What if the country where refugees came from gained political and/or economic stability? What if the country where the refugee had gone to for safety turned out to give the refugee a worse situation than before? What if the refugee wants to go back to their country for whatever reason? The process is actually much more complicated than expected, and is also heavily frowned upon depending on which country the refugees are in or even coming from. Wanting to go back to a native country may not even be possible once you are a refugee, as the legal process may bind you to certain restrictions.

For starters, there are many factors that should be considered when refugees want to return to their own country. One of the main factors is transportation. How will these refugees return to their country of origin? Many refugees leave their home country via some military transport that is constantly going from the endangered country to the country of safety. The chances of the safe country to provide military transport from the safe country to a previously endangered country, especially if that country does not have any more refugee camps, is very slim. As a refugee, it also may be unlikely that the person or family has significant funds to buy a commercial plane ticket to their country of origin. Therefore, refugees usually need the support of some service organization to return. In certain countries like India, the refugees sometimes have no way to return back to their country, which causes them to be stuck in the country.

Another major factor is the refugee’s use of resources in the country they originally went to. When a refugee goes to a country and even stays there for a while (but maybe not long enough to go from refugee to citizen status), the country may have used a significant amount of resources on helping the refugee settle. Many countries may strip away the refugees of their resources upon the refugee returning to their country. However, the revocation of the resources can provide a difficult situation for refugees returning, as they may not have significant funds to begin their life again, especially if their old home and living conditions got destroyed when the country was in danger.

Sometimes, a refugee may not be able to return home due to immigration services not allowing them to return, for various reasons such as resource or other legal reasons. Sometimes, it is considered the refugee’s right to go back to their country in some areas, but others may not consider it as they personally invited the refugee to stay at the country’s expense. Sometimes, the refugee when returning home may not be in the complete state to find their home or job. If many refugees return to the same area, that may have gotten destroyed, then there could be fights and arguments ensued for who owns what. Therefore, sometimes a country or service organization may have to provide some sort of legal attorney or backing when it comes to certain preventions or solutions to the fights. 

At times, the refugees may not legally return, as the country they want to return to is not deemed as safe for the refugee to return to. This is actually a large problem that many refugees face. Especially in Ukraine in recent times, many initial refugees want to return to Ukraine for various reasons: family, to help fight, and more. Though a lot of countries are permissive, many are not due to various tie-ups in the legal system or refugee process. Once again, the refugees might need some sort of legal protection when it comes to returning to their country of origin if that country is still considered ‘endangered.’ For countries considered endangered, some refugees may even want to just visit their home country for whatever reason. Lots of service organizations and countries may provide such visits, but once again, it requires some legal backing for the refugee to complete this.

To summarize, the refugees once again need a lot of help when it comes to returning to their country, for better or for worse. Though many countries and service organizations are working to better find solutions for this problem, awareness should be spread on this issue.

References: https://www.unhcr.org/returnees.html#:~:text=For%20many%20of%20the%20millions,millions%20of%20displaced%20people%20home.

From the time of colonization, the path to citizenship has been a process that many people have gone through and perhaps even dread. As the years went by, the path became easy at times, giving citizenship somewhat easily, and difficult at times, taking perhaps a generation to gain naturalization. The situation as refugees are no less different, as sometimes naturalization for refugees can happen somewhat easily but also extremely difficult at times. Even as a refugee, citizenship is not guaranteed, as there is a whole another process to go through. In fact, it may even be harder as a refugee to gain citizenship, as the government may not see the benefit of granting citizenship to the refugee. Depending on the country, especially if it is a third world country or first world developed country, the difficulty for refugees gaining citizenship varies a lot.

There are many factors that have to be considered when granting citizenship to a refugee. For example, a government has to see whether or not a refugee has proper means to start a new life in a certain country. If the refugee is granted citizenship, what will they do next? How long should they be receiving benefits after citizenship has been granted if they are not in the complete state to go work or receive proper education. In countries such as America, refugees may have proper facilities to get the proper education or work training to participate in before citizenship is granted. Third World countries may not have those facilities to carry out the work. What if the country that refugees sought protection from gained political well-being before naturalization can take place? In that case do the refugees have to return to their home country or are they allowed to stay if they already have received proper training?

As said before, each country has their own set of rules and regulations when it comes to granting citizenship to refugees. In America, refugees automatically have the same natural rights that citizens have. They may apply for different forms to grant them work, education, bringing of other family members, etc. However, the refugees are required to apply for the Permanent Resident Card, otherwise known as the Green Card, 1 year after staying in the US. The Permanent Resident Card allows a person to permanently work in the US. This alleviates the worry of getting sent out of the country suddenly as your life is progressing in another country. However, applying is different from actually receiving. As a regular immigrant, gaining the Green Card is very difficult, as it is this process that takes years to come. From personal experience with people around me, there are people who have been in the country for longer than I was born and still haven’t received the green card. For refugees, there are mixed views on whether or not it is easier to receive the green card. Generally, people accept that it is easier for the refugees to receive a green card as it is a country’s duty to accept the people as their own citizens. However, I have also known refugees who were not actually able to receive the green card and even left the country. After a green card is received, it is generally an easy process to apply and receive citizenship. Most generally, the refugees must try to find work before applying for the green card.

In third world countries, the process is generally very different and varies greatly country to country. For example, in India there is actually no strong legislative work regarding the refugee to citizenship process. Currently, there are rules that are starting to be processed and implemented regarding citizenship. The only rule that is more strictly enforced is that refugees must remain in India for 5 years before citizenship. Other third world countries may have processes where the refugees may immediately become citizens and get jobs. Refugees may become citizens if they have known people, or sponsors, in the country they entered. Some refugees can only go through citizenship if they have proper education in the country. Regardless, there are lots of arguments regarding whether or not the refugees should have an easier or harder process when getting citizenship. Therefore, it is important to analyze the living status of refugees and help them gain the new life they deserve without harming the government.

References:

https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/brochures/USCIS_Welcomes_Refugees_and_Asylees.pdf

Refugees have been a major part of our world, as many people have to leave the harshness of their countries to another country that will give them freedom and the opportunity to pursue their dreams for the better of themselves and their families. Many of these refugees have aspirations to go to areas like the US and Europe to live their dreams. However, sometimes these refugees don’t have the facilities, or even luck, to go to first-world countries. Sometimes, to escape immediate persecution, the refugees have no choice but to go to third-world countries. Sometimes that sudden threat gives the refugees no choice but to go to a country that will not persecute them for who they are, at least not the government. One such country is India, where aside from the threat of violence or being killed, all sorts of persecution may still occur.

Personally, I have witnessed people persecuting some of the refugees in India due to many reasons. For example, the refugees of Rohingya have come to India due to persecution for being Muslims in Myanmar. In India, many jobs and standard education are not given to these refugees. People isolate the refugees in slums and give them little to no economic opportunity to grow. In India, there are also no strong legislative acts that protect the rights of refugees. There are no strong legislative acts that permit the refugees from getting immigration documents and becoming working citizens of the country. Even refugees who were initially Indian also have faced persecution from the government and people. For example, the Sri Lankan refugees in the 1980s were technically from a part of India. These refugees faced persecution from the Sri Lankan government. However, India aided Sri Lanka in persecuting these refugees, which showed the refugees that they were not necessarily wanted even though they were able to become refugees of India.

Not only India, but many other non-Western countries have had similar experiences with the refugees. For example, some areas in the Middle East that take up refugees seeking economic opportunity trick the refugees. Some areas trap them into working for certain groups for a certain amount of time while taking rent, where they won’t end up having enough money to pay the rent and in the end keep on working for them. Some of the refugees are even tricked into forced labor, making conditions worse than what it was from the original country they were in. However, when certain emergency situations occur, such as the Afghanistan crisis that occurred recently, the people fleeing do not see the horrors of other countries as they want to escape the most immediate ones.

There is also another side to this argument, as some people say that the refugees may also not be completely innocent in their workings. For example, the definition of a refugee shows that one can be classified as a refugee when they have a threat to life, but not necessarily economic opportunity. Some people, who still have a threat to their lives, don’t necessarily face the same danger in economic situations. To be more specific, they have the opportunity of moving to another safer country but have the risk of going through too much documentation and spending a lot of money for their safety. Rather, the people classifying as refugees may come to a country in the name of refugee protection but still have the same economic status and opportunity to grow. To certain Western countries, this is not a great concern as the economic status of these Western countries are well above average. To third World countries however, their economic status is not the greatest. They may or may not have facilities to help their own citizens, so to see refugees come with a greater economic status than the citizens itself can demotivate the government especially when the refugees aren’t contributing to the economic status of the country. At the same time, many of the refugees come to the countries illegally without documentation, which is a huge problem even in the Western countries. Some people that I have talked to even stated that in the case of India, many of the refugees such as the Rohingya have not received jobs or education due to them being illegal and not having the proper documentation they need as a refugee. 

Therefore, the idea of refugees must be considered on the international level because the threat to safety is not something that should occur. We should work towards an international goal to provide countries with the correct facilities to help the people leave danger.

References:

https://www.ilo.org/beirut/media-centre/news/WCMS_211162/lang–en/index.htm

https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-editorials/refugee-crisis-in-india