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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
You have to submit ALL your documents. Birth certificates, report cards from school, IDs, driver licenses, passports, old utility bills.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
You have to provide them with names of ALL your family members, dead and alive. All your friends, neighbors, teachers. Everyone.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
This is the first step so let's say month 1.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
Over the next 12 months they will review you the information you provided, check the validity of your documents and check your references.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
Because Yugoslavia was a socialist country, my parents also had to tell their before the war story. Were they communists, dissidents?
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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?
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
How do you feel about communism? Did you think Tito was a good ruler? Are you religious? How religious are you?
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
You tell your story again to a different official. And again. And again. And then again. Lets call this month 18 now.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
They tell you what you can bring and can't bring to America. The documents they need and how much the ticket costs.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
By the way, the process for these interviews, application and proof all cost money. Thousands of dollars to get to a safe place.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
They review the information and decide they will send you somewhere you already have family. For me, that was Iowa.
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Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
You pack whatever you can. You have a 100 dollars in your pocket from some family heirloom you had to sell.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
You say goodbye to your country, your people, your home, your friends, your family. Everything you knew. You cry the entire flight.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
Everyone speaks a language you don't understand. The humidity sticks to you and you can't breathe. Welcome to your new home.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
But you survived. You're in America. You are now safe. Wait....there are more interviews to be had.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
You get to sleep for the night and in the morning you go to the immigration & refugee center. More questions.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
You tell them your story again. You provide all the documents again (even though they have them already). You answer more questions.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
You get an immigration/refugee case manager assigned to you along with a DHS case manager. They ask you to tell your story again.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
They give you 1 month of medicaid, 1 month of food stamps, old donated furniture & nothing else.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
Your first day of class you get called a terrorist. The kids tell you that you are dirty and probably have lice.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
The DHS and the immigration/refugee officer still continue to check on you to make sure you are abiding by all the rules.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
Fast forward 3 years later because you got to America, your parents find better jobs, you speak English, they buy an actual house.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
Fast forward 7 years later you are graduating college. You have a steady job. You have friends. Your family is safe.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
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.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
Sorry but to add to this because a friend reminded me. You also have to go through mental health screening.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
You are also required to take english classes and job placement classes, as well as a class on how to act in America.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
****
That's what it means to be a refugee.
—
Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) November 18, 2015
Evening.
Thanks a million Nerdy, a really stunningly powerful series of tweets, what a story.
It sure is Chips.
Thank you so much for posting this Nerdy! I saw it the other day and it should be the front page of every newspaper in the US.
It should also be required reading for all the Republican (and Dem) cowardly surrender monkeys who haven’t the first clue as to the process of applying for refugee status with the UN. And obviously haven’t even read any information about the attack itself, to know that ALL of the terrorists were native Europeans, mostly from Belgium, and the pristine Syrian passport that was found next to body parts was proven a fake within 24hrs. I don’t hear them calling to prevent Europeans from entering the US.
Why on earth would a terrorist/wannabe ever make the hardest and longest choice to enter the US, when all you need is a travel visa (1 week usually, and obviously not as thorough a vetting process as applying for refugee status) and a plane ticket?
We’re witnessing the same orchestrated distraction as we did after 9/11 when the Bush/Cheney Cabal Inc™® went after Iraq and Saddam, when all the hijackers were Saudi.
Then Trump wanting to out-Hitler Hitler with his Mosque closing and Muslim registry plan.
Today I was playing my nerd online MMO game, which has a chat function, and someone started dissing on PBO, doing the usual lame, “he sucks”, without saying why, just the usual brainstem-free drivel, and finally asked, “Name one thing Obama has done that is good.”
🙂
Wellllll…… I proceed to to school them, first with a list of the basics – Bin Laden, Double Dow, lowest unemployment in over 20 years, ended two wars, etc., then with the rant above on the event itself, and them not ever being allowed to call the French cowardly surrender monkeys ever again, since they’ve out-cowarded everyone in the less than a week. And then…. silence. 😀
The GOP in a matter of days, have shown the world with their hysteria and overreaction, that we are truly the stupidest country on the planet, and they’re a giant bag of ignorant, scared, dickless cowards.
So much for HOME OF THE BRAVE.
There are lots of people I would like vetted like this. None of them refugees.
Thank you Nerdy. Powerful…I feel ashamed and embarrassed.
So do I DF. Americans should be grateful for all we have a willing to share with refugees. Do any f you know how one can sponsor a family?
This is profound. Thank you for sharing this.
It reminds me of a movie I saw last year “The Golden Door” (Nuovomondo or “New World” was the Italian release title), about immigration from Sicily around 1900. My Sicilian ancestors came about 1890. Those Ellis Island immigrants had to spend a month or more before being admitted. They had to take “Intelligence” tests and go through other humiliating processes. A woman who was not married had to get a man to marry her in order to get off the Island. Many people were turned away.
It amazes me how many people now have forgotten that their ancestors were once desperate to find a new life here. I have a client who, as a toddler, spent time in an internment camp here during WWII. He is a republican. I have been afraid to ask him about the current GOP nonsense, for fear that his answer would break my heart.
Thank you, Nerdy!
On a happier note:
Thank you President Obama! I just got a check from my insurance company as per the ACA, since they didn’t spend enough on care and services during the year and they have to refund what they were supposed to spend to the customers. Yay! I needed the surprise extra cash this month too!
Congrats df 🙂
Essential reading, NW. Thank you for posting it. Hopefully, someone will convert it into a legible graphic that can be readily accessed via a Tweet, FB, etc.
Then, there’s what we are witnessing ‘in real time,’ incessantly …..
#Hope4ALL
Bobfr, you know Trump’s campaign slogan is MAKE AMERICA WHITE AGAIN. His racists supporters loves that.
Bella, I’m glad you wrote this. I’ve been thinking it . Make America white again is what the GOP is really about.
You are absolutely spot-on, Bella!
Memes really do matter.
We must insist on never calling the anti-civilization barbarians, aka #DAESH, Muslims or referencing their NON-STATE locations as Islamic anything.
It must stop ….
good night TOD
I read under a Crawl of a Cable Network that he won.
Funny when Beavins won in KY two weeks ago, Sunday Talk shows were all over it.
Thanks for posting this, NW – quite the eye opener. Hopefully, lots of people, who really need to see it, will.
This part from one of the tweets could be useful in helping RWNJs and a few Democrats think about their current rhetoric relating to refugees:
” … as well as a class on how to act in America.”
We don’t want those already here to miss that one.
Oh, Jacqueline, I would love to know what the curriculum is for that “How to Act in America” class. Given the obnoxious, bigoted, hateful behavior of many Americans I shudder to think what new immigrants would think about the difference between what they’re taught and what they actually see in the US.
I would, too, jackieG. I’m just now watching the Shining A Light program on my DVR. More “sights to see” in America. Hard to maintain HOPE, but we must.
It’s on again here on Monday morning on A & E. I set my DVR, so I could watch it.
Yes – me, too – because turns out I only recorded the other part, which was also very good. Luckily, I found the concert and will be watching it sometime Monday with you!
Bravo, Mr.Coates.
Between the World and Me will be read and appreciated for generations. 18 weeks and counting on the NY Times best seller list.
What a story! I guess I could never be a refugee; I don’t have my birth certificate, nor my parents. I do have their death certificates. I wouldn’t be able to supply half that information.
neither would many other Americans, mary.
This is heartbreaking, thank you so much for sharing with us Nerdy and ((((Arnessa))))).
Thank you Nerdy for highlighting these tweets from Arnessa.
I finally got on Facebook last week, so I shared it. My name is Terri A. Diamantoukos if anyone from here wants to “friend me”.
Just sent you a friend request. ☺️
I just confirmed it.
If interested, click on Photos, then Photos of you. Can see my grandchildren. 😄😄😍😍
Would you friend me also? Alycee Ruley
Your grandchildren are cute. 🙂
Yeah! Just sent you a request!
Thanks, I just confirmed it.
Sent you a friend message, sj.
Got it, Thanks. I just confirmed it.
I just sent you one too 🙂
Thanks, Mary! I just confirmed it.
Happy to have you as a Facebook friend. Judith Fardig
Thanks, Judith. I just confirmed it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/02/14/us-annefrank-letters-idUSN1430569220070214#Lpu9R0EmGiII8kIy.97
Anne Franks’s father applied for a U.S. visa before going into hiding in 1940. It was denied.
POTUS will hold a press conference at 2:22am 11-22-am.
Thanks! Will have to set the alarm…
Louisiana has finally woke up. And I know they are glad Jindal is gone.
Congrats John Bel Edwards.
The Lt Gov is a GOPer. The AA running a Dem was defeated. Once again, In Southern States, when Minorities run as a Dem, they get defeated.
Fabulous.
HAPPY NEWS!!!!! Louisiana has elected a (D) Governor. Goody-by to Bobby Jindal and no David Vitter.
Medicaid expansion on its way.
Terrific news. Now we are going to see how this is spun as being meaningless for Democrats because we lost Kentucky. The media told us Kentucky meant Republicans were triumphing. They will either ignore Louisiana or say its a fluke. In the meantime, John Bel Edwards ran a strong and effective campaign and showed that Democrats can win in a red state if they come on strong and fight back.
I bet they will ignore it as best they can.
Since it’s Obama fault when they lose, is it his fault when they win?
I need to ask CNN and MSNBC that question.
So, will they blame PBO for this win? They always blame him for all Democrats who lose. 🙂 Good for Louisiana.
Let’s hope those ugly mugs Vitter and Jindal sink into obscurity!
AMEN
Wow! Was keeping track on one of the websites – which, obviously, hadn’t been updated with this good news!
Go, Governor John Bel Edwards !
Yea!!
It really upsets me when republicans use PBO as a “hating tool” to get votes. I love when it backfires.
Thank you for the tweets of this woman’s journey.
Spring has sprung
and Fall has fell.
Winter is here
and it’s cold as hell! 😦
🙂
Love that ode to Winter. It brings warmth to my heart.
Ha. And we got 18 inches of snow too!
Wow…great time to get out the summer clothes and go sunbathing! 🙂 🙂
Real smartypants! 😈
Political Aphorisms
If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.
~Jay Leno~
The problem with political jokes is they get elected.
~Henry Cate VII~
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office
~Aesop~
If we got one-tenth of what was promised to us in these State of the Union speeches, there wouldn’t be any inducement to go to heaven.
~Will Rogers~
Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build a bridge even where there is no river.
~ Nikita Khrushchev~
When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it.
~Clarence Darrow~
Why pay money to have your family tree traced; go into politics and your opponents will do it for you.
~Author unknown~
Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, go out and buy some more tunnel.
~John Quinton~
Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.
~Oscar Ameringer~
I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them.
~Adlai Stevenson, 1952~
A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country.
~ Tex Guinan~
I have come to the conclusion that politics is too serious a matter to be left to the politicians.
~Charles de Gaulle~
Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks.
~Doug Larson~
There ought to be one day — just one — when there is open season on Congressmen.
~Will Rogers~
These are fabulous. Too bad they’re all true!
Good nite Land Lubbers……..
Goodnight, TOD! Gonna go watch a movie, until the President’s presser!
What time?
Ha – just came back to doublecheck myself – looks like it’s 2:22 E (1:22 C), per bella upthread. Enjoy.
CNN is showing the President’s press conference – also available at: https://www.whitehouse.gov/live
And goodnight!
CNN cut it off but MSNBC is still showing.
POTUS has started to speak at his press conference.
ok – so….. everyone is hopefully sleeping, except me, sick with the plague and on drugs which should be putting me to sleep…. but SOMEONE WAS WRONG ON THE INTERNET so I had to say something…. and I want to share!!
it started with this post, referring to Malala’s brilliant, to the point statement: “With guns you can kill terrorists. With Education, you can kill terrorism.”
MR FLIPPANT: It’s a nice thought, but I don’t know if it’s true. There’s been a lot of education for a long time. Almost all the members of congress have degrees. Most military officers have them. Sometimes you just got to kill someone so they’ll shut up. Then you can return to what you were talking about, peace, economic fairness, health, whatever…
Like · Reply · 4 hrs
TALLY to MR FLIPPANT – Apologies for the incoming wall of text (which I shall edit, since this format allows it here on TOD), but your flippancy made my head explode.
Perhaps it’s been several decades since you’ve been in school, or had children in school, or traveled outside of the country where children are taught more about our own government that we are, but Civics hasn’t been taught in the US in over 30 years, even in neighborhoods with money, because the GOP has been starving the Dept of Education of funding since the 70’s, and most of the candidates want to abolish the DoE altogether.
Education has deteriorated in the US, and Texas is publishing schoolbooks with creationism, and Evolution as just a theory – even though flu shots change every year, and some bacteria have grown resistant to antibiotics – like the Superbug in China right now. That’s called Evolution – that thing that Dr Ben Carson doesn’t believe in….as a Neurosurgeon – ok sure. They recently printed history books attempting to rewrite history by referring to slaves as “workers”, implying they received a wage, and had the freedom to change jobs if they so desired.
As for members of Congress, (and sadly a majority of Americans), most of them have no idea what the process even is for applying for refugee status and that all of the Paris terrorists were Native Europeans, mostly from Belgium, and that pristine Syrian passport that was found next to burnt body parts was proven fake the very next day.
So we’re seeing the same ignorant, orchestrated distraction as what happened after 9/11 where Bush/Chency Inc. blamed Iraq and Saddam because they wanted a war, even though the hijackers were Saudi – which were Bush/Cheney’s business partners along with the Bin Laden family who he allowed to fly out of the country unmolested the next day even though the entire country was grounded.
And now Trump is trying to out-Hitler Hitler with his Mosque closing and Muslim registry plan.
What education are you even referring to?
Most of the US is a giant bag of uneducated, hateful, bigoted, cowardly surrender monkey DICKS.
Can you not see the disconnect? France just had their largest body count since WWII – 130 as it stands today, yet that happens HERE on a monthly basis mostly perpetrated by white male, off their meds “Christians” who could’t name one things Jesus said, yet are allowed to purchase as many guns as they can afford, and the GOP has ZERO problem with that.
But brown, Muslim and Christian Syrians who are fleeing from one of the worst devastating humanitarian catastrophes in decades, that are applying for refugee status from the UN (which takes two years) must stay OUT.
Tell me, what terrorist would choose the hardest, longest, most detailed way of entering the US, when all you need is a Travel Visa (usually a week to process) and a plane ticket?
I don’t see anyone calling for us to keep Europeans from entering the US, just a giant group of people who had absolutely ZERO to do with what happened in France and Mali, and are fighting to stay alive and keep their families safe. But our conservative “Christians” are being as unChrist-like as possible while refusing to even think about having reasonable gun laws here.
Brilliant post, too bad it cant be used for a political test, no Republican would qualify for the town square much less elected office.
CONGRATULATIONS to the people of Louisiana for refusing to replace one DUMB FUCK with another DUMBER FUCK
Off to get ready for church, have a great Sunday all
Please find away to send this to every republican and the dumocrats who voted with them about refugees
Morning!
http://theobamadiary.com/2015/11/22/early-bird-chat-594/
Excellent Tweets from a Former Refugee.
Thanks for posting them, NW.