The Realities of Being a Refugee

What would you take with you if you had to flee your home country? How would you feel if violence and war threaten your everyday life? What would you be willing to lose to save your life as well as the lives of those you love?

These are the questions that outline the reality of being a refugee. Before Monday’s lecture, I never really gave much thought to the issues or concerns of immigrants and refugees, and when I didn’t it was usually self-centered in thought. How would having immigrants and refugees in my country effect me and my everyday life. However, the truth of the mater is that life is much more difficult for those who are forced to move, or have been exiled from their home lands.

The reality of life as a refugee was further illuminated to me in the TED Talk “Let’s help refugees thrive, notjust survive,” by Melissa Fleming. In this talk Fleming highlighted the realities many individuals go through when being exiled from their home country. In fact, I found out some shocking statistics about life as a Syrian refugee living in neighboring Lebanon. I was surprised to hear that today over 1 million Syrian refugees have fled to Lebanon for safety and half of all Syrian refugees are children. Many of these children will have witness towns, friends, and family members killed in their home country before evening arriving in Lebanon. Needless to say, their lives will never be the same again.  However, once in the safety of Lebanon, while their threats are greatly minimized, they are by no means completely reduced. On average these children will live in the refugee camps 17 years before being able to return home. In those years of waiting they will be privy to illness, lack of safety, as well as minimal resources.

Education is one resource in short supple in Lebanon’s refugee camps. Of the Syrian children living in Lebanon, only 20% are currently enrolled in primary schools.  Due to limited funds, education stops for after primary school. Education is how these children will learn the life skills and job training to rise out of their circumstances.

In reality, 86% of the refugees turn towards the developing countries for safety, not the developed world. Hearing this TED Talk really helped me to understand the circumstances of refugees, specifically child refugees. I believe that more attention should be paid to these children, because they are the future of their countries. When these countries like Syria need to be rebuilt there will be a need for educated engineers, electrician, and other specialized industries. Wouldn’t it be beneficial to educate these refugees so they can not only help their home countries, but have a chance to rise out of poverty?