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welcome.
“Now here’s one [thing] I don’t like,”
Trump said, as recorded by many media outlets.
“Syrian refugees are now being resettled
in Rhode Island … Just enjoy your — lock
your doors, folks.”
Going further at a Phoenix, Ariz., rally,
Trump referred to refugees as a “Trojan
horse” and even went as far as to suggest that
mosques be put under special surveillance,
according to The Guardian.
Such rhetoric has hurt many refugees,
including 16-year-old Omar Omar and his
cousin, 15-year-old Murjan Abdi. Even
though both came from Kenya to the U.S.
more than 10 years ago, the never-ending
misconception that all Muslims — like themselves
— are terrorists still makes them feel
unwelcome.
“That’s wrong,” Omar said. “It’s tough,
because not all of us do this … He’s [Trump]
accusing all Muslims doing this. Because
we’re Arabic.”
Dayton said Trump’s message has negatively
impacted not only refugees, but also the
nation’s attitude towards them.
“It is such a miniscule fraction of that
community, and to characterize an entire
group according to the actions of a tiny, tiny
fraction is the worst kind of stereotyping and
prejudice that I can imagine,” Dayton said.
“I think that that has really tainted the
way that people see refugees. I think the
public has very much been swayed in viewing
the refugee crisis as being seen as a security
threat, ... instead of the way that I think it
should be seen, which is a humanitarian crisis,
which is a threat to humanity, which we
all have a responsibility to try to alleviate.”
Broadway agrees; Trump’s sentiments
have allowed for a sense of negativity against
refugees to surface. Rather than recognizing
the hardships of a new American, Broadway
said she believes that members of the public
have fears regarding refugees that are not
grounded.
“It’s tough to be in the kind of economy
that we have where so many people are
unemployed; native people, people who were
born here, are unemployed, people who
feel like they haven’t kind of achieved the
American dream, and so there’s this sense of
entitlement around that and how we balance
that with this huge global crisis of refugees,”
Broadway said.
“It’s been a mixed bag. I think that the
current election has really allowed us to have
a picture of the divisions that we have in the
United States about welcoming ‘the stranger,’
which is very much a part of every faith tradition,
but there’s a lot of fear.”
According to Stephanie Horton, Program
Facilitator for the Refugee Assistance
Program — an organization run through the
Syracuse City School District that teaches English
to adult refugees and prepares them for
the job market — this negative environment
can be exacerbated by the fact that Syrian
refugees are coming directly from an active
war region.
“So a lot of our other refugee groups are
coming from more stable conditions … and
they’ve had time to catch their breath, for lack
of a better word. But these folks are coming
out of active, violent situations,” Horton said.
Horton said this can cause a longer
transition, as the change from living in a wartorn
climate to a country in peacetime can be
daunting and arduous.
This challenge to start new lives in America
will become even more pertinent, according
to the Migration Policy Institute (MPI), a
Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research
organization. MPI has stated that in addition
to welcoming more than 12,000 Syrian refugees
since 2013, the Obama administration
will “significantly increase” the number of refugees
coming into the US — from 70,000 in
2015 to 85,000 in 2016 and 100,000 in 2017.
Photo by Jeongyoon Han
Murjan Abdi (right), gets food during the November International Dessert,
held at Wellwood Middle School in conjunction with Hopeprint.
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