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commentary that you can listen to as you watch.
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during the presentation, just watch, listen and learn.
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
Refugee
A 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.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
An illegal immigrant
An 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.
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.
If
YOU
had to
make the
decision,
could
YOU
send
these
people
back to
be
tortured?
Here are some typical comments made by people about refugees/
We spend too
much on
housing and
feeding
refugees.
We accept too
many already.
Why don’t other
countries take a
share?
Britain is the
place they
all want to
come to.
Why don’t
they go back
where they
came from?
|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.
Let’s continue to look at the real facts behind these ideas.
We spend too
much on
housing and
feeding
refugees.
COST OF REFUGEES
Let’s see how true this is.
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 continue to look at the real facts behind these ideas.
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
4.65
Belgium
4.20
Ireland
2.93
Netherlands
2.78
Switzerland
2.39
Norway
2.31
Austria
2.23
Denmark
1.90
Sweden
1.84
U. K.
1.66
Britain is the
place they
all want to
come to.
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.
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.
Why don’t
they go back
where they
came from?
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.
Now click HERE to go to a brief self-assessment sheet for this
presentation.
Well done!
You’ve now finished
this unit.