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Refugees – dispelling the myths

Do you know what the difference is between a refugee and an illegal immigrant?Lots of people get confused and this is why people often get the wrong impression

of genuine refugees.

REFUGEES ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

RefugeeA refugee is someone who has left their country and cannot return there for one of many reasons

including fear of torture or being persecuted. When a

refugee asks to live in another country for such

reasons they become known as an asylum

seekers.

RefugeeA refugee is someone who has left their country and cannot return there for one of many reasons

including fear of torture or being persecuted. When a

refugee asks to live in another country for such

reasons they become known as an asylum

seekers.

An illegal immigrantAn illegal immigrant is

someone who tries to get into another country

without going through the proper procedures of applying and being

interviewed to see if they have a genuine reason to be allowed to live in that

country.

An illegal immigrantAn illegal immigrant is

someone who tries to get into another country

without going through the proper procedures of applying and being

interviewed to see if they have a genuine reason to be allowed to live in that

country.

Below are photographs of three people who are typical of refugees who might ask to live in Britain. They are from Egypt, Guatemala and Indonesia. You might think that we have too many illegal immigrants already. But now read this information about them from an Amnesty International Website.

If

YOU had to

make the decision,

could YOU send these

people back to

be tortured?

It’s not a simple black and white decision after all, is It?

So let’s have a look at the REAL facts about refugees.

Here are some typical comments made by people about refugees/

We spend too much on

housing and feeding

refugees.

Why don’t they go back where they came from?

Britain is the place they all

want to come to.

We accept too many already.

Why don’t other countries take a share?

|Now let’s look at the real facts behind these ideas.

We accept too many already.

Why don’t other countries take a share?

Take a look at this table

of figures

The table shows how many people live in a country for every refugee that is accepted. For instance it means that in Armenia (where the figure 12 is shown) there is 1 refugee accepted for every 12 people that live in the country.Later you can click HERE to go to an exercise connected with this

chart.

We spend too much on

housing and feeding

refugees.

Let’s continue to look at the real facts behind these ideas.

COST OF REFUGEES

People on income support (£40 a week

in 2002) are considered to be on

the poverty line. Asylum seekers receive 10% less

than this.

Let’s see how true this is.

Britain is the place they all

want to come to.

Let’s see how true this is.

Here are the figures showing how many Asylum Seekers apply to each country per 1000 of population in that country.Slovenia 4.65Belgium 4.20Ireland 2.93Netherlands 2.78Switzerland 2.39Norway 2.31Austria 2.23Denmark 1.90Sweden 1.84U. K. 1.66

As you can see, Britain is only tenth in the list of European countries most popular with

genuine asylum seekers.

It simply isn’t true that more asylum seekers want to come to

Britain than anywhere else.

Let’s continue to look at the real facts behind these ideas.

Why don’t they go back where they came from?

And the funal myth to dispel.

SEND THEM BACK WHERE THEY CAME

FROM?Most asylum seekers do want to go home and do

so when it is safe. Genuine asylum seekers

leave their countries because of torture or

persecution, not because they

particularly want to come to Britain.

You are now going to use your new found knowledge about asylum seekers and refugees to produce a balanced newsletter informing people about the problems faced by refugees and trying to base your information on FACTS rather than on opinions that are thrown at you by the media.

Later you should click HERE to take you to a sheet with some information about what to do.

Well done!You’ve now finished

this unit.

Now click HERE to go to a brief self-assessment sheet for this presentation.