Struggles of Resettled Refugees

According to the United Nations, the 2019 world population is approximately 7.7 billion. As stated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in 2019, there are roughly 25.9 million refugees, and over half of whom are under the age of 18. The UNHCR suggests three "durable solutions' for refugees: repatriation, integration in the local population of the country of first asylum, and resettlement to a third country. However, only 1% of the refugees have been resettled.

Refugee resettlement is defined as the "selection and transfer of refugees from a State in which they have sought protection to a third State that has agreed to admit them ‐ as refugees ‐ with permanent residence status". The resettlement countries warrant resettled refugees protection against refoulement and support the resettled refugees access to civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights on equal terms as the resettlement countries' nationals.

Although resettlement countries strive to assist refugees to integrate into their new communities, some only provide "care and maintenance" assistance to the resettled refugees, which are typically more humanitarian in nature (e.g., food, shelter, and basic health care). Since there is not sufficient assistance targeted at addressing the long-term integration needs of resettled refugees (e.g., livelihoods development), resettled refugees often lack the opportunity to contribute to their local economies and communities, and eventually climb up the ladder of economic development.

Viewing Through The Humanitarian Lens

Resettlement countries tend to view displacement through the humanitarian lens and approach engagement in refugee situations as a charitable response. This is evident as many charity campaign videos often utilize shock tactics, with aims to appeal to the public's pathos and evoke sympathy with the refugees.

"If London Were Syria" by Save the Children (2014)

In 2014, the third year of the Syrian Civil War, Save the Children developed a film which accumulated more than 62 million views on YouTube. [1] The video mimicked the one second of video per day format, and described what would happen to a little girl if war breaks out on the streets of London. In the span of a year, the little girl's world falls apart, from happily blowing out candles on her birthday cake with her family to being forced to flee, separated from her family and ended up in an asylum center in a strange country.

The video is based on factual accounts of Syrian children, and doubtlessly, it is successful as it provokes strong emotions, and raises attention to the refugee crisis in the Syrian civil war. However, most audiences would feel sympathetic to the situation of refugees, and maybe pity them; which can potentially weaken the confidence of refugees and consequently undermine the potential resettled refugees can bring to the resettlement countries.

"Would you give your jacket to Johannes?" by SOS Children's Villages Norway (2014)

In 2014, to encourage donations of jackets for children and families in war-torn Syria during the winter, SOS Children's Villages Noway's filmed a social experiment, featuring a young boy, freezing without a coat, sitting alone at a bus stop. [2] In the video, there are some apathetic passersby, but many people stopped by to check if the boy is safe, to accompany him and to offer help. This heartbreaking hidden camera video went viral, and the donations received exceeded the campaign goal over 10 times.

Undoubtedly, this campaign video is successful in achieving its campaign target. However, it views the refugee crisis from a humanitarian lens, which raises the question if offering the boy temporary help is sufficient. Indeed, donating jackets would help keep refugees warm during the winter. Yet, the cold weather is only a tip of the iceberg of the difficulties that refugees are facing.

Rebuilding Hope and Opportunities for Refugees

While humanitarian assistance and short term solutions are important to meet urgent needs, it is also critical to tackle the root cause of the problem and implement sustainable solutions. In the case of refugee resettlement, settling refugees in a third country is only the first step, there is still a lot to be done to help refugees to integrate into the resettlement country and to climb up the social and economic ladder by rebuilding hope and opportunities for them.

Don't feel sorry for refugees — believe in them (Luma Mufleh)

Mufleh is a refugee activist, who is a Jordanian immigrant and Muslim of Syrian descent. In 2017, she presented a TED talk to explore how individuals can make a difference in helping refugees to find and build a new home.

I was eight years old when [my grandmother] took me to visit my first refugee camp ... I remember walking into the camp holding her hand, and her saying, "Go play with the kids,"... I didn't want to. These kids weren't like me. They were poor. They lived in a camp. I refused. She knelt down beside me and firmly said, "Go. And don't come back until you've played. Don't ever think people are beneath you or that you have nothing to learn from others."... I reluctantly went ... I returned a few hours later ... and I was excitedly telling her what a great time I had and how fantastic the kids were ... "Haram on us," she said ... meaning that we were sinning. "Don't feel sorry for them; believe in them."

Initially, Mufleh was reluctant to interact with the refugee children, because the children were not like her. As Mufleh points out, some people might think refugees are lesser because of their situation. However, like how Mufleh's grandmother taught Mufleh, there is always something to learn from everyone, including refugees, and no one is beneath or inferior to anyone. One should not feel pity for refugees but should believe in them. It is important to have a compassionate heart to care for the urgent needs for refugees, but it is also crucial to empower refugees and to provide them hope and opportunities in the resettlement country.

After college, I desperately needed to find a place to call home. I bounced around from state to state ... Kindhearted people who felt sorry for me offered to pay rent or buy me a meal or a suit for my new interview. It just made me feel more isolated and incapable. It wasn't until I met Miss Sarah, a Southern Baptist who took me in at my lowest and gave me a job, that I started to believe in myself. Miss Sarah owned a diner in the mountains of North Carolina. I assumed, because of my privileged upbringing and my Seven Sister education, that she would ask me to manage the restaurant. I was wrong. I started off washing dishes, cleaning toilets and working the grill. I was humbled; I was shown the value of hard work. But most importantly, I felt valued and embraced. I celebrated Christmas with her family, and she attempted to observe Ramadan with me.

Certainly, people who helped Mufleh improved her living standards. However, they offered help because they felt bad for Mufleh, which eventually made Mufleh feel distant from others and incompetent. This suggests that whilst offering materialistic help might improve one's situation in the short run, it can also undermine one's confidence and lead to self-doubt. Therefore, instead of just placing the focus on humanitarian aid, it is pivotal to empower refugees by believing in their talents and providing them equal opportunities so that they feel valued, and can eventually climb up the socio-economic ladder. Additionally, to create an inclusive environment for resettled refugees, one should make an effort to understand the cultures of the refugees' home country and welcome the refugees to partake in cultural activities and traditions of the resettlement country too.

Refugee Resettlement as a Durable and Sustainable Solution

Refugee resettlement should be beyond humanitarian aid and should be a durable and sustainable solution instead. Refugee resettlement should also address the needs of different refugees, as one might experience the simultaneous impact of discrimination.

For example, in Australia, it has been found that among Sundanese refugee groups, women face greater barriers in accessing educational opportunities. The barriers are attributable to gender roles and how policies often depict refugee women as "vulnerable", which denies the resilience and determination of refugee women. Labeling refugee women as "vulnerable" reinforces a binary opposition that refugee women are "poor and powerless", whereas Western women are "modern and educated". Additionally, racial discrimination is another barrier to refugee employment in Australia. Studies have found that more established refugee groups (e.g., Italians) had higher call-back rates than less established refugee groups (e.g., Chinese and Middle Easterners). Racial discrimination restricts individuals' work opportunities, and cause them to settle for jobs below their skill levels. However, these are not unique to Australia. In other resettlement countries, for example in the United States, gender and racial discriminations lead to wage disparities between refugees and nationals and among refugees too.

Therefore, to allow full sociocultural, economical and civil integration of resettled refugees, refugee resettlement policies should take into account how cultural, political, economic, societal and/or situational context can cause one to experience simultaneous impact of discrimination, in order to ensure all resettled refugees are on a level playing field with the resettlement countries' nationals and that refugees can become self-reliant as early as possible.