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Introduction

Unit One

Unit Two

Unit Three

Unit Four

Appendix

Glossary

Forced Migrants: Persons who leave their place of habitual residence involuntarily, due to persecution, economic hardship, war or civil conflict, or natural or manmade disaster. Among the kinds of forced migrants are asylum seekers and victims of human trafficking, convention refugees, economic migrants, and Internally Displaced Persons.

Convention Refugee: (definition was updated in 1967) a person who is outside the country of their nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his or her race, religion, nationality membership of a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution.

Refugees as defined by Catholic Social Teaching: In addition to convention refugees, Catholic teaching suggests that de facto refugees (who are victims of armed conflicts, misguided economic policy or natural disasters), and internally displaced persons (who are uprooted from their homes without having crossed an international frontier) should also be recognized as refugees and accorded international protection.

Asylum Seekers: People who have moved across an international border in search of the protection guaranteed to Convention refugees, but whose claim for refugee status has not yet been determined.

Forced Economic Migrants: Persons who seek to live and work in a country other than their country of origin due to a lack of economic opportunity there or better opportunities in another country. Those who become migrants due to necessity due to significant economic hardship are called forced economic migrants. When such hardships are imposed selectively by a government as a form or persecution forced economic migrants may also be convention refugees.

IDPs: Internally displaced persons are "persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border." (Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, Introduction, para. 2)

Why Are People Forcibly Displaced From Their Homes?

 

Objectives: Students will be able to

1. Explain the causes for forced displacement of people.
2. Describe five difficulties encountered by refugees.
3. Compare the difficulties faced by women and children as refugees in relation to those difficulties faced by men.

 

Context

What causes people to become refugees?

• War and civil conflict.
• Famine and other natural disasters.
• Persecution.
• Economic necessity.
• Refugees may be found on every continent, in countries including including Sudan, Uganda, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Colombia.

What difficulties are faced by refugees?

• loss of legal status and protection.
• loss of community and family members.
• loss of property and possessions.
• loss of livelihood, resulting in impoverishment.
• loss of freedom of movement.
• exploitation.

 

Specific examples of refugees

(See Appendices for more information)

• Valentino Achak – South Sudanese
• Daniel Mabut Garang – South Sudanese boy (Appendix I)
• Sri – thirteen-year old Achenese girl (Appendix II)
• John Dau – featured in 2006 film, God Grew Tired of Us
• Burmese widow (Appendix III)
• Rodi Alvarado (Appendix IV)
• Abdul Sheikh (Appendix VII)

 

Groups that help refugees and IDPs

• UNHCR – United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
• JRS – Jesuit Refugee Service
• PRM – U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
• CRS – Catholic Relief Services
• Women's Refugee Commission

 

Experience

Guest Speakers

• Invite a refugee to tell his or her story

Media

• Film: God Grew Tired of Us – award-winning 2006 documentary film on the "Lost Boys of Sudan." The title of the documentary is a quote from Dau discussing the despair he and other Sudanese felt during the civil war.
• Film: Black Diamond (note: this feature film requires evaluation for its suitability for high school audience. It does a fine job of portraying the child soldier issue.)
• David Eggers, What is the What? Vintage: New York, 2007. A novelized account of Lost Boy Valentino Achak Deng and other young victims of the Sudanese civil war, which lasted from 1983 to 2005 and displaced tens of thousand of children.
• Video about Afghanistan & Pakistan
• Video about Darfur
• Cusimano – Love, Dr. Maryann, Beyond Sovereignty, Thomson-Wadsworth, 2007, Chapter 8.
• War Has Changed Our Life, Not Our Spirit – Experiences of Forcibly Displaced Women, JRS publication, 1999 (PDF download).
• "No Refuge: Haitian Women in the Dominican Republic," The Refugee Voice, volume 2, issue 1, February 2008, JRS/USA publication (PDF download).
• Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers
• Iraqi Refugee Stories

 

Reflection

Why do we care about refugees?

• Compassion for those that suffer even if they’re not one of 'us.
• Understanding of common human rights and dignity of the person.
• Common religious tradition.
• Christian biblical tradition: e.g., story of the Good Samaritan.
• Catholic Social Teaching on Solidarity: Gaudium et Spes, their hopes are our hopes, etc.
• U.S. State Department's refugee admission policies.

Consider why women and children refugees outnumber men by a ratio of 4 to 1.

• Is it possible to provide adequate protection and care for women and children in their homelands?
• What does it mean to be a child soldier?

 

Action

• Bookmark JRS/USA website and visit once per week for new material.
• Bookmark Child Soldiers website and visit monthly.
• Bookmark Women’s Refugee Commission website and visit monthly.

• Contact local interest group on refugees in community.
• Learn local congressional representative’s or senator’s position on refugees.
• Write articles for either school or local newspapers.

• What have you learned? What do you think should be done?
• Perform volunteer work.
• Seek to help migrant families through local parish.

 

Evaluation

Student evaluation of the lesson – small group work and relate to class.

Small group interaction – students discuss the steps to take to provide adequate protection and care for refugees.

The mission of Jesuit Refugee Service/USA is to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees and forcibly displaced people. JRS/USA witnesses to the reality that God is present in human history, even in the most tragic experiences of vulnerable and often forgotten people driven from their homes by conflict, natural disaster, economic injustice, or violation of other human rights.