The word refugees and the term asylum seekers do not mean the same
thing. However, people seem to use them interchangeably. So in
today's issue we will correct this and define what each term means.
Refugees and Asylum seekers: A refugee is an individual or group of
individuals seeking to escape a conflict or national disaster. However,
while aid is given, they are not expected to stay in the country they are
escaping too. They stay till the conflict ends, or the disaster area is
cleaned up and then they go home and rebuild from the ashes what they once had.
An example would be the nuclear disaster caused by the earthquake and
tsunami in Japan, where their own people were refugees in their own country
till the area was cleaned up enough for them to return to their homes.
Asylum seekers are different. While
it can be a single person or group, they seek to escape their country due to
penalty of death or persecution. In short, unless there is a revolution
or change in government, the asylum seeker can never, ever go home. As
such, they wish to live, potentially for the remainder of their lives, in their
now adopted country. These individuals are not like typical immigrants
who purposely want to leave, but are instead ultimately given the ultimatum of
leave or die.
Conclusion: With the refugee crises caused by
ISIS/ISIL we seem to be messing up who belongs in each category.
Christians, Jews, Gays and others who would be slaughtered by ISIS/ISIL are all
asylum seekers. They have been forced out by the threat of death.
The rest of the people leaving are Sunni Muslim and are just trying to
get out of the line of fire are refugees (ISIS/ISIL are Sunni Muslims).
Get it? Those who would be murdered are asylum seekers, and those
who would normally not be killed are refugees. Simple? Ok, maybe
not exactly, but you get the idea.
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