Central America Refugees
A young Colombian child plays with a cuddly toy in her home in Argentina. UNHCR helped her and her family begin a new life in the country, which has a small resettlement program.
Below are stories and images of Central American refugees. Your task is to read each story and view the images. When you have completed your analysis of their hardships, make connections with your group members using the attached form. When you have completed your comparison to Ha and her family's hardships submit your paper to me, via the Common Share Folder. When I receive your submission it will be displayed on the SmartBoard and used for class discussion and synthesis at the end of the lesson.
Mauricio and his family's story
Mauricio smiles as his young daughter plays with a cuddly toy in their small, cosy apartment in Buenos Aires. His wife Liliana* tells visitors excitedly about her hopes of working in a beauty salon. Only a small map of Colombia in a corner of the room hints at the suffering that Mauricio, Liliana and their three children have been through to get here.
The family are among a number of Colombians who are being resettled in third countries in South America after fleeing their country to escape an internal conflict that has left up to 3 million people internally displaced and hundreds of thousands in neighbouring countries.
Since the late 1990s, Argentina, Brazil and Chile have all started opening their doors to refugee resettlement, while Paraguay and Uruguay are expected this year to also start accepting small numbers of refugees referred by UNHCR because they cannot go back home or integrate in their host country. Refugees given a fresh start have mainly been from Afghanistan, Iraq and the former Yugoslav federation, but many of the recent arrivals are Colombian.
Daniel's Story
Daniel Penado Zavala was 17 when he made a heart-wrenching decision to leave his family behind in San Salvador and try to make a new life where it was safer.
He saw gang members target and kill young people like him. After his stepfather was slain, Daniel's mother was left to support him and his three siblings.
He, too, would be a victim if he resisted the wishes of thugs, he thought. That's how life had become for people without means in El Salvador. Gang members infiltrated public schools, he said, and threatened kids to join their ranks.
He scraped together $7,000 -- a huge sum of money for a family like his -- to pay a coyote, or smuggler, to arrange a harrowing journey, first to Mexico and then over the Texas border.
Daniel's is not an unfamiliar story anymore. Thousands cross the southern U.S. border illegally each year in hopes of better lives.
But now the problem has reached epic proportions, with children like Daniel fleeing the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. And they are arriving in the United States alone -- without a parent or guardian.
Many are hoping to be reunited with parents or relatives already living in America, and they cross the border without papers because there are virtually no legal ways for them to immigrate. Nor can their undocumented parents return home to get them.
The number of children making these journeys by themselves has doubled each year since 2010. U.S. authorities estimate that between 60,000 and 80,000 children will seek safe haven this year.
Works Cited for Mauricio's Story: http://www.unhcr.org/4623926e4.html
Works Cited for Daniel's Story: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/13/us/immigration-undocumented-children-explainer/
A young Colombian child plays with a cuddly toy in her home in Argentina. UNHCR helped her and her family begin a new life in the country, which has a small resettlement program.
Below are stories and images of Central American refugees. Your task is to read each story and view the images. When you have completed your analysis of their hardships, make connections with your group members using the attached form. When you have completed your comparison to Ha and her family's hardships submit your paper to me, via the Common Share Folder. When I receive your submission it will be displayed on the SmartBoard and used for class discussion and synthesis at the end of the lesson.
Mauricio and his family's story
Mauricio smiles as his young daughter plays with a cuddly toy in their small, cosy apartment in Buenos Aires. His wife Liliana* tells visitors excitedly about her hopes of working in a beauty salon. Only a small map of Colombia in a corner of the room hints at the suffering that Mauricio, Liliana and their three children have been through to get here.
The family are among a number of Colombians who are being resettled in third countries in South America after fleeing their country to escape an internal conflict that has left up to 3 million people internally displaced and hundreds of thousands in neighbouring countries.
Since the late 1990s, Argentina, Brazil and Chile have all started opening their doors to refugee resettlement, while Paraguay and Uruguay are expected this year to also start accepting small numbers of refugees referred by UNHCR because they cannot go back home or integrate in their host country. Refugees given a fresh start have mainly been from Afghanistan, Iraq and the former Yugoslav federation, but many of the recent arrivals are Colombian.
Daniel's Story
Daniel Penado Zavala was 17 when he made a heart-wrenching decision to leave his family behind in San Salvador and try to make a new life where it was safer.
He saw gang members target and kill young people like him. After his stepfather was slain, Daniel's mother was left to support him and his three siblings.
He, too, would be a victim if he resisted the wishes of thugs, he thought. That's how life had become for people without means in El Salvador. Gang members infiltrated public schools, he said, and threatened kids to join their ranks.
He scraped together $7,000 -- a huge sum of money for a family like his -- to pay a coyote, or smuggler, to arrange a harrowing journey, first to Mexico and then over the Texas border.
Daniel's is not an unfamiliar story anymore. Thousands cross the southern U.S. border illegally each year in hopes of better lives.
But now the problem has reached epic proportions, with children like Daniel fleeing the Central American countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. And they are arriving in the United States alone -- without a parent or guardian.
Many are hoping to be reunited with parents or relatives already living in America, and they cross the border without papers because there are virtually no legal ways for them to immigrate. Nor can their undocumented parents return home to get them.
The number of children making these journeys by themselves has doubled each year since 2010. U.S. authorities estimate that between 60,000 and 80,000 children will seek safe haven this year.
Works Cited for Mauricio's Story: http://www.unhcr.org/4623926e4.html
Works Cited for Daniel's Story: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/13/us/immigration-undocumented-children-explainer/