As a country, America has not done much to make the refugees from Bosnia feel welcome. The government has provided them with the bare minimum: passage in, low paying jobs, and little psychiatric help.(source?) The attitudes of non-Muslim Americans towards the refugees are atrocious. People have developed a negative stigma towards Muslims; many think they are terrorists, or will destroy the country. Blatant bigotry and hate run rampant, and it has destroyed the morals of many. Imagine fleeing from your home with only a few personal items, to elude death because of your beliefs. Once you escaped a brutal war and arrived at your destination, how would you feel if the people in your new home already hated you? How would you feel if the main reason they hated you was because of your religion, the same hatred that threatened your life?
The media portrays anyone from the Middle East, or anyone under Islam as the enemy. They only have a few positive things said about the Muslims who live in America. Most of what is told to the people is that immigrants and refugees will destroy the country, take jobs, ruin the economy, etc, the list goes on and on. When refugees from wars like the Bosnian war come here, they are not given the proper care they need. Many believe that letting them into America at all is too generous, much less trying to help them live a happy healthy life. Many don’t understand what it is like to live through a war or lose their home. They just know they want to keep immigrants of all kinds out, so that the good life and prosperity will only be given to “true” Americans.
The problem is, immigrants are “true” Americans, or as true as anyone can be. America is a nation of Immigrants, the only legitimately true Americans are the Native Americans. Everyone's reason for coming here is to have a better life, so why would anyone deny that to someone else, especially someone who has nowhere else to turn? Many might agree that it is ridiculous to not let someone in for that reason, but still hate Muslim refugees or immigrants, just because of their religion. That in and of itself is wrong beyond words.
If a war were to be waged on U.S. soil, and all the Christians were being targeted, much like the Jewish people in WWII or the Muslims people in the Bosnian war, it would be a different story wouldn’t it? Americans would expect other countries to welcome them with open arms. Give them all the American opportunities and rights they were born with. They would expect fair jobs and free mental health care. So why on Earth do we deny those who seek refuge here those rights? Because too many people just do not understand. They don’t get that they live incredibly wonderful lives that most people in the world could only dream of. They don’t understand how it feels to lose their home to a war. I myself can only sympathise, but it is more than what many do. Many choose to hate and fight against giving refugees fair opportunities because they are afraid it will somehow lessen their quality of life.
The media portrays anyone from the Middle East, or anyone under Islam as the enemy. They only have a few positive things said about the Muslims who live in America. Most of what is told to the people is that immigrants and refugees will destroy the country, take jobs, ruin the economy, etc, the list goes on and on. When refugees from wars like the Bosnian war come here, they are not given the proper care they need. Many believe that letting them into America at all is too generous, much less trying to help them live a happy healthy life. Many don’t understand what it is like to live through a war or lose their home. They just know they want to keep immigrants of all kinds out, so that the good life and prosperity will only be given to “true” Americans.
The problem is, immigrants are “true” Americans, or as true as anyone can be. America is a nation of Immigrants, the only legitimately true Americans are the Native Americans. Everyone's reason for coming here is to have a better life, so why would anyone deny that to someone else, especially someone who has nowhere else to turn? Many might agree that it is ridiculous to not let someone in for that reason, but still hate Muslim refugees or immigrants, just because of their religion. That in and of itself is wrong beyond words.
If a war were to be waged on U.S. soil, and all the Christians were being targeted, much like the Jewish people in WWII or the Muslims people in the Bosnian war, it would be a different story wouldn’t it? Americans would expect other countries to welcome them with open arms. Give them all the American opportunities and rights they were born with. They would expect fair jobs and free mental health care. So why on Earth do we deny those who seek refuge here those rights? Because too many people just do not understand. They don’t get that they live incredibly wonderful lives that most people in the world could only dream of. They don’t understand how it feels to lose their home to a war. I myself can only sympathise, but it is more than what many do. Many choose to hate and fight against giving refugees fair opportunities because they are afraid it will somehow lessen their quality of life.
Whether they were Serbs, Croats or Muslims, everyone in Bosnia was in danger. There was panic and Killing in the streets. In 2011, Alan Taylor made a very moving article with over 40 pictures from the war, in light of its 20th anniversary. I would highly recommend looking at all of the pictures *warning #12 is VERY graphic*. If you did look through the pictures, you now have an understanding of just how incredibly horrifying the war was. The people who escaped, came out with the memories these gruesome images behold. So why on earth do some American journalists ostracize Bosnian or Muslim refugees in general? They did not come here to take over the country, ruin the economy, or even just for a change of scenery. They came here to save their lives. (The Atlantic Monthly Group, April 13, 2012)