FROM TWEETS STARTING HERE: HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/RRRRNESSA/STATUS/667019978550317056
I am going to tell you guys the process of how I became an refugee admitted to the United States of American and how long it actually is. But I'd like you to keep in mind that the process to admit Syrian refugees to the U.S.A is even more complex.
Okay so first things first you apply for refugee status with a U.N agency. The application process isn't just a piece of paper. You have to submit ALL your documents. Birth certificates, report cards from school, IDs, driver licenses, passports, old utility bills. If you're displaced, you have to provide proof that you are displaced. That your house was bombed/burned or that there are squatters in it.
You have to write down your story. All your family members do. Where you were born, where you are now, what you're doing, everything.
You have to provide them with names of ALL your family members, dead and alive. All your friends, neighbors, teachers. Everyone. You have to provide their contact information as well. If some of them are dead you have to provide proof they are dead or missing.
This is the first step so let's say month 1.
Over the next 12 months they will review you the information you provided, check the validity of your documents and check your references. If your story is true, if the documents are valid and everything checks out against their databases, then you get called in for an interview. This is the 1st interview of the many you will have. You sit in a room with a desk and a chair. A UN official is there to ask you questions.
You tell them your story. Your mother tells them your story. Your father tells them your story. Your 7 year old brother does as well. They split you up so you tell your stories individually. Then you tell your story together. You tell them about the war & after the war. Because Yugoslavia was a socialist country, my parents also had to tell their before the war story. Were they communists, dissidents?
They ask you a lot about the war and communism. Did you support the war? Did you take up arms? Were you in the military? How do you feel about communism? Did you think Tito was a good ruler? Are you religious? How religious are you? Was anybody in your family in the military? If you were in a concentration camp during the war you had to provide proof that you were.
You tell your story again to a different official. And again. And again. And then again.
Lets call this month 18 now.
They ask you, a child, the same questions they ask of the adults. It doesn't matter that you don't know what the words "treason" mean. They ask you to submit more proof. You have to do a retina eye scan. You have to get a medical exam. You do another interview.
They tell you they will call you. You wait and wait and wait.
Lets call this month 24.
You get the call. Your application was approved. Your application was approved because your story matched with all the info they had. They had proof your story was true. You can't lie.
They tell you what you can bring and can't bring to America. The documents they need and how much the ticket costs.
By the way, the process for these interviews, application and proof all cost money. Thousands of dollars to get to a safe place.
They review the information and decide they will send you somewhere you already have family. For me, that was Iowa. Iowa was a great place for Bosnian refugee due to the economy and the fact they have a lot of factories Americans don't want to work in. You pack whatever you can. You have a 100 dollars in your pocket from some family heirloom you had to sell.
You say goodbye to your country, your people, your home, your friends, your family. Everything you knew. You cry the entire flight. You get to America. You're lucky b/c you have family here and they greet you at the airport. Others are not that lucky. They have noone.
Everyone speaks a language you don't understand. The humidity sticks to you and you can't breathe. Welcome to your new home. But you survived. You're in America. You are now safe. Wait....there are more interviews to be had.
You get to sleep for the night and in the morning you go to the immigration & refugee center. More questions. You tell them your story again. You provide all the documents again (even though they have them already). You answer more questions. You have to do another medical exam. You have to get 7 shots in one day. Your little brother screams b/c he's a baby & shots hurt. They tell your parents they have 1 month to get settled in. A month to find a job, a car, and month before the kids have to enroll in class.
You get an immigration/refugee case manager assigned to you along with a DHS case manager. They ask you to tell your story again.
They give you 1 month of medicaid, 1 month of food stamps, old donated furniture & nothing else.
Your parents find jobs. Both of them. They find two jobs. They don't sleep because they work 2 full time jobs. You barely see them.
Your first day of class you get called a terrorist. The kids tell you that you are dirty and probably have lice.
Month 1 in America is over.
No more assistance.
Your parents b/c of their two jobs are able to buy real furniture and a car. You are thankful. You have a bed now. You never see your parents but you have food, a place to sleep and even a car. You're grateful. The DHS and the immigration/refugee officer still continue to check on you to make sure you are abiding by all the rules.
Fast forward 3 years later because you got to America, your parents find better jobs, you speak English, they buy an actual house.
Fast forward 7 years later you are graduating college. You have a steady job. You have friends. Your family is safe. You're thankful for the fact you got a chance to survive that you spend all your free time volunteering and giving back to the community.
That's what it means to be a refugee.
Sorry but to add to this because a friend reminded me. You also have to go through mental health screening. You are also required to take english classes and job placement classes, as well as a class on how to act in America.
There's a lot of little details I think I've blocked out for the most part so if you're a refugee please feel free to add to the thread.
Also to answer some questions I keep getting asked:
I'm Bosniak/n not Syrian I came due to the genocide/war in Bosnia during the 90s. I graduated 10* years after coming = 7 years after my parents purchased a home which they did 3 years after they came to America.