Refugee Crisis

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Last summer, we all watched as Syrian refugees fled across the Mediterranean Sea seeking safety in Italy, Greece, Turkey and other countries of first asylum. Some of these courageous migrants continued to travel through Europe in the hopes of finding new homes in European countries as far north as Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Norway. Needless to say, we were horrified at the plight of Syrian refugees, especially by images of little children washed ashore on the very beaches where they hoped to walk their first steps toward a new life.

At St. Andrew’s School, an Episcopal boarding school in Middletown, Delaware,  a sophomore student, whose family is Syrian, organized a headmaster’s forum in September to discuss ways that St. Andrew’s could extend assistance to individuals and families fleeing violence and war in their homeland.

Through further combined efforts of students, teachers, chaplains and parents, St. Andrew’s was able to invite Deborah Stein, Director of Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) to speak at one of the school’s regular Wednesday evening prayer service. Ms. Stein has over 20 years of professional experience working with refugees both domestically and internationally, and has been with EMM since 2000.  Her career in refugee resettlement has included stints with the International Rescue Committee, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Church World Service, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, including posts at overseas processing entities in Croatia and Macedonia. She has also lived and worked in Russia, teaching English at the Barnaul State Pedagogical University in the Altai Mountains.

Ms. Stein began her January 13 talk by explaining some of the different terms used to describe people who flee from one country to another. She noted that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee’s (UNHCR) 1951 Refugee Convention defined a refugee as someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country." However, refugees and migrants, even though they often travel in the same way, are fundamentally different, and for that reason are treated very differently under modern international law. Migrants, especially economic migrants, “choose to move” in order to improve the future prospects of themselves and their families. Refugees “have to move” if they are to save their lives or preserve their freedom. They have no protection from their own state; indeed it is often their own government which is threatening to persecute them. If other countries do not let refugees in—or do not help them once they are in—these individuals are at risk of being condemned or to an intolerable life in the shadows, without sustenance and without rights—or even to death.

Ms. Stein then shared some startling facts: according to the UNHCR, there are now more than 60 million refugees and displaced people worldwide. This is the largest number of refugees living in the world at any time since World War II. She went on to explain that there are three durable solutions for refugees: repatriation, integration, and resettlement. In many instances, refugees are able to repatriate or return to their home countries once conflicts or oppression have ceased and civil society has stabilized. Other refugees who cannot ultimately return home instead will integrate into their country of first asylum (that is, the country to which they first fled for safety). Less than 1 in 100 refugees has access to the third solution, resettlement to another nation, such as the United States. 

     Deborah Stein shared this graphic, which she called “The Candyland Process,” during her chapel talk.

Ms. Stein also took time to address the fears that some people have with respect to refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers. She emphasized that the United States resettles more refugees than all other resettlement countries combined through an extremely thorough vetting process. She explained that the U.S. government handpicks the refugees who resettle here, and the U.S. resettlement process is the most rigorous screening process in the world. Refugees are the most thoroughly vetted people to come to the United States, undergoing interagency screenings by the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the Department of Defense, the National Counter Terrorism Center, and multiple intelligence agencies. These screening are done before a candidate enters the U.S. and include biometric checks, forensic document testing, medical tests, and in-person interviews. If at any time a person being screened fails to meet the high standards set by these agencies, they must either start over or end the process completely.

During a question-and-answer session after her talk, a number of St. Andrew’s students asked what they could do to assist refugees. Ms. Stein called attention to an upcoming vote in the U.S. Senate on H.R. 4038, “The American Security against Foreign Enemies (SAFE) Act.” This bill would halt all resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the U.S., and was passed by the House of Representatives in November, 2015. Ms. Stein asked students to contact their Senators and urged them to vote “NO” to H.R. 4038.

But “the most important thing you can do,” she said, “is to meet a refugee in person. Look them in the eye, smile, shake their hand and let them know they are accepted in your community. Make a welcome sign and take it to the airport where you know a family is arriving to being a new life in the United States.”

St. Andrew’s students and faculty members responded immediately by making phone calls and writing letters against H.R. 4038, and, under the leadership of School Chaplain Jay Hutchinson, the St. Andrew’s Student Vestry held a Vestry Movie Night on the following Saturday to raise money for refugee resettlement.

The visit of Deborah Stein to St. Andrew’s affirmed Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s words on welcoming the stranger: “In the Book of Leviticus, God says to the people of Israel that, ‘the foreigner who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the foreigner as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.’ Accordingly, we welcome the stranger. We love our neighbor. The Episcopal Church has long been committed to resettling refugees in our own communities fleeing violence and persecution.”

Today, students of St. Andrew’s join with Presiding Bishop Curry and Bishop Wright of the Diocese of Delaware in raising awareness about refugees around the world, and are committed to welcoming refugees into our communities as new friends.