Month: January 2020

“Human Rights in Eritrea” Reflection

On Saturday January 25th from 4pm to 8pm I attended the academic event “Human Rights in Eritrea”. This event detailed the history of the oppressive regime in Eritrea, the stories of those facing religious persecution and mandatory indefinite military service in the region, and the movement opposing the regime called Yiakl. In addition to history and data, personal stories about the refugee experience were shared. The speakers included Father Athanasius Ghebre-Ab who spoke on the religious persecution of Orthodox individuals, Muftasta who spoke on the religous persecution of Muslim individuals, Yonatan who spoke one the religous persecution of Pentecostal individuals, Habtay who spoke on the religous persecution of Catholic individuals, and Michael who spoke on the 3 waves of refugees.

This event gave examples of the main themes we have covered in my Politics of Immigration class, including why people migrate. People migrate from Eritrea to flee the oppressive government, religious persecution, and mandatory military service. The government outlawed all but 4 religions. Members of the now illegal religions are the victims of discriminatory practices and mass arrests. The religions that remain legal lost their leaders, because government officials took on these positions. Anyone who speaks against the government’s policy or continues to practice an illegal religion is arrested and held indefinitely without a trial. Father Athanasius Ghiberti-Ab spoke about the difficulties he faced as he witnessed and recorded the Orthodox community’s reaction to the arrests, deaths, and replacements of their leaders. The government action that seemed to upset Father Athanasius Ghiberti-Ab the most was the arrest of the leader of the Eritrean Orthodox Church. This leader is now the oldest political prisoner at age 94.

Mandatory indefinite military service was the last straw that caused many men to flee Eritrea. After you complete 12th grade all men are required to serve in the military for as long as the government decides they need them to. The conditions the men are required to work in are unbearable; it is known that they regularly starve and die under mysterious circumstances. One man named Michael shared the difficult journey he took in order to escape this fate. He first traveled for 23 days to Sudan. Once in Sudan, he overcame harassment and earned a visa to study in Egypt. He received the visa on a Friday and was set to fly to Egypt on Monday. That Friday night, Michael was arbitrarily arrested and sentenced to 6 months in jail. Luckily, his brother had connections and managed to bribe the authorities so that Michael only served 2 weeks. Once free, he flew to Egypt where he was arrested again. He was arrested because he did not have the 150 dollars required to enter the country. Under a rouse of calling his brother, Michael called the United Nations for help. They had helped organize his visa and were able to free him from jail. Michael said he had the strength to complete this difficult journey because he believed his generation would be the last to flee in this manner. He believed change would come in Eritrea that would make this no longer necessary. Unfortunately, young men like him are still fleeing mandatory indefinite military service using the same methods he did. The thought of this made Michael visibly upset.

I am very grateful that Michael and other refugees were open to sharing their personal stories. The organizers hoped that by sharing these experiences and exposing the abuse committed by the regime, they could give a voice to victims within Eritrea who are silenced. The government is determined to keep its victims silent through any means necessary, earning them the reputation as “Africa’s North Korea”. Free press and leaving the country is illegal. Foreign aid is refused. They imprison people within freight boxes in desert conditions with little food, water, and sanitation. The movement Yaikl is an attempt to call attention to these human rights abuses and prove to the Eritrean government that they will not be silent.

In Politics of Immigration, we have started to study how and why people migrate. By looking at the reason Eritrean refugees have fled their home country, I am able to connect individual stories to the large trends we are studying. This is a valuable action because it humanizes the issue. I will continue to attend events like this and interact with different kinds of migrants in order to make sure I connect the content I learn with the perspective of the migrants. I think it is unfair to study the topic if you do not hear their side of the story.

The following are pictures I took of the speakers at the event:

   

Honors and Scholars Wellness Workshop Reflection

On Sunday January 26th from 4pm-6pm I attended the Honors and Scholars Wellness Workshop, as a professional development event. At this workshop I learned about different areas of wellness and how I can improve my performance in them. For my first activity I learned about physical wellness pertaining to eating in a healthy way. Here, I made trail mix and learned about the benefits of the ingredients and what the proper serving sizes are. I even took home a small jar that holds one serving size of a snack. At my next activity, I learned about environmental wellness. This includes surrounding yourself with good influences and taking time to respect the Earth. Here, I took home a succulent plant to remind me to practice environmental wellness. Finally, I learned about mental wellness by practicing meditation and making vision boards.This is a professional development event because if you are not balanced and well, it will affect your ability to complete work and move on to the next step in completing your goals. 

I struggle with wellness and balancing important aspects of my life. I tend to prioritize my academics and time with family at the expense of my physical and mental health. At the end of last semester, I realized that I needed to shift my priorities and refocus on balance and wellness. I knew I needed to work on exercising consistently, eating healthy, and giving myself time to decompress. I have taken steps to do this including: working with a personal trainer 3 days a week, taking a boxing class 2 days a week, being more selective on the foods I eat, and setting aside time for me to sleep and do nothing. This reprioritization has made me feel healthier and decreased the effects of my anxiety disorder. The Honors and Scholars Wellness Workshop gave me an opportunity to evaluate the steps I’m taking and look at alternative actions. 

I will continue to work on my overall wellness and employ the strategies I learned at this workshop. In order to flourish in a professional setting, I need to ensure I am not neglecting other areas of my life. I am determined to be successful in my career and I am willing to work on myself in ways that are not related to family and academics in order to do so. 

Reflection of “Families Separated: ‘An Emotion History’ of Unaccompanied Jewish Refugee Youth, 1933-1945” lecture

I attended a campus event on Wednesday January 16th, 2019 at 12:45pm in Dulles Hall. It was a lecture by Dr. Danielle Derone that focused on“Families Separated: ‘An Emotion History’ of Unaccompanied Jewish Refugee Youth, 1933-1945”. Derone shared the emotions felt by German Jewish Refugee children as they traveled to America and were placed with foster families through a migration scheme orchestrated by the German Jewish Children’s Aid (GJCA) organization. This scheme brought 1,200 German Jewish youth, all under the age of 16, to the United States to escape Nazi rule. The process consisted of parents giving up custody, the children traveling across the Atlantic Ocean, and placing them with foster families.    

Derone’s lecture gave me insight into specific experiences and emotions expressed by refugees at the time. So far, in class we have not reached this level of detail in the story of migrants. We have been looking at things from a macro level in which data is reported on migrants, but not necessarily given by migrants. Their perspective seems to get lost at this level. This is the perspective I want to learn more about. 

I am happy I was able to attend Derone’s lecture on “Emotional History” and Sellman’s lecture on “Representing Forced Migration” within a day of each other. I think they both provided multiple lenses with which to view migration experiences. Derone shared the feelings recorded while the Jewish youth were at sea on their way to America. Some felt scared and homesick while others were excited for new freedoms and adventure. These stories were complemented by information shared by Sellman on the association of language used to describe migration and water.  Migration is often described as a flood or a wave. Sellman also focused on the role of the Mediterranean Sea in migration and the extreme danger it presents. Through their lectures, they both acknowledged the water as a pathway to opportunities and freedoms, while also representing uncertainty, loss, and danger. 

Derone and Sellman also challenged romanticism and assumptions. Derone challenged the notion that all of the Jewish refugees wanted to be reunited with their families. This was false because some teenagers preferred the freedom they experienced when they were separated from controlling or dis-functional family members. Other teenagers stayed with foster families because of access to resources like better educational opportunities. Additionally, Derone challenged the assumption that the Jewish children will want to be in the United States. In fact, many foster families expected to receive a child who was openly grateful and happy to be with them. Instead, some foster families received children who wanted to return to Germany or obtain visas for the rest of their family. The key thing to take away from these corrections are that the circumstances are complicated and each child has unique emotional reactions that do not always match our assumptions.

Sellman challenged the romanticism of exiled migrants in literature. The literature tends to portray them as brave, intellectual, and worldly. The exiled migrants are seen as independent and in control of their circumstances. In reality this is not the case for the majority of migrants who have been forced to flee because of economic hardship and political turmoil. Migration is not usually independent, it is generally a mass movement of people. 

Derone and Sellman spent most of their time detailing different parts of a migrant’s journey. Derone focused on what happened once the migrants reached their place of refuge and Sellman focused on the path taken to get there. Derone explained the feelings Jewish children experienced when they settled in the United States. They had varying levels of emotional detachment and drive to take advantage of all the opportunities presented to them. Sellman explained the pain, dread, and fear felt as migrants attempted to cross the barrier and seek refuge. 

In conclusion, the lectures by Derode and Sellman introduced me to unique ways of looking at migration. I am excited to continue gathering and comparing additional perspectives on this topic. In addition, I hope that during the Politics of Immigration course I am taking this semester I will have the chance to examine the relationship between statistics and individual stories through micro and macro approaches to the issue.