By: Simon Henshaw , Replacement Aide Secretary of State for the Bureau of Populations, Refugees, and Movement
Throughout this holiday, as millions of Americans gather with their friends and families in living spaces and at table across the nation, we commonly ask ourselves why we’re grateful. It’s a fundamental part of our holiday and our customs. This inquiry reminds us of our blessings, our hopes, and our desires, and makes us grateful for our family and friends.
When we ask ourselves why we’re happy, it likewise helps us to reflect on the outstanding legacy we enjoy as citizens of the USA of America: freedom and freedom; an enduring freedom; and citizenship in a country that has time after time gotten on the best side of background, protecting the lives of others and protecting our tradition as a beacon of expect the world– including through the risk-free resettlement of greater than 3 million evacuees from worldwide considering that 1975
Many thanks to the American individuals, those evacuees have an incredible reason to appreciate in their new home.
After 2 and a half years working for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Movement , I have actually checked out many evacuees sites overseas. I have fulfilled Syrian evacuees in tiny Turkish cities not far from the border of their homeland, Congolese and Sudanese refugees in a huge refugee camp in northern Kenya, and Burmese refugees in the growing city of Kuala Lumpur. I have actually likewise been blessed to be able to satisfy minority refugees who we transplant in the United States, in cities from Buffalo to Atlanta to Chicago. I’ve fulfilled refugees from around the world that are functioning, sometimes battling, to build brand-new lives in America.
So it was with specific satisfaction that recently I went to the Ethiopian Neighborhood Development Council’s annual “Evacuees’ First Thanksgiving Supper,” where we invited new refugees representing over 10 different nationalities into our community with this very American party. I joined my colleagues from the White House and the Division of Health And Wellness and Human Services in breaking bread with refugees from Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia, and lots of other locations of the world. We assisted serve food, spoke with the community members and newly-arrived refugees, and delighted in the event of diversity and joy among those that have reason to be the most thankful amongst us during this holiday.
I was privileged myself to have the chance to share supper at the occasion with a team of Sudanese and Afghan refugees. A Sudanese new-comer who, along with his relations, has just been in the USA for two months, talked of their arduous journey to escape his nation and marveled at all the different kinds of food at our Thanksgiving dish. A newly shown up Covering evacuee, who had once helped the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, happily discussed how this was his extremely first Thanksgiving and noted just how traditional food (turkey, padding, and sauce) was offered together with food from various other countries (including Ethiopian specialties).
These refugees therefore much more can now enjoy a new life and a clean slate in the United States, many thanks to the continuing management of our nation in supplying a brand-new home for the world’s most susceptible individuals– a lot of whom are female-headed families, children, survivors of torture, and people with severe medical problems.
Much less than one percent of all evacuees around the globe are completely transplanted. Only one of the most vulnerable refugees are resettled to the United States. We have a pleased custom of inviting those that require defense, care, and security. We have been doing so for decades in a way that guarantees both the safety of the American public, and the security of the world’s most susceptible people.
As the President stated just recently, “We have actually shown that we can invite evacuees and ensure our safety and security, that there’s no opposition. And as long as I’m President, we’re going to keep on stepping up and making certain that America remains as it has actually always been, a place where individuals who, in other parts of the globe, are subject to discrimination or violence, that they have in America a friend and a place of refuge.”
So as you ask on your own why you’re appreciative this holiday, you can count amongst your several true blessings your satisfaction in aiding safeguard the innocent victims of physical violence and oppression discover clean slates in a brand-new home. And you can be grateful for your place amongst a country that safeguards the less privileged when they are in the most require.