Social Media Helps Discuss America's Security
2015-11-22
America will elect a new President next year as Barack Obama ends his eight years in office. The election has increased the differences between America's political parties and the candidates from both parties who seek the country's highest political office. The attacks in Paris, Beirut, and Bamako (in Mali, Africa) have brought attention to the plight of the displaced--the millions of refugees, especially from Syria. Once a part of Turkey, Syria is located along the Mediterranean Sea and is a part of southwestern Asia; its capital, Damascus, is one of the important trade and cultural centers of the ancient world, but today it is caught in a violent civil war that has killed thousands of civilians.
Families with children are fleeing the violence. Their homes are being bombed, troops are killing many of those who survive. The country--and its families--are engulfed in war. The battles are destroying this ancient nation.
Many of the Syrian refugees are fleeing to Europe, but US President Barack Obama's has announced that he will allow the US to accept 20,000 refugees into the US. The announcement stirred immediate opposition from political leaders and many citizens who thought it would be easy for terrorists to enter the country in the swell of refugees. They denounced the President's decision. They appealed to fears while avoiding any evidence that describes the actual screening process for refugees entering the country.
But in America, many debates are carried out in social media, especially Twitter. To show how Twitter can influence the debate, the posts below share the powerful story of one refugee family from Bosnia who entered America in 1994, fleeing the civil conflicts in Bosnia. the posts below describe the screen process from the point of view of a person whose family participated in the review and made it to America. They also show the power of social media.
The posts were written by Arnessa. She is also the founder and director of the Bosniak American Association of Iowa. The group is a non-profit organization that seeks to foster and promote Bosnian American heritage and activism.
If your story is true, if the documents are valid and everything checks out against their databases, then you get called in for an interview.
Over the next 12 months they will review you the information you provided, check the validity of your documents and check your references.
This is the first step so let's say month 1.
You have to provide their contact information as well. If some of them are dead you have to provide proof they are dead or missing.
You have to provide them with names of ALL your family members, dead and alive. All your friends, neighbors, teachers. Everyone.
You have to write down your story. All your family members do. Where you were born, where you are now, what you're doing, everything.
This is the 1st interview of the many you will have. You sit in a room with a desk and a chair. A UN official is there to ask you questions.
You tell them your story. Your mother tells them your story. Your father tells them your story. Your 7 year old brother does as well.
They split you up so you tell your stories individually. Then you tell your story together. You tell them about the war & after the war.
Because Yugoslavia was a socialist country, my parents also had to tell their before the war story. Were they communists, dissidents?
They ask you a lot about the war and communism. Did you support the war? Did you take up arms? Were you in the military?
How do you feel about communism? Did you think Tito was a good ruler? Are you religious? How religious are you?
Was anybody in your family in the military? If you were in a concentration camp during the war you had to provide proof that you were.
You tell your story again to a different official. And again. And again. And then again. Lets call this month 18 now.
They ask you, a child, the same questions they ask of the adults. It doesn't matter that you don't know what the words "treason" mean.
They ask you to submit more proof. You have to do a retina eye scan. You have to get a medical exam. You do another interview.
But you survived. You're in America. You are now safe. Wait....there are more interviews to be had.
You get to sleep for the night and in the morning you go to the immigration & refugee center. More questions.
You tell them your story again. You provide all the documents again (even though they have them already). You answer more questions.
You have to do another medical exam. You have to get 7 shots in one day. Your little brother screams b/c he's a baby & shots hurt.
They give you 1 month of medicaid, 1 month of food stamps, old donated furniture & nothing else.
Your parents find jobs. Both of them. They find two jobs. They don't sleep because they work 2 full time jobs. You barely see them.
Your first day of class you get called a terrorist. The kids tell you that you are dirty and probably have lice.
Month 1 in America is over. No more assistance. Your parents b/c of their two jobs are able to buy real furniture and a car.
You are thankful. You have a bed now. You never see your parents but you have food, a place to sleep and even a car. You're grateful.
You're thankful for the fact you got a chance to survive that you spend all your free time volunteering and giving back to the community.
You are also required to take English classes and job placement classes, as well as a class on how to act in America.
From Arnessa's post, despite the protests of those who oppose the President's decision, does America have anything to fear from refugees?
Bosnia, 1994.
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