Third World Refugee Resettlement Programs in the US and Canada Benefit No-One

The image above is from this website, and is titled The Eternal Outsider

The Caption for the photo reads:

THE ETERNAL OUTSIDER: Foreigners realise it is apparent that they are not originally from here. Yet, they wish they were not reminded, on a constant basis, that they are seen as and thought of as foreign. In the picture below, a ‘foreign’ tourist in Dharavi, Mumbai

The article with the photo, titled, The Resident Non-Indian, has this longer description:

Immigrants who want to make India home are forever kept at an arm’s length by those who ‘belong’. Notwithstanding the impressive list of ‘foreign’ citizen-leaders, innovators and heroes

However much this white woman tries to "fit in" Indian culture, she's still foreign and strange, and the children are not shy about expressing that.

This is the type of white woman who superficially thinks that all cultures are the same, that immigrants from all corners of the world can live contentedly in her native country (America, Canada or possibly Britain), and that it is evil to refuse people refuge as immigrants who want a better life, or refugees who are fleeing difficult, often temporary, situation in their countries.

Yet, when we untangle her thought process, she clearly knows that she is a foreigner in India. She simply, with her benevolent smile, tries to fit in that culture and its norms (look at her attempt at local attire).

So, why is India any different from America or Canada? Why don't Indians accept her with open arms, as she expects Americans and Canadians to do so toward Indians?

If anyone suggest, "Why not find refugees temporary settlement in a country adjacent to theirs, and when things subside, they can return to their countries of origin?" she will think that is callous and cruel, when her country has so much to offer them.

If she is told that immigration into Canada has to be cut down, even closed down, she would go out protesting in front of various government buildings. How can Canada or America refuse these Third World immigrants a chance at bettering their lives, economically, socially and culturally?!

Think about it, she thinks that their countries are worse for them than her Western one. She may stand in cold protest lines to advocate their "right" to immigrate to her country, and she may travel to their countries, eat their ethnic food, wear their ethnic garb, and possibly come back with all kinds of ethnic bacteria, but in the end, she thinks that her Western country offers them a cleaner, safer and more civilized life than their own countries.

Such is the subtle, undetected racism that underlies much of liberal attitudes when it comes to other races.

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I wrote here a couple of weeks ago regarding immigration into Canada (and the US):

Refugees from Africa and Latin America can be accommodated in nearby countries (Somali refugees in Kenya or Ethiopia for example), and eventually returned to their countries of origin when war and other crisis situations have subsided.

Well, the blogger Ann Corcoran at Refugee Resettlement Watch has posted an article on January 8, 2013 by Mathew Joseph from the International Business Times about the regional and national conflicts in Asia (Bhuttan, to be exact), which resulted with, according to Mathew Joseph:

Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin [being] expelled from Bhutan in the early 1990s as a result of the state sponsored Bhutanization drive epitomized in the promulgation of “Driglam Nam Za” (code of social etiquette) in 1989, which stipulated strict controls over the people of Nepali origin who inhabited the southern districts of Bhutan.

Corcoran writes:

We have already seen some of the psychological impact with the high suicide rate of Bhutanese here in the US.

The decision to move this entire “refugee” population and not resolve it between the countries involved will have “serious implications” for the future resolution of similar problems around the world...

She then quotes more from Mathews' article:

The proposal for Third Country Resettlement in effect, in this particular case, turned out to be a rejection of the right of repatriation of the refugees. This is going to have serious implications for the resolution of various refugee issues pertaining to different regions of the world. International community, instead of making arrangements for Third Country Resettlement, must put pressure on the concerned parties to facilitate the process of repatriation for the resolution of refugee problems. As far as refugee problems are concerned, repatriation not Third Country Resettlement is the only meaningful solution.

"Third Country Resettlement"means sending these refugees to Canada or the United States where they remain through months, if not years, of application for refugee status in these countries. Once their refugee status is established, they can then start the long process of permanent residency (green card in the US, and landed immigrant status in Canada). Some applications are actually refused and the applicants are ordered to return to their countries of origin. They seldom fulfill these requests, and remain illegally in these countries.

I had a similar proposal as Corcoran, where I wrote in this blog post on immigration in Canada:

Refugees from Africa and Latin America can be accommodated in nearby countries (Somali refugees in Kenya or Ethiopia for example), and eventually returned to their countries of origin when war and other crisis situations have subsided.

Apart from the psychological (generational) problems Third World refugee resettlement programs produce for the refugees, includes feelings of alienation from the country, it is also detrimental to the countries accepting these refugees. Research has shown that non-white immigrants/refugees continue to feel alienated in the US and Canada, and begin a long process of accommodating the countries to their cultural and psycho-social backgrounds. They thus slowly, subtly and surely change these countries in an attempt to make them resemble the countries they left behind.

Third World refugee resettlement programs in the US and Canada harm both the refugees and the host countries. These programs benefit no-one.