Refugee Quotes - Page 2

• As a Vietnamese refugee who became an American writer, I can tell you that you matter, that your sadness matters, the story of how you survived and triumphed matters. For every story that belongs to you, in time, belongs to America.

  Andrew Lam

  Sadness, America, Stories

  Andrew Lam (2010). “East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres”, p.133, Heyday

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• Waiting is a huge part of being a refugee. You're waiting at borders to get across. You're waiting for transportation. The waiting that people do in Turkey to get aboard one of these boats is incredible. And then when they finally do get aboard, it's the last place they want to be. It's harrowing. That is the horrible irony of a refugee's life. You wait and wait for the next step, and when you get to the next step, it's awful. You don't want to be doing it. But you have to. You have to keep moving forward.

  Alan Gratz

  Moving Forward, People, Waiting

  Source: www.hbook.com

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• When food becomes scarce, refugees often turn to desperate measures to feed themselves and their families. We are particularly worried about the health of the refugee population, domestic violence and refugees resorting to illegal employment or even to prostitution, just to put enough food on the table.

  Antonio Guterres

  Desperate Measures, Worry, Domestic Violence

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• Thus, on this World Refugee Day, let us take time to recognize and draw inspiration from these ordinary people who have shown such extraordinary courage - the world's millions of refugees and displaced.

  Antonio Guterres

  Inspiration, People, Ordinary

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• Children, together with women, constitute 90 percent of all refugee populations on the planet as well as the vast majority of those living in absolute poverty: the 'feminization of poverty' means that children are poor, too, since most parenting is done by mothers.

  Robin Morgan

  Mother, Children, Mean

  Robin Morgan (2014). “Saturday's Child: A Memoir”, p.28, Open Road Media

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• The challenge of ending displacement is inseparable from the challenge of establishing and maintaining peace. When wars end, farmers return to their fields; children return to school; violence against women declines; trade and economic activity resume; medical and other services become more accessible, and the international focus changes from relief to development and self-sufficiency. All this makes new wars less likely. It is a virtuous cycle that deserves nurture and support.

  Kenneth Bacon

  Children, War, School

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• We will stop the terrorist attacks before they occur because we will not be prisoners to political correctness. Rather, we will speak the truth. Border security is national security and we will not be admitting jihadists as refugees.

  Ted Cruz

  Political, Borders, Border Security

  The fifth Republican debate, www.washingtonpost.com. December 15, 2015.

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• We talk of regional conflicts, of economic and social crises, of political instability, of abuses of human rights, of racism, religious intolerance, inequalities between rich and poor, hunger, over-population, under-development and. I could go on and on. Each and every one of these impediments to humanity's pursuit of well-being are also among the root causes of refugee problems.

  Poul Hartling

  Religious, Roots, Rights

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• I would hope that the future would have an international community that's not just bent on commerce, but that's focused on refugees, of all kinds and from all places. We don't know that won't happen in the U.S. someday. It literally could be a crisis from climate change, or anything. I think there needs to be a global focus on people taking care of people.

  Chris Cornell

  Thinking, People, Focus

  Source: collider.com

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• I'd like there to be less refugees. I'd like all girls to go to school. That's what we need to be thinking about, and working on making our own families good and strong and our own kids happy.

  Angelina Jolie

  Girl, Strong, School

  "Do I need to defend that I'm a decent woman?'". "Today Show" with Ann Curry, www.today.com. June 6, 2005.

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• Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions.

  Pope Francis

  War, Refugee Crisis, Our World

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• At times I think the truest image of God today is a black inner-city grandmother in the United States or a mother of the disappeared in Argentina or the women who wake up early to make tortillas in refugee camps. They all weep for their children, and in their compassionate tears arises the political action that changes the world. The mothers show us that it is the experience of touching the pain of others that is the key to change.

  Jim Wallis

  Mother, Children, Pain

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• There is absolutely no solidarity in the West towards its own victims, and the recent 'refugee crises' is direct proof of it.

  Andre Vltchek

  Refugee Crisis, West, Victim

  Source: www.counterpunch.org

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• People have been born in refugee camps and they are getting tired of that.

  Javier Bardem

  Tired, People, Born

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• To be put simply refugees are us. And their mothers are like us, they love their children the same, they laugh, they dream, and they are survivors, they are amazing.

  Angelina Jolie

  Mother, Dream, Children

  Source: www.lasplash.com

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• Despite very harsh living conditions and the trauma of what they went through, they [Sudanese refugees] had a lot of dignity

  Julien Clerc

  Dignity, Harsh, Trauma

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• The way a government treats refugees is very instructive.

  Tony Benn

  Government, Way, Treats

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• You cross a border and the policeman or the frontier policeman look at you, What are you doing here? Why are you coming? How long will you stay? Well, if I had nearly enough years, I would write a novel about being a refugee.

  Elie Wiesel

  Writing, Years, Long

  Source: www.savetibet.org

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• I feel every medium of art needs to heal to some degree. It can't live in it's own void, and this came from my earliest experiences as a young refugee.

  Masiela Lusha

  Art, Degrees, Needs

  Source: thecelebritycafe.com

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• I started a foundation, called The Khaled Hosseini Foundation. The mission has been to help the most vulnerable groups in Afghanistan. So the focus has been on women, children, and homeless refugees, most of whom are in fact women and children.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Children, Focus, Foundation

  "GeekDad Interview: Khaled Hosseini, Author of The Kite Runner". Interview with Tony Sims, www.wired.com. September 30, 2011.

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• My hunch, for what it's worth, is that most of us probably find it much, much harder than we realize to really imagine what catastrophe is like. I have a hunch that we all labor under this rather convenient illusion that if we read about the Syrian refugee crisis, we can imagine what it feels like to set off from your home and your life with all your possessions in two bin liners. We all think that we can imagine that and my guess is that none of us have got a clue.

  Decca Aitkenhead

  Home, Thinking, Refugee Crisis

  "Decca Aitkenhead on Empathy and Memory". Interview with Emma Brown, www.interviewmagazine.com. August 15, 2016.

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• Can we disregard the growing phenomenon of "environmental refugees", people who are forced by the degradation of their natural habitat to forsake it - and often their possessions as well - in order to face the dangers and uncertainties of forced displacement? Can we remain impassive in the face of actual and potential conflicts involving access to natural resources? All these are issues with a profound impact on the exercise of human rights, such as the right to life, food, health and development.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Exercise, Order, Issues

  Pope Benedict XVI (2014). “The Garden of God”, p.41, CUA Press

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• I know that if I feel any deprivation or fear [about money], the solution is to give. The solution is to go find some mothers on the streets of San Raphael and give them tens and twenties and mail off another $50 to Doctors Without Borders to use for the refugees in Kosovo. Because I know that giving is the way we can feel abundant. Giving is the way that we fill ourselves up.... For me the way to fill up is through service and sharing and getting myself to give more than I feel comfortable giving.

  Anne Lamott

  Mother, Doctors, Giving

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• Environmental degradation, overpopulation, refugees, narcotics, terrorism, world crime movements, and organized crime are worldwide problems that don't stop at a nation's borders.

  Warren Christopher

  Environmental, Collaboration, Borders

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• The exile is a singular, whereas refugees tend to be thought of in the mass ... What is implied in these nuances of social standing is the respect we pay to choice. The exile appears to have made a decision, while the refugee is the very image of helplessness.

  Mary McCarthy

  Choices, Decision, Pay

  Mary McCarthy (1985). “Occasional prose”, Harcourt

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