The process of immigrating is one that millions of people endure every year, however it can be extremely long, complicated, stressful, and expensive. In this blog I will focus on Burma, Mexico, and Somalia because they have a strong immigration representation in Minnesota. Each of these countries are considered to be crisis zones and rape in war zones are very common in these countries (1). Immigration affects women from each of these countries in different ways; but there are also things that burmese, mexican, and somalian women have in common as they leave their home country in attempt to create a new home in foreign land. The reasons that people have for deciding to immigrate is also different, but for now I will only look at people who are forced to leave their homes in fear of their life. This September I started an internship with World Relief Minnesota, as the Immigration Program Intern. It is through this internship that I learned more about the process that refugees must endure to no longer feel like their life is in danger. When a person flees their home and crosses an international border they are then a refugee and more times than not end up living in a refugee camp. However, if the person does not cross a border but the remain in their native country, they are then considered an Internally Displaced Person (IDP). Throughout the following paragraphs, I will discuss immigration; and how nationalism and national security has affected the lives of refugee and internally displaced women in Burma, Mexico, and Somalia.
Burma, also known as Myanmar, is one of many countries with a history of violence and conflict. Besides burmese people, there are multiple ethnic groups in Burma; the Rohingya, Hmong, Lahu, Lisu, and Karen (among others). These indigenous populations have been discriminated against for many years through what some call an ethnic cleaning. In 1982, the Burmese Government put in place the Burma Citizenship Law which states that many of the indigenous groups were no longer citizens of Burma. “Approximately 750,000 Indigenous Peoples have been forcibly displaced by the Burmese state. With their villages destroyed and their fields sown with land mines, many of Burma's Indigenous Peoples are internally displaced or forced to live in refugee camps in Thailand (2)." We have many people from the Hmong ethnic group that have immigrated to Minnesota but for the purpose of this blog I am going to focus mainly on the Karen ethnic group because they also have a large population in Minnesota but we do not hear about them as often.
As the ethnic cleansing commenced, many people decided it was too dangerous to stay in Burma and they fled to other countries such as Bangladesh, China, and notably Thailand. It has been estimated that “140,000 mostly Karen refugees fleeing civil strife, political upheaval and economic stagnation in Burma live in remote camps in Thailand near the border (3)." According to the Burmese government, children born outside of Burma of Burmese parents whom fled to another country are not considered citizens. For example, if a Burmese couple flees to Thailand then has a child, their child will have no birth certificate because their parents do not have any type of citizenship papers. On the other side, Thailand refuses to recognize these immigrants in any form, so these thousands of people are considered stateless. Because Thailand does not recognize them neither as citizens nor refugees, it becomes extremely difficult and complicated for families to improve their current situations.
Out of the families that have been considered a refugee, when they get the chance to leave it is normally only the mother or father that gets placed. The parents then have to decide who will stay and then which children, if any, get to leave. This puts a huge strain on the family, either way it goes. The mother is often times the one that stays behind with her children while her husband leaves and establishes a life in a foreign country. While the father is away, the mother is left to take care of her children which becomes difficult as a she basically lives as a single parent; she must balance taking care of the kids while finding a way to make money. It may take a few years before the father is able to start a petition to have his wife and children brought to him. There are only a few options that he can choose and each has very strict requirements and a high cost associated with each of them. Through my internship I have had the opportunity to sit through an appointment in which a man is filling for a I-730 family based petition. Some of the questions he was expected to know for the application were extremely difficult even for me to answer, I could not imagine how hard it would be if I did not have any physical records. Rape and other crimes against humanity are pretty common among refugee camps, so sometimes the family decides to send the mother and children first. Often times it happens that even if all of the application fees are paid, and everything is filled out perfectly, the Thai government does not allow the family members to leave because they do not have any records of them being in the refugee camp in the first place.
Many organizations in South-East Asia have developed with specific goal in mind, normally in hopes of helping women and children. A list of some of these organizations can be found here, as well as when they were established and what their focus is. There are also local organizations with aims at helping the thousands of people that flee their homes and now live in poverty stricken refugee camps. American Refugee Committee (ARC) is one example; it "...provides primary health care, water and sanitation activities, gender-based violence prevention and response services and innovative economic opportunities to refugees and migrant workers (4)." Another example is the Karen Organization of Minnesota, which helps refugees settle here in MN in various ways. National security in Burma is best described as currently unstable, as the use of political power has been abused and caused so much conflict. The Burmese government was very nationalistic when it made the Burmese Citizenship Law, but has been a push for the amendment of it. Ceasefires have been declared so there is not as much shooting, but there is still a long way to go until both the Burmese government and opposition forces are on the same page.
Mexico faces similar issues to those of Burma when it comes to violence within indigenous groups. In 2011, there were around 160,000 IDPs (5) due to conflict within different indigenous groups and violence from the drug-cartel. “The federal government has yet to officially acknowledge the displacement caused by drug-cartel violence, but opposition parties have taken steps towards political and legal recognition of the phenomenon (6)." According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, (UNHCR) transnational crime movements such as the cartels in Mexico have really affected the amount of people that will be given access to asylum. Xenophobia plays a large part in this as well, because countries are less willing to allow refugees or asylees into their country when they fear them. Women immigrants often times are paid less than other women that are citizens, and definitely get paid less than men of any status. The violent climate in Mexico right now is very unsafe in many cities. The cartels have been known to engage in rape activities, human trafficking, kidnapping, and murder. National Security in Mexico very low, there is proof of corruption in the government as officials have been paid off by drug lords, and many other incidents. There has also been nationalism issues in Chiapas, Mexico between indigenous groups. Though there is not much documented information about it, there are ethnic groups in Mexico whom have not had religious freedom and who have been discriminated against. Action has been taken to improve the lives of people that are affected by the audience. "Development agencies have provided support to IDPs: in Chiapas, for example, UNDP has promoted the integration of indigenous IDPs in their places of displacement, through livelihoods projects within its wider development strategy for indigenous people (7)."
Finally, Somalia has one of the highest IDPs in the world at 1.1 million in 2012 (8) . So many people are fleeing the country because of the lack of food and water, as well as the countries instability. "Living in unprotected and congested IDP settlements, women and girls are particularly exposed to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and are often denied access to assistance by IDP committee leaders or to adequate legal redress (9)." Like Burma and Mexico, there are serious national security issues that are taking place in Somalia. The conflict between Al-Shabaab - an Islamist armed group, and the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) worries many people and when crimes are committed TFG often times does little investigation, if any. 'Mama' Hawa Aden Mohamed is a Somali woman who has stood up for many women IDPs and refugees. What some may consider one of her biggest accomplishments is that she opened the Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development in Somalia. This school is geared towards women and young girls that have been displaced and sometimes victims of rape. "The center provides secondary education as well as life skills training so that the students can become financially independent shape their own futures and play a more active role in Somali society (10)." Her service to the issue was recognized in the form of an award called the Nansen Refugee Award.
National security and nationalism in Burma, Mexico, and Somalia have all contributed to the number of refugees and IDPs from each of these countries. It is because of nationalism that many ethnic groups face discrimination or are force to leave their homes. The status of national security in a country also affects the lives of countless people, especially women, as they are often times the targets of war-terrorism and crimes against humanity. Though there is work being done by many non-governmental organizations and even some government-placed programs, women of these countries face many hardships and burdens that no one should ever have to endure.
WORKS CITED
1)Seager, Joni. "The Penguin Atlas of Women in the World". 4th ed., New York: Penguin Books, 2009. 03 December, 2013.
2)"Myanmar (Burma) Country Profile". Cultural Survival. 29 November, 2013. http://www.culturalsurvival.org/Burma%20Country%20Profile
3)"East & Southeast Asia: Burma". The World Factbook: November 12, 2013. 28 November, 2013. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bm.html
4) "Thailand Factsheet". American Refugee Committee. 03 December, 2013. http://www.arcrelief.org/site/DocServer/ARC_factsheets_Thailand.pdf?docID=2486
5)"North America: Mexico." The World Factbook: November 4, 2013. 28 November, 2013. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mx.html
6)"Mexico: Displacement due to criminal and communal violence". Internally Displaced Monitoring Centre: December 31, 2013. 28 November, 2013. http://www.internal-displacement.org/8025708F004CE90B/(httpCountries)/031D4DA9792CF185802570A7004CFD1A?OpenDocument)
7)"Global Overview 2011: People internally displaced by conflict and violence". Internally Displaced Monitoring Centre: April 2012. 02 December, 2013. http://www.nrc.no/arch/_img/9633536.pdf
8)"Africa: Somalia". The World Factbook: November 12, 2013. 28 November, 2013. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html
9)"2013 UNHCR country operations profile - Somalia". UNHCR. 02 December, 2013. http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e483ad6.html
10)"Nansen Refugee Award presented to Somali winner "Mama" Hawa". UNHCR: October 01, 2012. 02 December, 2013. http://www.unhcr.org/50694d2d6.html
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