“A refugee is someone who owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
– United Nations Refugee Agency
Refugee crises have made headlines over the past couple of years at a rapid fire rate. Syria’s six-year-long civil war is the story we’re all at least semi-aware of, but there are also refugee crises in Yemen, Central Africa, South Sudan (where a disastrous famine is imminent), and Iraq. People are fleeing war and persecution for safer shores. Once they arrive, the struggle isn’t over — they need jobs, homes, and opportunities.
In order to help, one Berkley company is taking in as many refugees as they can and training them to make coffee. 1951 Coffee Company pulled its name from the 1951 UN convention which created the UNHCR and set out protections and laws to deal with refugees around the world. As a non-profit, the coffee house’s aim is to “promote the well-being of the refugee community in the San Francisco Bay Area by providing job training and employment.”
This seems pretty straight-forward and all-in-all a good thing.
They also want to help remold American’s perception of refugees and asylum seekers by “educating the surrounding community about refugee life and issues.” Which is a tough sell given the current political climate of fear — compounded by a White House that wants to completely end refugee entrance to many of the people who are at the highest risk of death without sanctuary.
Since 2007, between 50,000 and 85,000 refugees have successfully sought safety in the United States per year. This is way, way down from its high at 200,000+ refugees who were admitted in first years of the 1980s. It’s even down from the early 1990s averages of around 100,000 people per year. That can largely be attributed to the fact that the U.S.A. has one of the most stringent and draconian processes already in place for refugee entry. Over the past decade the largest numbers of refugees coming to the US are from Burma (159,692 people). And the Democratic Republic of Congo represented the largest number of refugees allowed entry into the U.S.A. in 2016 (16,370 people). The plan still on the books (much to Donald Trump’s chagrin) would see 110,000 refugees admitted in 2017.
With a nation of nearly 350,000,000 people spread across one of the largest (and least densely populated) countries on earth, these numbers are mere drops in the bucket in a grand scheme of things. Of course, it’s worth noting that Americans have always had problems accepting refugees.
Overall companies like 1951 Coffee Company seem to get that the death-defying journeys that most refugees endure to save their own lives (and their children’s lives) to get to America’s shores mean something. And their plan is to make those peoples’ transition into American life and the American market as easy and successful as possible. Hopefully we can all get behind that.
(Via Fastcoexist.com)
