Today it’s time to show the world that you welcome refugees.
You have read and heard so many stories, and seen the many different, simple ways you can help refugees. But if you feel happy to do so, telling people you welcome refugees could well inspire others to join you.
You can make it a post on social media, or you can order I Welcome doorhangers and buttons from the online shop.
Show the world that you are someone who welcomes refugees and see if others follow your lead.
Families that are fleeing conflict are often separated along the way, and sometimes they have to make difficult decisions about where to stay. This can be a huge source of stress for refugees when they are resettled, as they are constantly thinking about the family members they have left behind. Louai’s story here shows just how important connections to family elsewhere are.
Some countries allow for families to reunited, which means that refugees can bring over family members if they can help support them.
Today, find out what your government’s policy is on family reunification. See if there is any way you can tell your politicians to allow more families to be reunited.
To see why this is important, here is Randa and Sham’s story.
It’s great to find businesses that support refugees and refugee issues. But that is certainly not how all businesses behave.
For more than 1,000 refugees and people seeking asylum, the small pacific state of Nauru is an island of despair they’ve been deported to simply for seeking refuge in Australia. But for Spanish multinational Ferrovial, Nauru is a treasure island from which it is making millions of dollars.
The system that Australia has set up on Nauru for refugees and people seeking asylum, including children, involves deliberate cruelty and amounts to torture. They are subject to humiliation, neglect and abuse, leading to poor physical and mental health.
Ferrovial is the sole shareholder of Broadspectrum, the Australian company that runs refugee “processing” centres on Nauru as well as Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, and facilitates this abusive system.
Please take action today and tell Ferrovial to end its operations on Nauru.
Do you have children, or do you have links to a school in your community? Perhaps you’re a teacher or work in a school in some other capacity?
If you can get your local school involved and interested in supporting refugees, you might be really surprised by the results.
For teachers, talking about refugees provides a way for children to experience the wider world around them, by hearing people’s stories and imagining how they would feel in a similar situation.
For parents, you might be surprised at how engaged the children become with the issues, and just how much they get out of it.
Watch teachers, pupils and parents at Edmison Heights School in Peterborough, Canada, talking about what how they all loved doing their bit for a local refugee family.
What companies are big in your country? Who employs a big workforce where you are? You could enlist these companies or individuals in helping refugees too.
Around the world, lots of businesses have either made it a policy to employ refugees, or have created dedicated training schemes to equip refugees with skills that a local employer will recognise.
For example, the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Toronto, Canada, has a six-week training course in hospitality specifically for refugees. Watch their General Manager talking about how the scheme is a win-win for them.
All it takes is for you to ask – so you could approach businesses in your community and ask them to make a specific commitment to train or employ refugees.
Learn more:
They fled war in Syria. Today, they manufacture emergency equipment for Canadians (National Observer)
On 20 September, across more than 200 cities in 60 countries, musicians, artists, activists and local communities came together in a statement of support for the world’s refugees.
Give a Home, a collaboration between Amnesty International and Sofar Sounds, saw living rooms across the globe play host to more than 300 special performances from some of the world’s leading musicians.
The gigs, which included performances from Ed Sheeran, Emeli Sandé, Jessie Ware, Rudimental, Sauti Sol, Freshlyground, Ludovico Einaudi, the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians, Mashrou’ Leila, Faarrow and many more, were all about celebrating a single message of solidarity: Refugees are welcome.
At a time when the plight of refugees the world over is in the headlines on a daily basis, and with governments pursuing ever more restrictive policies to keep refugees out, it’s a message that’s more urgent now than it’s been in most of our lifetimes.
Lots of the examples and stories shared over the past 20 days have been from Canada, and that’s for a very good reason. Canada has had a private refugee sponsorship programme that has existed since the 1970s, and has resettled tens of thousands of refugees through private sponsorship
Here is a video with Canadian sponsors, and refugees, talking about the scheme and why it is so important.
Does this sound like something you would like to be part of?
Contact the Refugee Sponsorship Training Program to find about about refugee sponsorship opportunities in Canada
See all refugee stories
What are you good at? You may find that one of your key skills is actually something you could share with refugees.
Do you speak another language? If there are refugees that need help with interpreting, you could volunteer your skills and make a vital difference.
Perhaps you are a teacher of your native language? It is crucial for refugees to learn the language in the country they want to settle in, so you could volunteer to teach them, even in the short-term.
Whatever your skills are – maybe you’re good at fixing bikes or cars, you enjoy cooking or sewing, or are really good with spreadsheets – you can volunteer this information to your local refugee support group and they can find a way of using your skills to benefit refugees.
by Gloria Nafziger, Campaigner, Refugees and Migrants, Amnesty International Canada
One thing a refugee in your community will need is a way to earn a living. They may have been a well respected and highly skilled professional in their country, but they also may find that none of their experience or skills are recognised now.
Some decide to try something completely new, using skills they gained before.
Mohammed Alftih was a businessman with decades of experience behind him in Syria, printing T-shirts that were exported, mostly to Europe. When he fled Syria with his family, and finally was resettled in Peterborough, Canada, he didn’t know where to start. But his wife, Randa, was becoming famed locally for the delicious food she cooked for family and friends. So, together with a friend Mohammed made at the mosque, Kenzu Abdellah, they decided to set up a business of their own, with the Oasis Mediterranean Grill, known as OMG.
There are lots of people – politicians, celebrities, thought leaders - around the world who care deeply and passionately about refugees.
You can learn from them and you can help highlight what they say and do on social media.
Find those key, influential people and follow them – share what they post, tell them about what you’re doing as they may share this with their own networks, and you might be surprised at how much you get out of this.
Take Councillor Joe Mihevc, for example. He is City Councillor in Toronto and is also the refugee advocate for the city of Toronto. Himself the son of refugees, he feels it was “part of his DNA” and he is passionate about welcoming refugees to Toronto and making sure they settle well.
You can find out more about Joe here:
There are many people like him, perhaps even some in your local area, so find them and follow what they do and say to help spread their influence even further.
As almost 400,000 refugees flee ethnic cleansing in Myanmar, world leaders meeting at the UN General Assembly should hang their heads in shame that they have not only failed to make good on their promises to take in more refugees, but have actively dismantled refugee rights in many parts of the world.
A year on from the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees in New York, where leaders pledged to take in more refugees and help vulnerable people forced to flee their countries, global refugee numbers are increasing year on year as conflicts spiral out of control.
Today, we want you to hear and share stories of refugees.
Whether you go along to a refugee group in your community and hear stories told there, or just read the many stories about refugees on UNHCR’s website, listen to people’s stories as this is the best way to understand the issues facing refugees.
The more you listen, the more you ask questions, the better you will understand refugees and see that these are just people in a really difficult situation.
And you might be surprised about how much you get from this experience.
What are you interests or passions? Do you love eating out, or going to the theatre, for example? Or do you feel like trying something you’ve never done before?
There may be refugees groups in your community who organize activities which you would enjoy. By taking part in these events, you can learn about another culture through food or art or music. This, as Amir and Noor explained, helps keep these cultures alive.
You’ve shown until now how much you care, so could you befriend a refugee and help them settle into your local community?
You may have to do a bit of research to find a local group that can facilitate this, but a good first place to check is with the organizations that provide services to refugees in your Community
Refugees that have the support of local people tend to settle in much better, so you would be making a huge difference to their lives.
It could be just a question of meeting someone for a coffee every now and then, to help them work out any issues they may have, or you could be a lot more hands-on and help a recently arrived refugee family navigate the welfare system in your country or register in school or learn to speak English.
Join the global movement for human rights.
