Experiences from Refugees and Personal Reflection - Essay Example

Personal Reflection – Refugees and Migration Personal Reflection – Refugees and Migration Introduction All across the world, people are always moving to stay in different parts of the world or within their respective regions. While this is a good move that enhances integration of human communities, sometimes it is often triggered by forces beyond the control of the people migrating. Good migrations are often done voluntarily or are triggered by forces that bring good will to the people involved. In this kind of understanding, people can be forced to move another place because a job opportunity has arisen in the particular place. Alternatively, the spirit of adventure can also make people to choose to live in some places and not others. On the other hand, there are certain circumstances that tend to force people to move from one region to another. In some countries, political instability has been the cause of many internal and external migrations of people. In various places, people have been forced to move from one place to another, seeking for places that can offer safety and better conditions of life. While these migrations are an important step especially for people that are seeking shelter, getting used to the new environment is a major challenge. According to Falola & Niyi (2007), in new environment, the refugees fleeing from their homes are forced to put up with culture shocks, limited social interactions and lack of some important facilities that are necessary for life. Many refugee centres lack such factors as educational facilities, hampering their quest for learning. The plight faced by refugees has prompted me to make a reflection of the kind of life that refugees face as they seek new places for shelter and better life. In this regard, this paper examines a personal reflection of the kind of life faced by refugees, focusing on the interviews that were conducted about refugees and their kinds of experiences. Experiences from refugees and personal reflection The need to understand the life that refugees go through made me to make some interviews among different refugees. This exercises made me look for people that would give their real experiences of life in new countries as refugees. The need to have this understanding would enable me to think of ways in which I could use my ability and other means to help refugees in their camps. Being a university student, I had been thinking of ways in which we could mobilize ourselves and help refugees through the different challenges that they undergo through in their daily lives. I realized that as university students, the fact that we had higher levels of intellectual capacity compared to refugees and other people in camps meant that we reflect on how we can be important members of the community. We realized that part of the many challenges that refugees face in camps is their inability to read and write, something that makes it hard for them to get employment opportunities and make better their lives. Therefore, I got the need to make some interviews that would give me a platform on which I could mobilize my fellow students to help the refugees in their life. The following is a reflection of the interviews that I made and how my help would bring hope to the people. First interview In the first interview that I had, I interviewed a girl that had to move all the way from Gambia, a West African country to Switzerland, a small mountainous country that is located in central Europe. I got to learn that from the interview, the girl, together with other people that live in the same refugee camp had been forced to migrate to Switzerland because of the harsh conditions of life in the country that is located in the Sahara desert. From the interview and my own research, Gambia is not ranked among the developing countries; this means that many people lack the basic amenities that can help improve their conditions of life. The girl explained that she had come to Switzerland at her tender age. The conditions in Gambia did not allow her an opportunity to attend formal schooling, something that make it difficult to read and write inasmuch as she can communicate fluently in English. The girl explained that being in Switzerland promises better conditions of life, but it can only be much better if she can know how to read and write. She said that having this ability would enable her to find a job and repatriate some of the finances back to her country to help her younger siblings, Jainoba, in her interview explained that if she could get an opportunity to know how to read and write, she could use that chance to educate other people in the camp and help them achieve their goals and assist those they help. This realization underpinned my decision to mobilize my friends in campus to help provide reading and writing lessons to the refugees on voluntary basis. Second Interview In my second interview, I wanted to find someone that had had a much higher experience in the camp. In this regard, I scheduled an interview with a woman that has been in the refugee for some time, working as a deacon in the L’Agora Church. The woman explained that she had come to Switzerland from North Africa, after protests has started in Tunisia. She noted that initially, the protests had political motives but soon after churches began to be torched by some people that did not profess the Christian religion. This led to the death of many Christians, most of whom were the minority group in a country that has a large Muslim population. When she reached the refugee camp, the woman said that she found other people that had come from different countries as refugees. Feeling so hopeless, the woman teamed up with other people that were helping to counsel some of the refugees. Realizing that a good number of the refugees were Christians, they mobilized those that were willing to attend the church to come together and began running the L’Agora church. Just like in the first case, the woman explained that the people in refugee camp are willing to do meaningful activities that can help improve the conditions of their lives. For this reason, knowing how to read and write will serve as an important step in the right direction since it will help them to access simple jobs, attend school and achieve their goals. Third interview In my third interview, I met Dr Ross, who has been active in teaching psychology, with emphasis on the experiences that refugees and other kinds of migrations have on people. Dr. Ross explained that refugees often find it quite difficult living in new countries because they are not always accustomed to the new culture. Additionally, she explained that refugee camps often have people from different culture and not from one community or social group. In this case many of them become confused with the kind of living conditions that they often find. Dr. Ross explained that it is important to realise that a proper intervention can often play an important role in enabling refugees to streamline their lives. She said that many refugees had the ability to make their lives better but lack some of the basic skills in reading and writing. In this case, we discussed about creating a program that would help the refugees in achieving their ability to read and write. The program involves mobilizing some university students on voluntary basis to help the refugees know how to read and write. The fourth interview In my last interview, I met a man called Ivan, who was heading another refugee camp in Switzerland. During our discussion, Ivan told me that helping the refugees accept themselves and conditions that are experiencing requires a lot of skills. Many of them often lack the literacy skills that can enable them to communicate effectively. Ivan took time to explain more about how the Swiss law is open to welcome people seeking greener pasture and in different kinds of need, however, the law is being keen on controlling the number of emigrants entering the country. He explained that offering services in reading and writing was a good strategy that would help the refugees in accepting themselves and finding ways of improving their livelihoods in Switzerland. Therefore, making a program that would see some university students offer voluntary services in reading and writing for the refugees would be very essential for the success of the lives of these people. Molles (2014) explains that helping refugees is a good service to human kind especially when people volunteer to do so. Therefore, I feel profoundly honored to spearhead a program that would see university students volunteering to teach refugees and enable enhance their literacy skills. Going into the future, I believe that success of this program will be important in helping refugees in Switzerland manage their lives in the most effective way by managing to get job opportunities. References Molles, D. J. (2014). Refugees. Vero Beach, Fla: Rourke Enterprises. Falola, T & Niyi A. (2007). The human cost of African migrations. New York: Routledge. Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Bottom of Form Read More