Rocio Chavez
Sociology 111
Dr. Kubal
16 February 2017
Response to Refugee Articles
After reading two articles which focused on refugees, I couldn't help but wonder what I could do to help. Both articles discussed ways that everyday Americans were trying to come together to show compassion and provide services to those who are being given the cold shoulder by our government lately. There were a lot of good points mentioned throughout both articles.
The first article I read, "I don't believe people need to be fearful of refugees" by Linda Girardi, talked about how many members of a church are finding ways to help refugees from all nations. The World Relief DuPage/Aurora hosted the Refugee and Immigration Advocacy Night at Wesley United Methodist Church. Here all members came together and discussed how they pledged to help those in need especially now that the Trump Administration has begun to discriminate on people from certain areas. The article had a small section about a girl who spent time overseas teaching English and how her thoughts about refugees dramatically changed after witnessing their struggles in everyday life. The article highlighted the fact that people should not hold opinions about others based on what they hear because more than likely, they are misleading.
The second article I read, "House panel votes to withdraw Florida from refugee program" by Gary Rohrer, focused more on the politics side of the story. The article discussed how Tallahassee, Florida would no longer participate in a federal program assisting refugees entering the country. It was stated that Florida agencies receive about $257 million per year from the federal government to contract with non-profit groups that provide services to refugees such as; cash, job training, and medical assessments even vaccines. Another idea addressed in the article focused on the fact that of the 62,223 refugees that entered the state of Florida last year, 87 percent were from Cuba or Haiti.
I also read your first article, “I don’t believe people need to be fearful of refugees”. I liked how the article talked about the meeting that went on at the church and what the people there did. It’s very important that at times like these that people unite together in order to help the people in need. The girl that changed her thoughts about refugees after teaching English overseas was very interesting. I think a majority of people would change their opinions on refugees after they personally see their everyday struggles. Your second article talked about how Tallahassee, Florida no longer wants to participate assisting refugees entering the country. The question that was brought up to my mind is why? Why does Tallahassee not want to participate in this anymore? How do they justify this?
ReplyDeleteI read the article "I doubt believe people need to be fearful of refugees", this article made me realize that there are so many different organizations that can help all kinds of people. Just hours that they had announced The executive order they were already planning on letting go of 140 staff members, all these people wanting to help others will no longer be able to anymore.
ReplyDeleteWill it actually be a the right thing to Withdraw Florida from the refugee program? That is a lot of money that the Federal Government gives them just to contract a non profit group.