The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic minority who have lived in Myanmar for many generations. Despite that, they are not recognized as an official ethnic group and have been denied citizenship, making them the world’s largest stateless population. Following serious human rights violations and violent military crackdowns in Myanmar’s Rakhine State in August 2017, over 750,000 Rohingya fled to Bangladesh and joined the previous waves of Rohingya refugees who fled the country in the 1970s and 1990s. Today, nearly one million Rohingya refugees live in Bangladesh. A majority of them live in the Cox’s Bazar region, which is home to Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee camp (UNHCR, 2023).
How a Boat Carrying Refugees and a Submarine Carrying Millionaires Demonstrated Socioeconomic Inequality on a Global Scale
Perhaps one of the most quintessential and endlessly-fascinating philosophical debates arises from the so-called “Trolley Problem”. Created by British philosopher Philippa Foot in 1967, it involves a person making the seemingly impossible decision of who to kill given a set of two options and their presence on a trolley that is unable to stop before striking whichever person they choose to die (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2021). While in most cases, the decision is rather straightforward, such as choosing to let 750 people live instead of only 5, the level of difficulty of this task can vary with different factors added in.
Anti-Immigrant Legislation in Florida: How it Impacts Everyone
In the current refugee and immigration crisis fueled by war, hatred, greed, and nationalism, it is no secret that Florida has become a hub for those suffering displacement. Studies from 2021 presented that of the 21.3 million people living in Florida, an estimated 8%, or roughly 1.8 million people, are immigrants. This number encapsulates refugees, asylum-seekers, citizen immigrants, and undocumented individuals.
Lack of Inclusive Education for Disabled Refugee Children
All refugees below the age of eighteen are entitled to an education by international law (Schorchit, 2017). However, providing education to refugee populations is a challenging task, especially when many refugee-populated geographic areas around the world lack access to volunteers, education materials, and funding. Although advocacy efforts around the world try to push for high quality education in refugee camps and communities, there are significant populations of refugee children who are not enrolled in any kind of educational program. About half of the world’s refugee children are out of schools as access to schooling becomes very difficult during national conflict.
The Pandemic and How it Fueled a Tutoring Evolution
It has been 18 months since the pandemic forced us to shut down our regular operations. During that time of panic and confusion, the previous Education Director and her team were able to come up with our online tutoring format. Within 2 months she had set up a website, a google classroom, as well as a tutoring committee in order to launch our tutoring services in a safe and effective manner. At the time, I was a freshman. I had joined GRMR just 2 months before and fell in love with the activities and the culture. The best part of working with GRMR, was meeting the students, and getting to know their different personalities. The community was so lively…
Mental Health Issues Affecting Refugees
Refugees face exceedingly difficult circumstances and experience trauma in their home countries before and during the process of migration, in refugee camps, and during resettlement. These psychological stressors greatly increase the risk of suffering from numerous mental health issues. The traumatic events experienced vary widely but can include social upheaval, sexual violence, witnessing or experiencing murder and genocide, loss of loved ones, fear over lack of safety, and food or resource insecurity, among other events. In addition to experiencing trauma, the risk of mental health issues is also increased by the delayed asylum application process, detention, and a loss of culture and support.
Up to half of the world’s refugees are in “protracted” situations, meaning unstable and insecure situations like dense urban areas or refugee camps, which contributes to both the incidence of psychological stressors for these refugees, as well as the lack of access to proper care. Recent studies have shown that the post-migration environment that refugees are in can exasperate mental health problems. Conditions of adversity, prolonged detention, insecure residency, the refugee determination process, restricted access to services, and lack of employment or educational opportunities can compound the effects of past traumas.
The most common mental health diagnoses in refugee populations are…