In this holiday season, take a moment to imagine you and your family must flee a war-torn country, such as Syria, Ukraine or Afghanistan. What happens next?
When you apply for asylum, that is a process that begins at the UN level. You go through an extensive application and screening process, then the UN finds a country to host your famly. If the US agrees to take you, there is further screening and extreme vetting which includes bio-metric and health scans, interviews by various US intelligence and security agencies, background checks and cross checks, more interviews, and then, possibly after a process of 18 – 24 months, you are told if you are accepted to come to the US or not. To travel to the US, an agency contracted with the US government purchases airline tickets for your family on the basis that the money will be repaid to that agency – you sign a promissory note for whatever the cost of the tickets is. A family of 6 – 8 people whose tickets were about $1200 – $1400 each, saddles your family with a debt immediately upon arrival in the US. The agency rents an apartment and may provide some assistance for about 3 months, then the families are expected to make it on their own. The adults are expected to find work right away, and the children begin attending school. Most likely you will have arrived with only the contents of a suitcase, and must find everything else you and your family need to live. This is difficult. My friends at SCM help to pick up where the resettlement agencies have left off, providing practical resources, some financial assistance, and activities. We have provided English lessons for the adults and Arabic grammar and writing for the children, information on navigating in the community, how to do things like ride public transportation, pay bills, and just get everyday things done that are different than what they did at home. You and I and all of us can do something practical to help these, our newest neighbors, feel welcome in our community. We set up Amazon Wish Lists of things they need that will be shipped directly to them, no middleman involved. Currently, all the families we are helping are in Spokane and have arrived within the last 2 months. Below are the links to the wish lists for each family. Why not go see if there are a few practical items you can have sent to them and show that we are a kind and welcoming people!
