Research Paper on Refugees: Forced to Flee in Search of Safety and Comfort

Introduction

Refugees are people that have fled their countries to live in foreign lands due to conflict in their nations. These individuals are usually unable to return to their homes due to fears of persecution based on their religion, race, nationality, political opinion, or subscription to a given social group (Bernstein & DuBois, 2018). In many cases, these conflicts cause people to leave their homelands in pursuit of peace and a place to live comfortably. The factors that make them flee from their homes do not typically discriminate against the people based on their gender, religion, age, economic, or social state. Usually, these individuals are of different demographic conditions. Now, while they are generally of many demographic states, the people that typically suffer most are children, the elderly in the society, and other groups of high vulnerability. In many cases, these people leave their homes because they cannot defend themselves, and therefore, they can only escape with the hope of finding refuge in foreign nations.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The number of refugees has risen substantially in recent times. Precisely, by the year 2018, the United Nations (UN) had registered a list of 21 million refugees globally. This list only includes the number of individuals that have sought registration from the relevant UN agency. The actual number is much higher than this figure. For instance, some researchers state that it has risen from 37.3 million refugees in 1996 to a much higher number of 68.5 million in 2018 (Baauw et al. 2019). These statistics imply that the number of these individuals is much higher than the official figure. Moreover, since the conditions that make people flee their nations are still occurring, the number of these people will continue rising.

Out of the large number of people that flee their home countries to find asylum in foreign countries, a large percentage is children. Baauw et al. (2019) said that about half of the total number of refugees globally are children. Moreover, a factor that makes their state more complicated is that some of them are usually not in the company of adults. These refugee children are usually younger than 18 years old, and they enter a foreign country on their own. Baauw et al. (2019) stated that in the year 2016, 400000 minors claimed asylum status in European nations. The young age of these individuals affects their chances of survival when in transit to foreign lands and when they enter these countries. Some of them usually come from nations where they did not get antenatal screening, healthcare programs, vaccination, war, and political instability Baauw et al. (2019). These conditions make them have poor health and social state, which affects their chances of survival in those harsh circumstances.

When these refugees enter a country, they are usually seeking a safe place to stay and integrate well with the residents of that country. However, in some instances, they typically do not get desirable places where they can live comfortably. Entering a new location means that they have to deal with people that speak languages that they may not understand, individuals that have different cultural and social statuses from the ones that they know (Barkdull, Weber, Swart, & Phillips, 2012). In some other cases, the new nations present them with climatic and weather conditions that are different from their home nations. Consequently, they usually need much help from the receiving country for them to settle and integrate well in a foreign land. This settling process typically requires the action of people in the new state to attend to the refugees by attending to their healthcare, educational, and other social needs. Without these individuals, the refugees will have a hard time finding better lives in foreign nations, and this condition may affect the comfort that they experience in the new country.

Refugees usually seek for nations that can offer them refuge and peace. Many countries generally allow them to enter and reside without any restrictions. However, this does not mean that their settlement is usually free from challenges. In some cases, these individuals commonly encounter tight scrutiny when entering new countries, and in other cases, their request for refuge gets declined. Bernstein and DuBois (2018) considered the process of investigation that these individuals faced and said that in some instances, it is strict. Such strict measures aim to regulate the people entering those countries for security reasons.

The process ensures that only authorized people enter a country. However, the method may restrict some needy persons from getting asylum. For instance, the US has a maximum number of refugees that it can admit annually. While it is not mandatory to meet this number, it cannot be exceeded. For many years, this figure has been between 70,000 and 110,000, but in the year 2018, the current president set it at 45,000 (Bernstein & DuBois, 2018). This decrease means that the country cannot admit a person that deserves and qualifies to enter the country after reaching this target. Such factors may worsen the conditions that the refugees have to face.

Factors that Cause Children to Become Refugees

As previously stated, children form a significant percentage of the total number of people that become refugees globally. These minors become refugees for various reasons, such as the deterioration of the political state in their nations, the death of their parents or guardians due to war, acts of terrorism, and many similar reasons. Considering the effect of war on children, it causes them to lack a stable life. Specifically, when the fighting starts in a country, it usually ends up affecting all the residents of the nation. In some cases, battles lead to the death of people that these children depend on, thus, leaving them without help. They also make the children lack sources of food if the person that died was responsible for providing the children with food.

In other instances, wars and fighting in some countries start following conflict between warlords in a country. This factor has happened in many African nations, with examples of these individuals being Charles Taylor of Liberia, Joseph Kony of Uganda, and 'General' Aideed of Somalia (Freeman, 2015). This list is longer than the one provided here, and it also includes Inkatha leaders of South Africa and Foday Sankoh of Sierra Leone (Freeman, 2015). The conflicts that these people cause in their nations lead to the death of many residents. For instance, they recruit healthy and non-disabled people in their regions, and some of these recruits are usually parents and sole providers of their families. Therefore, their recruitment causes children that depend on them to lack their basic needs; thus, they end up fleeing from their homes.

These warlords, in some cases, usually send their armies to fight and kill in villages belonging to their opponents. These killings typically leave many people without their relatives. In other instances, the warlords recruit children to join their armies. If a child refuses to join the movement, they usually face hard consequences, which may include their death or that of their family members (Freeman, 2015). These factors cause the children to fear for their lives, and therefore, cause them to think of ways of escaping to safer locations, where they can live without fear.

Moreover, even if a child joins the armies, they do not have a guarantee to live comfortably. These armies are typically sent to wars where most of them lose their lives. Therefore, if these young soldiers find a way of escaping from these warlords, they usually take the opportunities and flee to save their lives. The factors that make children become refugees are not only linked to warlords. In some cases, wars erupt in the home countries of the children, causing them to seek refugee status. Syria and Iraq are excellent examples of countries whose residents fled due to war in their nations. In such cases, residents typically lack their basic needs, such as food and shelter, which makes it hard for them to live well. Additionally, these battles lead to the death of many residents of these affected nations.

When the people that reside in these countries find a way of escaping from their lands, they usually take those chances and move to nations that they presume to be safer than their homes. In other cases, famine, disease outbreaks, and drought may make people flee their home countries. Considering instances of starvation, when a country lacks enough food to feed all its citizens, this factor will cause many people to leave and go to foreign nations where they can get this food. Such people will not be fleeing from war but hunger. Moreover, drought may also cause similar effects on the residents of a country.

Now, when people flee from their home nations to a foreign state, they will include individuals of all demographic conditions. Specifically, they will be both male and female, some will be young, and others will be old. In almost all cases, these people will include children, while in other cases, they will be children alone. Therefore, any investigation that considers refugees, in general, will consist of children. Thus, any policy or legislation that affects the admission and integration of refugees will always affect refugee children.

Comparison Between Refugees and other Migrants in the US

The United States of America (USA) takes a significant number of refugees globally. This country admits these refugees after screening them. If a person passes the screening test, he or she receives the refugee status and is allowed into the country. This admission process enables the nation to admit people according to its ability. It also allows the nation to balance the number of refugees with that of its immigrants. Accepting refugees has many advantages and problems.

Firstly, a country that admits them exposes itself to some security and social risks. Specifically, most refugees are usually bitter, and if not managed well, they may develop radical notions that may affect the safety of their host country. For instance, the refugees may start forming retaliatory groups if they are still close to their initial home country. If an opportunity presents itself, these persons may proceed and retaliate, which will decrease the security state of the nation. Moreover, since some of these individuals usually have lost their relatives, thus, they may be irritable. These issues can lead to the deterioration of the safety of a country.

Admitting refugees involves many expenses, yet its returns are not apparent. Its advantages are not easy to notice, and in some cases, they take a long time before people can experience them. On the contrary, admitting other immigrants causes many clear benefits to a nation. Specifically, when the US takes a person that is knowledgeable in a given field, such as nursing, the individual ends up serving the nation. Additionally, the admission of these immigrants will nor have many expenses associated with it. Therefore, many countries, including the United States of America, prefer immigrants to refugees. Now, this statement does not imply that refugees cannot benefit a country. In essence, they can have more benefits to the nation than some other immigrants. However, their advantages typically do not become evident immediately. They usually take a long time before the host country, such as the US, can realize their benefits. This duration differentiates them from refugees.

Ordinary immigrants and refugee children have many differences. Firstly, in many cases, an immigrant usually has a plan of what he or she intends to do in the country to survive. However, refugees, and particularly children, gen...