Stories of Migration with World Relief

You know as you were just sharing all that we work on our advocacy team at World Relief and in some way our lived experience helps us so much in our work because I mean, I'm sure you feel similar this way.

It isn't just a job for us.

We're actually trying to help people understand the stories of communities that we came from.

Part of me feels like it makes our job harder, but it makes it easier because we can talk about it like it's a real thing for us.

You know, we're not having to.

But the other side of it is like, it is hard too, because like, Let me give you an example, because I do want to get into like, you know, policy and people.

Yeah, absolutely.

When refugee resettlement shut down last year,

the

United States had been doing refugee resettlement for a long time.

But back in 1980, it was federalized by Jimmy Carter.

And so, but when basically it shuttered last year, you know, which is my whole entire lifetime, you know, was, has been, you know, in some ways has been one of America's most popular and most I guess, quote unquote, successful immigration program.

I remember having a moment last year where I was like, I know that's just a policy, but why does it feel so personal? You know, like I remember even feeling like disoriented.

Like I was like, Cause I mean, and I could hear like rhetoric around immigrants and all that stuff on TV and I could see the headlines.

It impacted me.

And I didn't realize how much of my narrative was based on how this nation has shaped its, its policies, you know, and I'm just, you know, we're just one stream.

There are so many different things.

And I'm curious how, like in the way that we talk about policy and people, how it hits you and how you feel impacted by it.

Yeah, that's a loaded question.

We're not one-dimensional people.

I mean, there's just that reality that we're not.

We carry the fullness of who we are into every space that we're in or in every place that we're at.

And so I think what I'm hearing, especially in the last year, in the last few years, even beyond that, of these policies that are dehumanizing us that are literally violently stealing people's humanity, to me, that is so heartbreaking.

And so when I hear words like in policies or even in table conversations or even in passing at church lobbies, like when people are saying hi and bye and what are you, you know, what are you reading about? Or what are you learning? Or did you hear the news or whatever? And I'm hearing words like illegal or alien or, you know, we should be helping our own first or like things like that.

It just becomes a difficult kind of space to navigate.