I know what it's like to flee my house in the middle of the night, with almost nothing. I know the panic of danger, and the urgent need to get everybody out. And I know how hard it is to leave your own house, a house you lived in for years, because you can't find a way out.
No I am not a refugee.
Yes I do know.
What I was fleeing was: fire. One of our doors had a fire blocking it, another was frozen shut because we never use it, and our escape ended up being a window. It was -47 C (-52 C with windchill), outside, and being outside in nothing but pyjamas wasn't very safe, but it was safer than staying inside with the flames.
I know what it's like to flee into the middle of the night, and not know where you're going, only that you have to leave. I know what's like to lose everything, but still be thankful that every living thing survived.
And that is one of the reasons I'm thankful that Canada is supporting 25,000 refugees.
I have other reasons. When we were fleeing the fire, I grabbed my purse and my mother's purse, because I worked with somebody who was a refugee. I'd heard how difficult it is to prove who you are, without an ID, and I wasn't going to be in that difficult situation of trying to prove I lived in the house that burned down.
It took us 9 months to work through the insurance, get our house rebuilt and move back in and then another 2 years of court cases to get everything settled.
And I wasn't a refugee. I didn't have to move to another country, live in a refugee camp, risk my live, or learn a new language. And still the wounds of that fire still hurt. It's been almost 5 years and I still don't trust. My home is not a place of safety anymore. It's a place of hurt and danger. I don't know if I'll ever feel save again, because I know now that anything can happen to me, even at home, where I once felt safe.
The refugees must feel that way too. They didn't flee a fire, they fled bombings and gunfire. Unlike my family, they didn't get a chance to go home. If they don't get refugee status in some country, they will not belong to any country. They will never be able to even have a chance to feel safe again, if we don't allow them to come to Canada.
Recently I saw a picture on twitter, of a home that was ready for a new refugee family. It looked a lot like the furnished home, that the insurance agency settled us in, while our home was rebuilt. I remembered how thankful I was that there were homes, available to those that had nothing because of fire. Everything was in that house, including dish washer detergent. We were given $50 each to buy clothing. I lived with one pair of jeans, one t-shirts, one jacket, one pair of shoes and several pairs of underwear and socks for 9 months. It it wasn't that hard to live with next to nothing.
I wonder if that's how the refugees feel?
There are other reasons that I believe refugees should be welcomed in Canada, and maybe I'll share those reasons with you at another time, but right now, this is what I'm sharing.
I don't know what it's like to be a refugee but I can imagine that it must be even scarier than fleeing from a burning house, because at least we had insurance, and we knew that eventually things would be replaced. Refugees don't know that. They truly have nothing, not even statehood, if we don't give it to them.
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