A Musing on the Immigration Debate

The debate around immigrants is heated, and brings out the best and the worst in people. The concept that we want to bring them to our land, whichever that land may be, is noble, and our duty, we think.

As an immigrant, who came to this country of my own free will, I want to make sure we all remember that these refugees are displaced people, in the truest sense of the word. They come from horror, and have been through trauma. They are broken people, and before we bring them to any country, we need to consider what that really means.

To heal them so they can survive and thrive and contribute, we would have to provide services that span a lifetime of counseling, education, job assistance, and integration. Services that we don’t even provide to most of our own soldiers, who are protecting us all, or most trauma victims of crimes.

I imagine that instead of rushing to enable the “displacement” and the potential disaster that could follow for generations to come, and by separating these trauma victims from their fellow survivors and families, perhaps we should consider if it is more humane to rush to their aid where they are, to have that powerful coalition internationally to help them built and protect “a safe zone,” and empower them to stand up, fight back, and rebuilt, within their own culture, their own familiar surroundings, while speaking their own language, where they can indeed “survive a lifetime.”