December 1
GUEST: Dr. Diya Abdo, author, English professor at Guilford College, and second generation Palestinian refugee, talks about Arab feminism and the program she founded, Every Campus A Refuge.
American Refuge, True Stories of the Refugee Experience
Dr. Abdo has great plans. Why can't the nation's colleges help provide housing for refugees looking to start a new life in the United States? If every college opened itself to this program, thousands of refugees would be given a chance to make it in our supposedly "land of the free."
The idea brings up a lot of issues, of course. Why is the US a destination for those who have left their homelands, looking for a new life? For Central Americans, we know the answer. For two hundred years this country has been threatening, invading and occupying countries south of our boarders. How many times has the US overthrown a democratically elected president to benefit major corporations? Are there any countries untouched by the CIA since World War II?
Thirty years of US wars in the Middle East has created its own wave of immigrants, desperate for a new life away from bombs and drones. What country in the region has not been blown apart in the interests of Big Oil? Our government's "Project for a New American Century," drawn up during the Clinton administration, argued for the complete destruction of the Middle East. This imperialist wet dream has resulted in millions of desperate people on the move. Where else but to Europe and the US, the only place left that is safe and functioning.
So one might conclude that imperialism creates these waves of immigrants. But there are other reasons as well. How about trade policies that destroy food production in the Third World? How about the massive debt that Third World countries have to pay off? And how about the global catastrophe that is climate change? First World countries created the problem, while less developed nations have ended up paying the price.
Refuges are the products of racism, war, corporate greed, and financial thievery. How can they still smile at us after what they have gone through?
