As this is my final blog, I thought it would be appropriate to share some reflections and conclusions that I have had while researching and writing this blog. Technically, I only needed to write eight blogs, but somehow I felt the need to have some sort of conclusion.
To begin, I was shocked at how little education actually exists on the subject. Many comments that I read online were about how people were learning about refugees on the internet for the first time. Clearly, as “There are currently some 43 million uprooted victims of conflict and persecution worldwide.” and “More than 15 million of them are refugees who have fled their countries, while another 27 million are people who remain displaced by conflict inside their own homelands -- so-called “internally displaced people.” (un.org, 2014), I think that this is an issue that deserves more recognition than it is given.
Another thing that I found very surprising was the amount of bragging on the Government of Canada website. The website tries to make it seem as though more are accepted than actually are. For example, the website reads “Refugees come from around the world and many make their claims in Canada. The number of people arriving varies from year to year. In 2011, more than 24,900 people came to Canada and made a refugee claim.” (Government of Canada, 2013), however, only 16,122 of these refugees were actually given refugee status and allowed to live in Canada, leaving over 8000 people stranded and without safety. The site is covered with stories of how refugees have been helped, with no indication of how many people are turned away.
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| Native Americans and European settlers meeting in Canada. |
I was actually hesitant to post this subject, but it is, I think, important to address. What was the most disturbing to me was the blatant racism and ethnocentrism of people who do not support refugee acceptance. On YouTube videos about refugees, some of the comments were absolutely horrendous, writing narrow-minded, poorly written comments about how we should not accept any refugees, bringing in other cultures ruins Canada’s culture, etc… There were also many comments about Canada is the greatest country ever. I would just like to say- whether we are the greatest country in the world or not, our country is almost all immigrants. Apart from Aboriginal people, everyone in Canada is the descendant of someone who immigrated to
Canada, and part of what makes Canada interesting is the blend of cultures from all over the world. And, regarding refugees, there is always, in my opinion, room for more diversity. If we are truly the greatest country in the world, we should be open to diversity and be prepared to help others.
This concludes this assignment and my blog. Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoyed, and hopefully, I have convinced you, or at least made you see another point of view. :)
As this is my final blog, I thought it would be appropriate to share some reflections and conclusions that I have had while researching and writing this blog. Technically, I only needed to write eight blogs, but somehow I felt the need to have some sort of conclusion.
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