Rob Mercatante's Guatemala Journal: C'est la vie

March 01, 2005

C'est la vie

"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

{Final stanza of the poem by Emma Lazarus
that adorns the Statue of Liberty}

Hey, where are you going?

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United States is no longer the top destination for people seeking asylum in industrialized nations. So where are the refugees now seeking refuge?

France!

Yep, the number of asylum applications in France rose 3% last year to 61,600. The United States dropped from 73,780 to 52,360. Britain came in third with 40,200 refugees, followed by Germany and Canada.

Last year, fewer refugees came to the United States from its major sources, including China, Haiti, Colombia, Mexico, Guatemala and Indonesia.

"If genuine refugees are not now claiming asylum because they're concerned that the system is loaded against them, that obviously would be very worrying indeed, and it may be the case in some countries," said UNHCR spokesman Rupert Colville.

(I don't get it... I thought we had the Freedom Fries!)

Posted by elcanche at March 1, 2005 02:02 PM

Comments

Remember, the Statue of Liberty was given to us as a gift from the people of France. Maybe the refugees are seeking "Liberte, Egalite, Fraternite."

Posted by: Carol at March 7, 2005 10:52 AM