Posts Tagged ‘immigrants’
Three Stories of Welcoming Refugees Across the U.S.
Did you know that World Relief Chicagoland is just one office location among 17 other U.S. offices of World Relief? As we welcome refugees and serve immigrants throughout the Chicago area, we know that across the country, other offices are doing their part to welcome new arrivals to their cities! Each shares a vision for creating communities where immigrants and refugees thrive. And each has powerful stories to share of the people who come to the U.S. after leaving their home country.
The three stories below are from World Relief offices in Washington state, Memphis, Tennessee, and North Texas. Each features a courageous and resilient family. Each family experienced a tragedy that forced them to flee. And yet each story also shows evidence of hope and a future ahead.
Amira admits, “I never expected to be a refugee.“
For Amira, life felt almost perfect… then the United States invaded Iraq and her life changed forever. She started as a top student studying linguistics. Her work and research made her a university professor. She was surrounded by family. Even after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Amira stayed for three years. She wanted to rebuild her country. But then it became too dangerous to stay…
Read Amira’s story of coming to the U.S. from Iraq as a refugee and about how today, she speaks up as an advocate for refugees and caseworker with World Relief Tri-Cities in Washington state.
Nazia worries for her friends and family in Afghanistan. “It’s not one person, two people, not even one hundred—it’s more like a million people.”
When Nazia, her husband, and three children arrived in Memphis in 2019, they came with the hope of providing a safe future for their daughters and son. Because Nazia’s husband worked on special projects for the U.S. and Nazia worked for Western media, their whole family had been at risk in Afghanistan. Threats from the Taliban forced the family from their home. Seeking safety, the family sold their belongings and traveled to the U.S. on Special Immigrant Visas. In 2019, they arrived in Memphis, Tennessee, where the long work of rebuilding their lives began.
Read Nazia’s story about how World Relief Memphis is helping her family as they dream of their future in the United States…while mourning and praying for their home country of Afghanistan.
David says that the most important thing to know about Afghans is that “Whenever a guest comes to our house, we’re happy for it. We say that guest is not only our guest, it’s God’s guest that came to our house.”
At World Relief North Texas, David practices his culture’s value of hospitality. As an Afghan immigrant, he uses his knowledge of both U.S. and Afghan culture to help the World Relief North Texas team welcome the influx of people arriving from Afghanistan. David and his family escaped Afghanistan in August, so he easily recalls the rush to flee to safety. And he remembers World Relief’s welcome to his family just a few months ago.
Read David’s story of how his experience working with Americans in Afghanistan as a translator is helping welcome other new arrivals to the U.S. through cultural orientation while his own family adjusts to life in Texas.
Read More Stories of Hope
María’s Story: Letter from a New U.S. Citizen
Jerome’s Story: Becoming A U.S. Citizen After Escaping Violence
4 Ways to Read, Watch, and Listen to Powerful Immigrant and Refugee Stories
At World Relief, we love to bring you inspiring and meaningful stories about the immigrants and refugees arriving in Chicagoland. Yet we are all part of an even bigger story – of migration, change, poverty, and global factors that impact all of us. To give you insight into this bigger story, we put together this list of four resources in varying formats – podcasts, a film documentary, a book and articles. Each one gives the audience the chance to see the bigger picture through the eyes of immigrants and refugees. We hope these stories move your heart and that you feel inspired to join the work needed to create a better future.
Podcasts
This American Life, “693: Abdi the American”
What is it? This podcast episode from This American Life returns to a story from years prior of Abdi, a Somali refugee living in Kenya, who won a visa lottery to come to the U.S. as a refugee. And before he can make it to the United States, the police start raiding his neighborhood and targeting refugees. This story picks up three weeks after Abdi finally became a U.S. citizen in Maine. Take some time to listen to his account from years before of winning a visa lottery and then facing incredible obstacles before making it to the United States.
NPR’s Code Switch Podcast, “What Does It Mean to Be A ‘Nation of Immigrants’?”
What is it? NPR’s Code Switch Podcast specialized in sharing stories about culture and race that are rooted in current events. Although the events that inspired this podcast occurred in 2018, this episode remains relevant because it also explores the bigger picture of how immigrants fit into the U.S. as a country – and the challenges many face after arrival. Through an interview with refugee and immigration law expert Hiroshi Motomura, this episode dives into topics like family-based immigration, the history of how immigrants have been treated, and how it feels to be an immigrant in the United States.
Beyond Soundbites Podcast, Episodes 17 and 18 “The Reason I’m Here” in the “Searching for the Personhood of Refugees” Series
What is it? The Beyond Soundbites podcast takes a faith-informed approach to exploring the complex refugee experience. Episodes 17 and 18 explore the story of Trang Tran, who arrived to the U.S. from Vietnam as a baby thanks to the Refugee Act of 1980. Trang invites listeners to join her as she pieces her story together and seeks to understand her own family’s story. Also, many of the creators and contributors to the Beyond Soundbites podcast have long-term connections with World Relief. And they apply their own passion for welcoming immigrants and refugees to every aspect of the podcast.
Movie
Human Flow by Ai Wei Wei
What is it? Human Flow is a stunning and epic documentary film by Ai Wei Wei, an internationally renowned artist who applies his creativity to visualizing global mass displacement. Ai Wei Wei explores the tension between the enormous scale of displacement and the poignance of individual stories. And since the film was released in 2017, the global displacement crisis has only grown, which makes the film’s mission to understand the experience of displaces people and promote a belief in everyone’s unique value more relevant than ever. And through powerful visuals, interviews and stories, the film makes the global refugee crisis feel real in a very personal way.
Book
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil
What is it? This autobiography tells the story of a young woman who is a refugee and whose family fled their home when she was only six years old. Spanning years, the book traces her family’s journey through refugee camps in seven African countries until Wamariya eventually makes it to the United States as a refugee. However, the story doesn’t end there…
“It’s strange, how you go from being a person who is away from home to a person with no home at all. You are unwanted, by everyone.”
Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil
The Girl Who Smiled Beads describes a family’s struggle to hold onto their dignity. Their fight to stay together. And the lingering trauma that lasts far past the actual violence they experienced. Even after arriving safely in the U.S., Wamariya describes wanting to challenge stereotypes and throughout the book, she pushes back. Should you see her as a poor, grateful, exotic refugee? No, she is a person of agency, feelings, and unique experience.
Article
NPR’s Goats and Soda, Stunning Photos Depict Migrants ‘As They’d Rather Be Seen’ by Malaka Gharib
What is it? We have all seen heart-wrenching images of refugees and immigrants suffering, as oppressed and victims of violence. And in contrast, this article profiles a photo exhibit called Another Way Home. The art show provides a different narrative. It shows people how they want to be seen. And it does so by featuring 13 immigrant, migrant, and refugee photographers, artists, and storytellers and showcasing their works of art.
What will you learn next?
We hope that these resources help you connect to the stories of refugees and immigrants: people who come from different backgrounds, places, and stories but have dreams and goals for their lives. Ultimately, this is a launchpad. There are countless stories out there of people who overcame obstacles, faced incredible challenges, and are rebuilding their lives after loss and displacement. Because of that, we hope you will think of this as a starting place. Whose story will you hear next?
Continue reading:
Abdul and Yao: Story of Impact
Moving Forward with World Relief Durham
This fall, a few of World Relief Durham’s partners shared why they serve with World Relief and what it looks like for their community to move forward together. Here are some of their thoughts:
Why World Relief?
“They not only serve [the international community] well, but they love it well, and they do it from a biblical perspective and they do it holistically, which is very, very important to a person who has no idea what to do next.”
Raven Fox, ServeRDU Associate Director of Community Training, The Summit Church
“World Relief is great access to finding people that we can support as a church, and it’s also a place that gives us the tools with the training before people enter – that’s really helpful for them to be culturally sensitive and ready to help in a good, kind way!”
Andrea Tshihamba, World Relief Durham Volunteer
“I think it’s a great organization that combines our love for Jesus with love for people. I think keeping those things together is really important for us, as God’s people, and as a pastor, I’m excited that this is an organization that really shows us how to do that.”
Dave Dunderdale, Associate Pastor, Blacknall Memorial Presbyterian Church
How have you seen your community “move together” to create lasting change?
“I think Durham represents a lot of history and a lot of grit. And I feel like World Relief Durham is part of that community and when, for example, with the Afghanistan crisis, the amount of outpouring to […] donate money to help World Relief Durham to be able to serve the refugees coming in, was completely – we were all just blown away by the support of the community.”
Naoshi Yamauchi, World Relief Durham Board Member & Volunteer
“We’ve seen more and more people thinking through what skill set or what gifting they have and how they can leverage that. […] One [example] around housing: some people who own a variety of rental units, and have been thinking how could they make them affordable; make them affordable especially to refugees who are just getting here. Maybe you have no credit history; maybe you can’t afford market rate. So they’re able to offer them at affordable rates, and be able to work with them to build credit and to be able to eventually move towards owning their own homes.”
KJ Hill, Pastor of Community Development and Outreach, The Summit Church
Interviews collected by Karen Spencer, U.S. Marketing Partner, World Relief, and Rachel Clair, Content Manager, World Relief.
Servant: Caring for the Immigrant and Refugee
This discipleship video from one of our church partners, The Summit Church, discusses the Biblical command to “welcome the stranger” and offers some practical steps believers can take to follow God’s call, including giving, volunteering, and advocating alongside World Relief Durham.
“God commands his people to care for strangers and foreigners, along with the poor, the widows, and orphans. It’s important to recognize that these passages are not simply proof-texts free of context. Rather, compassionate and just treatment of foreigners is a core ethical principle, rooted in God’s covenant with his people. Just one representative example is Leviticus 19:34, ‘The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’ As God cared for his people when they were oppressed strangers in Egypt, his people were to demonstrate his faithfulness and compassion by welcoming strangers into their community and treating them justly.”
“Servant – Caring for the Immigrant & Refugee” – The Summit Church (00:49-01:43)
Advent Prayer Guide: Taking Heart
We dwell in a world still racked with extreme poverty, violence, mass displacement, and suffering. Covid-19 continues to expose these realities of injustice in new and overwhelming ways, and it feels debilitating. Advent is a moment to enter in, hold these realities, bring the grief we carry, sit in the brokenness, and long together for restoration.
For those of us who follow the Christian faith, Advent reminds us of the hope we have. In the aching, longing, and waiting we are reminded that,
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:5
That’s why this Advent season, we want to invite those of you who share our faith to pray with us. Let us pray for the heaviness we carry and the brokenness we see in our own lives and in the world around us.
Through this guide, you will join others in the World Relief community in daily prayer for our refugee and immigrant neighbors. Let this Advent season be filled with renewal, rest, and restoration as we offer up our prayers.
Advent Week One: November 28
Read: Isaiah 9:2-7
Reflect & Pray: Christmas time is full of lights. There are houses with lights on their roof or your Christmas tree that is filled with little light bulbs and sparkle. Could these lights be a reminder this Christmas season of the light that broke into the darkness? God sent the One who is light to come into the darkness so that we could live in a relationship with him. The light has come!
Advent Week Two: December 5
Read: Ephesian 2:14-18
Reflect & Pray: In the midst of chaos, Jesus entered into our midst. He would live the life we could not live, fulfilling God’s requirement. When he entered, he brought with him perfect peace. Peace that heals, peace that reconciles, peace that invites, peace that challenges, and peace that brings hope.
Advent Week Three: December 12
Read: John 13:34-35
Reflect & Pray: The distinguishing mark of Christ’s followers is love. We love because God first loved us (1 John 4:19). Our love compels us to serve sacrificially and welcome our neighbors whether they be natural-born or foreign-born.
Advent Week Four: December 19
Read: Luke 1:46-56
Reflect & Pray: Mary’s song is a hymn of praise. She expresses her confidence that God will be true to his promises to his people. We can have this same confidence that God will be faithful to what he is doing in us, in our communities, and in our world.
Continuing in Prayer: December 26
Read: Psalm 27:13-14
Reflect & Pray: We have celebrated the arrival of God’s Son coming into the world. This is how we know hope, peace, love, and joy. And now we remain in the Lord. We will see his goodness, we will wait, and we will take heart.
More ways to pray with World Relief:
Mercy over Judgment
By K.J. Hill and Reema Nasrallah //
The tragic fall of Afghanistan’s government has led the international community to rally to assist evacuees fleeing the Taliban. More than 1,000 of these Afghan evacuees are slated for resettlement in North Carolina in the coming months.
As a pastor, I have been getting lots of questions about this crisis. Many of the questions are rooted in compassion with a sincere desire to help, like “How can we help people arriving overcome culture shock?” or “How can we meet basic needs like housing, clothing and food?” Other questions reveal cynicism, angst, and fear, such as “How do we know people coming here can be trusted?” or “How do we know they are who they claim to be?” These questions — which are also asked about asylum-seekers at our southern border — aren’t new, but are actually the same questions that the early church was asking.
In fourth-century Antioch, Archbishop John Chrysostom objected to the congregations who were complaining about poor foreigners (including refugees and economic migrants) arriving in their city: “But to what extent do [the poor] seek to deceive you? They are fugitives, they say, strangers, worthless creatures, who have left their native land and are gathering in our city. Do you resent this, tell me, and do you pluck the crown of honor from your city, because all men consider it a common refuge, and prefer it to their own land? Nay, rather, for this reason you ought to exult and rejoice, that to you, as if to some common market, they all run, and consider this city their common mother.” Read more at Baptist Press.
Update on Afghan Resettlement
This week, World Relief Durham’s Resettlement Manager, Rebecca Evens, shared about the ongoing resettlement process for Afghan evacuees arriving in the Triangle as humanitarian parolees. At this point, the office has resettled about half of the humanitarian parolees expected, with the remainder of these arrivals anticipated by mid-January. “We did increase our initial capacity by almost doubling it, so we are receiving more than we initially planned to. It’s also highly likely that we will eventually increase our capacity again because there are still Afghans who haven’t even made it to the US yet,” Rebecca explained. Currently, around 75,000 Afghan allies have been evacuated to the United States, with close to another 25,000 still waiting outside the country. “At the same time,” Rebecca noted, “it’s important to remember that we’re also receiving refugee arrivals who are not Afghans; we have arrivals coming in from Syria, Sudan, hopefully one from Eritrea soon. And so it’s also refugees coming from other environments.”
Everyone resettled by World Relief Durham is enrolled in initial resettlement programs, which include housing, ESL, school enrollment, getting connected to public benefits, cultural orientation, and other services. “We do triage when people first arrive — how ready are they for work, what documents are missing, do they have exigent medical conditions.” Although humanitarian parole does not include all of the rights and benefits held by those with Special Immigrant Visas or refugee status (notably, parole is considered a temporary status, without a direct path to a green card and naturalization), parolees do receive work authorization. “Most get enrolled in employment services fairly quickly,” Rebecca shared.
How to “Drive” Change by Donating Your Car
I still have my first car. It’s a blue Honda with hundreds of thousands of mileage. That car has taken me from Georgia to California and back. It saw me through a spontaneous road trip from Tennessee to Connecticut when I was in college. It has traversed the red rock hills of Sedona, Arizona, and the city streets of Chicago, Illinois. This car has blasted me with air conditioning on the hottest summer days and kept me safe and dry when storms poured rain on my way to work. All in all, my faithful little car has been my transportation across 26 states. Without fail, it has gotten me where I needed to go.
That blue Honda is so reliable that I rarely thought twice about making plans, driving to work, or volunteering to carpool with coworkers.
And then it unexpectedly landed in the auto repair shop.
The repair took three weeks. That meant three weeks without a vehicle. And those three weeks showed me how much I relied on my car. So many of my plans were contingent on being able to drive any time. Having a reliable car meant always having transportation. The flexibility to make plans. Never wondering how I would get to work each day. I could drive to the doctor and get there on time. Family never wondered if I could pick them up at the airport.
Without my car, I was limited.
However, I also learned how many advantages I have. Advantages that many people don’t have. These advantages meant that losing my car for three weeks was an annoyance, not a disaster. Because of where I live, I can walk, ride the bus, or take the train nearly everywhere I want to go. I work from home often, so I didn’t have to worry about losing my income. And because I have friends with cars, I was even able to borrow a vehicle for the day when I needed it.
What if that hadn’t been the case?
What if no car meant three weeks of not making it to work? That could mean losing a job that I worked hard to get and need for income. All of a sudden, my ability to pay rent would be in jeopardy. Going to the doctor, shopping for groceries… all of these things would become much more difficult, time-consuming, and inconvenient. Transportation barriers regularly impact people’s health care access. They increase isolation. And lack of transportation is a major obstacle to employment for millions of Americans.
The Barrier of Transportation
At World Relief Chicagoland, we frequently talk about the barriers that immigrants and refugees face when they arrive in the United States. Those barriers come in all shapes and sizes – they can be anything that keeps families from accomplishing their goals.
Oftentimes, for those whose new homes are in the suburbs, near World Relief’s offices in Aurora and DuPage County, one of the biggest barriers is transportation.
Consider this:
- Suburban neighborhoods often don’t have access to buses and trains, or routes don’t cover every area.
- Carpooling is a good option, but only if everyone’s schedule matches up. This doesn’t work very well if you work an unusual shift or have commitments like picking your child up from daycare by a certain time.
- Uber and Lyft can work in a pinch, but the cost per ride is high and adds up quickly.
- Because of the current lack of affordable housing, people will take apartments wherever they can – but this might put them out of walking distance from their community and limit their access to carpools.
Two Stories
Right now, World Relief knows a family of six who live with a relative in Aurora. This relative has a car, so they are hoping to find affordable housing near her so that she can take the adults to work and help them run errands. This is their best option because there aren’t any carpool or public transport options nearby, although the father of the family already has his driver’s license. Getting a car would mean the family has more flexibility in housing and the ability to drive to work, pick up groceries, and make it to doctor’s appointments – all on their own, without relying on their relative.
Another family we know is a single mother and her son. This mom is on her own, but determined to work hard to support her son. The first step toward getting a job is access to childcare—and thankfully, World Relief staff connected her with an amazing and affordable place where her son will be safe and cared for throughout the day. However, the daycare is only open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. – and the only carpool in her area is on a schedule that won’t let her pick up her son on time. Having access to a car will open amazing opportunities for this mom to drive to her job, work to support her son, and pick him up at the end of the day.
For these families, access to a car unlocks an incredible future. Lack of access limits that potential.
The Unmatched Impact of Donating Your Car
World Relief Chicagoland can count the families who need a car right now. Receiving a car right now would change their lives completely. And each car would have a rippling impact far beyond one individual or family.
If we had six cars right now, we would be able to give them out within two to four weeks. That would provide transportation to as many as twenty-four people who have jobs at up to six different companies.
– World Relief Chicagoland Employment Team staff member
Think of it like this – each car not only serves a person’s entire family, but it begins a new carpool opportunity that provides regular transportation for up to five or six people in the community who work at the same company. One car makes it possible for families to access other community resources, participate in events, visit relatives in other towns, and run errands in a more efficient manner.
How do we connect these families to vehicles?
How did you get your first car? What about your first job?
My blue Honda made it possible for me to drive to internships in college, take my roommate to medical appointments after an injury, move across the country for a new job post-college, and get to work every day once there. It’s not fancy. But it has always gotten me where I needed to go. My family gave me this car as a young adult, and it was a vital part of launching me into my adult life and career as I was just starting out.
Immigrant and refugee families who are rebuilding their lives in the U.S. face all kinds of barriers. But transportation should not be one of them.
Waiting to buy a car will prevent them from accessing the job opportunities and community resources that will create financial stability in the first place. And yet it would be impossible for most families to pay thousands of dollars to buy a car now.
You can jump-start their process to thriving by donating your car to World Relief Chicagoland. When you do, you will remove the barrier of transportation for as many as five or six immigrant or refugee families. And by removing the barrier of transportation, you create career opportunities and a positive economic impact that touches everyone in the community.
Will you be swapping your car for a newer model this season? Do you need a bigger vehicle to accommodate your family’s needs? If so, consider donating your car to World Relief Chicagoland.
The gift of transportation is a tangible way to change lives.
Continue reading:
An Afghan Neighbor’s Call for Peace
By Adrienne Morton //
World Relief Durham had the privilege of welcoming and resettling an Afghan family of seven this past July, providing housing, school enrollment and support for the children, employment services, health care coordination, and other wraparound services that help them begin rebuilding their lives in Durham. Husband and father Shir Khan Shirzad recently shared some of his family’s story of moving from Afghanistan to Durham.
After graduating from high school in Afghanistan, Shir Khan Shirzad began working in a small grocery store to support himself and his family. Knowing that going to university wouldn’t be financially viable, he worked as a grocer until the United States forces arrived and began employing Afghans in various roles supporting the military operation.
In 2004, Shir Khan was introduced to his next employer—the U.S. military—after his nephew secured a job as an interpreter. His initial job was as an entry-level laborer supporting the U.S. military, but he worked hard and moved his way up to become head of all labor workers in a particular region.
Having worked for the U.S. government, Shir Khan knew that his safety would be at risk should the U.S. withdraw from Afghanistan. He recruited an English-speaking friend to help him begin the arduous process of submitting documents required for a Special Immigrant Visa. Shir Khan did not speak or read English, but he eventually taught himself enough to complete the first step of the process—the paperwork. It would be years before his case was processed, but he eventually secured an interview with the U.S. embassy in 2018. Even then his visa did not come through until 2021. He, his wife Fazila, and their five children arrived in Durham in July.
It has now been several months since Shir Khan left his house, country, job, brothers, sisters, nephews, culture—his home. When asked how he is getting along thus far in the U.S. he said, “me and my family are safe … it will take time for example, to know the culture, rules, everything about America.” Nonetheless, “we are still sad thinking about home … I don’t know how long it will take for us, living so far from our families in Afghanistan.”
Shir Khan struggled to find the words to sufficiently express his depth of sadness for the Afghan people. “[They are] innocent people, young people, not only for my family … I’m worried about all people there because Afghan people [have been] suffering for a long time. It seems endless for Afghan people.”
When asked how Americans can best support him and the Afghan people, he was quick to respond: “I just want peace in Afghanistan. They are suffering all of the time … just bring peace.”
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Photo “Northwestern Afghanistan” by koldo hormaza, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Todd Unzicker and Adam Clark: Christians must heed the call to welcome Afghan refugees and other vulnerable immigrants
By Todd Unzicker and Adam Clark //
More than 1,000 Afghans will resettle in North Carolina in the coming months after fleeing violence and oppression from the Taliban. When they arrive here, it will be up to North Carolinians to welcome them.
This presents a challenge, but it is also an opportunity. We can and must answer the call to welcome our vulnerable neighbors from across the world. As Christian leaders, we think a big part of the responsibility for doing so falls to us and our fellow believers, to those of us who call ourselves the body of Christ.
Our faith commands that we empathize with the suffering of refugees. Jesus himself, our Lord, fled persecution with his family as a child. Caring for the vulnerable demonstrates the great love that Christ first showed us, and we live out our calling as Christ-followers by welcoming and seeking justice for the “sojourner.”
Many are already answering this call to welcome. For example, Vic and Michele Wallace are long-time members of The Summit Church in Durham. The Wallaces have been serving refugees in the local community for the past decade as they have lived out biblical hospitality and been blessed by their new refugee friends. Read more at the Greensboro News & Record
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