in a particular social group. Once a host country accepts an asylum seeker to become a refugee, the host county has a moral obligation to ease the transition from a refugee to a fully participating citizen. This may include subsidized housing, job training, and other financial and social services. This is good for the incoming refugee and good for the economy of the host country. Refugees deserve to be supported financially.…
The refugee crisis is a big issue for the United States nowadays and not just for the danger that might come to the US, but also because the amount of money the states would spend in those refugees. But they are people and they need help. Let’s not forget that the United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world and therefore I think it has the resources to save this people that are only looking for somewhere safe to live. In other words, give them a chance, they deserve to live a better life as much as any of…
Homelessness has been a growing problem throughout Canada. With an increasing number of homeless citizens in Canada, it shouldn’t be a cause for concerns when the middle and higher class population starts asking questions. Myself, a part of the middle class, see homeless individuals everywhere so it does affect me. In my opinion, homeless people should NOT be criminalized as this goes against the several aspects that makes Canada such a great place to reside. Classism is a very difficult problem to solve, as every nation faces this. It shouldn’t be up to us to differentiate homeless people amongst others. Pursuing survival is an aspect of human nature and no one should face consequences for this. As long as the homeless society is not affecting anyone else around them or are causing any problems, there should not be any concern.…
From 2005 to 2014, about 26,000 refugees who arrived in Canada annually were forced to leave their countries due to fear and persecution.1,2 The United Nations defines a refugee as "someone who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion”.3 Refugees in Canada are divided into two groups: those that have obtained the refugee status within Canada (both privately-sponsored [PSR] and government-assisted [GAR]) and refugee claimants who are awaiting government decision. Refugee claimants can come from Designated Countries of Origin (DCOs) (countries deemed safe by the federal government) or from non-DCO countries. DCO claims are processed faster to ensure that protection is given to those in need and those with unfounded claims are sent back quickly.4 Refugees differ from immigrants as they were forced to flee their home countries while immigrants willingly chose…
I think it would be safe to say that the majority of us would agree with the line from John Payne’s poem Home, Sweet Home: “Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home”. Yet thousands and thousands of people in Canada have no home to call their own. We have all witnessed people asking for money in desperation, with all their belongings in plastic bags and nowhere to go. It is very hard for our society to understand how people end up in such situations as homelessness. Research shows that homeless people come from all areas and backgrounds. There are many organizations throughout the GTA and Canada that provide help for the homeless. Although these organizations provide emergency night shelters, immediate health care, and soup kitchens, there is still a large quantity of people that require help and we are not meeting those requirements. Researchers have concluded that more than 80% of youth who seek help from organizations, are homeless due to family dysfunction, abuse or eviction. More often than usual these youth find themselves sleeping on the streets before seeking help. Many of these youth ages 16 to 20 have no credibility or way of supporting themselves. I feel that if our society wants these people to become self-sufficient, it is essential to offer help in the form of housing, and assisting them to either return to school, or to gain certification through training to improve their chances of finding employment.…