The Life of a Refugee

A refugee is forced to deal with situations that most human beings on the planet doe not have to contend with. For example, most people do not have to figure out how to fit themselves and their family into an area that is only three, to three and a half, meters around. Yet they do, and they continue to live in these conditions until they are allowed to return home. 

These are the types of things that I have learned form this blog. I had always known that refugees had many hardships that they had to deal with, yet I had no idea just how many there were. For example, I had no idea just how high the number of refugees suffering from malnutrition was, or how bad living conditions were children in particular. 

In a reflexive sense this cultural experience taught me a great deal about my own life. I learned to be truly grateful for what I have been given. I mean when it comes to personal space in college, it seems as if there is none, but then I read about people who live in a three meter area, with only two meters between themselves and their neighbors and I realized that college housing is not so bad.  Yet, this is only a minor example of what this experience ha taught me. 

I also learned a great deal by relating what I discovered about refugee camps to my knowledge gained in Anthropology class. Items such as personal space, food, fair treatment of people, language, all of these continually popped upped when I thought about refugee camps.

Looking back I could not have picked a better topic for this blog, as I learned a great deal about refugees and their camps, and in learning I was able to create connections to other everyday events and situations. 

Angelina Jolie Speaks about Refugees

I found this video on youtube.com and I thought it was an incredibly eye-opening story. Angelina Jolie, an american actress, speaks at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting about refugees, specifically about the education of child refugees. She tells a truly heart- wrenching story about two boys who in any other situation could have been well educated human beings. Yet this video sheds light on more than just the need for the education of refugees, it gets to the heart of the living conditions that some of these people are forced to deal with. She describes a man who was beaten and burned and could not seek medical aid in a neighboring country, so now he is forced to be treated by a young boy friend of his, who is decent enough to change his bandages each day. This boy is able to buy bandages because he sells tissues on the street, thats right he has to sell tissues in order to provide for himself and his friend. A different aspect of refugees is shown in this video, and that is the population of refugees that live outside of, or cannot get into, refugee camps. 

Clinton Global Initiative 2007: Angelina Jolie Makes Impassioned Plea for Refugees. Perf. Angelina Jolie. Youtube.com. .

Food in Refugee Camps

Malnutrition has become a serious concern within refugee camps. Officials are quickly discovering that an alarming amount of people within refugee camps are malnourished.

"According to UNHCR and World Food Programme (WFP) experts, 20 percent or more of the refugees are suffering from acute malnutrition in, refugee camps in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Chad. Lack of Vitamin B is a public health problem among refugees in countries like Nepal and Bangladesh. Meanwhile, more than 60 percent of the women and children in camps in Kenya and Algeria, who are highly dependent on food aid, are anaemic." (UNHCR)

This quote, taken form a UNHRC article shows just how wide spread the problem of malnutrition is in refugee camps. While some shortage of food is expected the fact that roughly twenty percent of refugees, within camps, are suffering from malnutrition was surprising to me. Especially when you think that a country decided to host these refugees. However, I think that this problem would be incredibly difficult to deal with as the number of refugees can continue to increase. Also, to relate back to a previous post, the host country must continue to provide for their own citizens 

However, to get back to the issue of malnutrition, I was surprised to find how high the percentage of people that were affected by this issue. One thing that I found interesting was that the amount of food aid given to refugee camps has dropped drastically in the last ten years. "Fifteen million tons of food aid were provided in 1999 and only 7.4 million in 2004... as you can see, food aid is falling." (UNHCR) This quote shows how the amount of food aid that organizations attempting help refugees has fallen drastically in the last few years. This is surprising to me because it means that anything from governments, to non-profit organizations have cut back on their support of refugee camps. The world needs to realize that refugee camps are not going anywhere fast, and something like malnutrition is a problem that could be quickly fixed, but so far less is being done, rather than more. 

"UNHCR - UN agencies highlight dangers of increasing malnutrition in refugee camps." UNHCR Welcome. 06 May 2009 .

Darfur

I chose to post this video to showcase a current refugee camp, in the form of the refugees from Darfur. This video shows the issues that arise in terms of what the leaders of communities have to deal with when moving their people into a refugee camp. Until I found this video it was not something that previously crossed my mind. I had never thought about what exactly happened when a group of people got the the camp, what types of things they had to think about, and how they went about making their temporary home. This video shows the leader of a group of refugees attempting to figure out how best he can take care of his people. 

Darfur Now. Dir. Ted Braun. Perf. Don Cheadle and George Clooney. Film. Cresendo Productions, 2007. Youtube.com. 13 Mar. 2009. 6 Mar. 2009 .

Space in a Refugee Camp

While refugee camps offer a safe haven for thousands of people who otherwise would have nowhere to go, there are some major problems with them. One serious issue becomes space, in  warm climate the recommenced space per person in three and a half meters. Think about that, three and a half meters in which you have to live. Three and a half meters to cook, sleep, and attempt to live your life as normally as possible. However in an emergency situation much larger groups of people can be crammed into a space roughly this size. When it comes to personal space, there is virtually none in a refugee camp. While your space is technically your own, some people even build their own shelters, everything is public. 

Personal space is not something known in the world of refugee camps. The main type of living environment is a tent, in which you may or may not have a stove to cook on. The stove depends on the type of environment, in a warm climate the stove is likely to be outside. In fact, consider yourself lucky if your stove it outside, because then you have roughly four to four and a half meters of space to live in. Imagine that, a bonus for an outdoor stove, an extra meter of space. It sounds ridiculous but in an area where the minimum space between two shelters is supposed to be two meters, this is a lot.

While refugee camps provide a needed place for prosecuted people to flee to, the conditions, in terms of space, in which they live is incredibly difficult. 

"CBC News In Depth: Anatomy of a refugee camp." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. 06 May 2009 .

Children in Refugee Camps

One issue that has recently been  brought up when talking about refugee camps is the topic of Children within Refugee camps. Mainly whether or not it is good for a child to grow up in a refugee camp. The reasoning behind this question is that while refugee camps tend to be organized by the government of the host country, who in the government is watching after the children? Who is giving them an education, or ensuring that they are even recognized a member as members of that camp? Furthermore is it healthy for a child to grow up in a camp, both in the physical and mental sense? Disease tends to be a problem in camps as so many people live in close quarters, but more importantly can a child grow up in a confined, controlled setting and then adjust to life on the "outside" world? The mental development of a child within a camp has to be different from one that grows up in a "regular" society. Even the idea of personal space does not develop the same way in a camp, as everyone lives in close quarters. Physically a child could be easily affected by malnutrition, as despite the food provided by aid workers, there is not enough for a child to maintain all of the necessary nutrition needed to grow up healthy. A child growing up in a refugee camp creates an interesting situation as it really is a completely different setting that anywhere else of earth, yet one counter-argument may be that they might be better suited for the world as they learn how to effectively interact with people from an incredibly young age. Only time can tell how a refugee camp may effect the development of a child. 

Works Cited

Bond, Barbara H. "Are refugee camps good for children?" Journal of Humanitarian Assistance. 27 Mar. 2009 .

A day in the life of a Refugee

 

 This video does an excellent job of illustrating some of the hardships that refugees face in a single day. This particular video focuses on the struggle of the Ogadeen refugees. Numerous numbers of Ethiopans have been driven from their homes due to the struggle between the Ethiopian rebels and the Ethiopian military. In this particular video Al Jazeera's Mohammed Adow reports from Ogadeen about the refugees that have taken shelter in Ogadeen, which is a region of Ethiopia.

Works Cited

Hafsa

Interview by Mohammed Adow. Arabic-language news network. Al Jazeera.

"EthioBlog - Ethiopia - A day in the life of an Ogadeen refugee - Al Jazeera." Nazret.com Ethiopian News Portal. 27 Mar. 2009 .

Effect of Refugee Camps of their host country

When a refugee camp is created in a host country it has many effects of said country. For example, the economy of the host country must be strong enough to support an influx of people that they will be housing for an undermined amount of time. Most refugee camps are created as short term destinations, but many end up being there for much, much longer. The country must be able to maintain a strong economy, supply the needed supplies to the camps, although many countries receive outside aid from organizations. Yet more important than this is the fact that must be political and socially stable enough to maintain an influx of people who maintain a different set of cultural beliefs and values. As these people are likely to have an impact on the current population of locals living nearby. Anything from religious beliefs to cultural practices may be influenced by the arrival of a large number of refugees. This is especially true when the camp does not include fences in their security measures as it allows refugees to mix with locals and vice versa. Imagine if your neighborhood was suddenly used a refugee location for thirty refugees. After mixing for even a week, do you think that some of your viewpoints might be altered? You would be speaking with people who not only have a different set of beliefs and values but also whose personal life experiences are completely different form your own. While the effect that refugees have on the country may be great, the effect that they have on the culture of their surrounding areas is even stronger and will likely influence the culture of those areas for a long time to come. 

Works Cited

Salehyan, Idean, and Kristian S. Gleditsch. "Refugees and the Spread of Civil War." Cambridge Journals 60 (2006): 335-66.

Refugee Camps

A refugee camp is the site in which any number of people may be housed. They are usually situated on the outskirts of towns and cities in a zone that has been decreed safe from war, violence or land-mines. A camp can have any number of people, anywhere from hundreds to millions. The Gerieda refugee camp, which is located south of Darfur, at one point housed 3.5 million people (The Independent). Within these camps the tents tend to be positioned randomly as people often position themselves independently, which creates an interesting community in terms of location and space. Something to consider is how do people mark off their own space, or is personal space really available in a refugee camp? There are several issues that can arise from having all of these people confined to a space. One such issue is security, not everyone in this area is going to get along, not to mention that there are probably some previous cultural disputes to take into account. However it is up to the host country to provide security for any refugee camp within their borders. Most countries attempt to work with the refugees in order to create a system that allows the refugees to police themselves. Yet protective measures can include anything from soldiers to barbed wire fences. Security is only one such issue that may arise within a refugee camp. Yet whatever issues may arise it is up to the host country to provide the refugee camps with whatever they need to function. This usually causes a strain in the host country and create serious tension between the refugees and the local population. In this situation a question to consider is how does a refugee camp affect the country in which it is housed?

Works Cited

"CBC News In Depth: Anatomy of a refugee camp." CBC.ca - Canadian News Sports Entertainment Kids Docs Radio TV. 27 Mar. 2009 .

Smith, Alex D., and Jonathan Erasmus. "Aid groups pull out of Darfur refugee campe after rape." The Independent [London] 22 Jan. 2007.

What is a Refugee?

The USA for UNHR defines a refugee as "... someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war, or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. Most likely, they cannot return home or is afraid to do so. War and ethnic, tribal and religious violence are leading causes of refugees fleeing their countries." Think about this, a human being is forced to flee their country because of fear, and then travel to a foreign location, where life does not necessarily get easier, but most likely harder. This is the definition of a refugee: someone who flees for fear of their, and their families, life, to a place and culture that might not understand them, and a land that does not necessarily wants them similair ; try to imagine that situation and you will have begun to put yourself into a refugees shoes. When arriving in their host country, a refugee will usually take housing in a refugee camp, along with any number of other refugees who are in a similar situations. (I will be talking about refugee camps later in this blog). While a refugee has been assigned a label, they are still human beings, and this is a point that I cannot stress enough. Despite losing their homes and being forced to flee their country they still retain their humanity, and this must not be forgotten. So, to redefine a refugee, they are human beings who have been forced to flee their homes and everything they know for a place where things are not necessarily easier. 

Works Cited:

"What s a Refugee?" 26 Mar. 2009.

http://www.unrefugees.org/site/c.lfIQKSOwFqG/b.4950731/k.A894/What_is_a_refugee.htm

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as a person who flees to a foreign country or power to escape danger or persecution. Basically a person who has been forced from their homes due to war, religious persecution, or other dangerous situations. At the beginning of 2006, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees estimated that there were 8,400,000 refugees in the world. Since then that number has only risen, due to war in parts of the world as well as devastating natural disasters. Through this blog I hope to gain an insight into the lives of refugees. What do they do in foreign countries, how do they live, what sort of problems do they face? In this way I hope to gain a cultural insight into a people who are forced to leave their homes and enter into a different life altogether. Another question I hope to answer is, how do refugees affect the existing culture that they enter into?