4/8/19 Miry Whitehill of "Miry's List"

On the 8th of April, both during my International Relations class (and then later during Community Time in the library), I had the distinct pleasure of hearing from Miry Whitehill, founder of Miry's List. Miry's List, which Ms. Whitehill unofficially started back in 2016, is a self-described community of volunteers across the Southern California region, which helps newly arrived refugees more comfortably adjust to their new lives in the U.S. While the Community Time meeting with Ms. Whitehill was more of a lecture, our IR class time was spent dialoguing with her directly, and the information that she shared was almost entirely new to me.
To start off the conversation, Miry suggested that we go around the room and each name one thing that makes us feel at home. After the exercise, she expertly related the comforts of a refugee with the everyday comforts of an American teenager; everyone just wants to feel safe, and at home. (Throughout the time we spent with Miry, it was obvious that she was especially conscious of the language she was using with us. As she explained later, she has started paying special attention to how she describes and speaks about refugees and immigrants. She is dedicated to using, as she calls it, "people first" language, which empowers and humanizes its subjects. An example of this would be using "new neighbor/new arrival" vs. "displaced person," or "alien.") From here, Miry gave us a brief run-down of the current refugee resettlement program in place in the U.S., which is made up of 9 (NINE!) private resettlement agencies that are under contract with the federal government. She spoke of overwhelmed and overburdened case workers, a system designed purely to help immigrants survive, and families whose needs are ritually overlooked. According to Miry, "refugees are always expected to be grateful." This, she explains, is not the case, and shouldn't be an assumption of ours. In the Middle East, it takes anywhere from 2-5 years for a refugee's status to be approved, and only then can they officially move to the U.S. In some African countries, it can take up to ten years. After all this time spent away from home, away from family, away from familiarity, refugees might not have time to be grateful; it's more important to treat a refugee as a neighbor than as a person who needs to be saved.