TNAG-1537-FCO40-2101-Hong-Kong-Vietnamese-refugees-resettlement-in-third-countri-1986 — Page 96

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Current Policy No. 847

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RECEIVED REGISTRY

Robert Funseth

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HKK 439 Refugee Resettlement in 7

the Heartland of America

30 SEP 1986

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United States Department of State Bureau of Public Affairs Washington, D.C.

Following is an address by Robert Funseth, Senior Deputy Assistant Secretary for Refugee Programs, at the Multi-State Refugee Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, June 4, 1986.

My message to you this morning is that refugees still need the hospitality of the heartland of America and that this heartland still needs to experience the enrich.nent the refugees' presence brings to its daily life.

America's heartland has been the biblical "good land” of the Old Testament for millions of refugees-for your grandparents and mine in the 1880s and for those that followed them in the 1980s.

This conference comes on the occa- sion of two centennials: one nation- wide-the national celebration on the Fourth of July of the unveiling 100 years ago, in 1886, of the Statue of Liberty; and the other a very personal celebration for me-the arrival 100 years ago, in June 1886, of my grandparents, Karl and Kristina, to this heartland from Sweden's northland. (They home- steaded in northern Minnesota, where they were among the pioneers who set- tled in the area around the present town of Roseau.)

We Americans-especially those familiar with the settlement of this part of the country-have a profound under- standing of what it can mean to pull up roots in one land and of what a heart- wrenching experience it can often be to transplant them in a new land. Vilhelm Moberg, the author of The Emigrants, captured this theme in his saga about the resettlement in this heartland of a Swedish emigrant husband and wife, also named Karl and Kristina, in the middle of the last century. Moberg's Kristina-like so many who followed in her footsteps since-was gripped by a longing for her home in Sweden and could only find relief by reminding her- self that:

..her children would never have to go through the pain of longing which she now went through. [H]er longing would never af- flict them, no vivid memories from a past life

in another country would plague them. Once they were grown they would never know any other life than the one lived here. [H]er chil- dren and her children's children would never, as she did, remember trees and bushes they had planted in a far-off land, they would not ask, Do they still bud and bloom in spring, do they carry their fruit in fall? They would never, as she did, lie awake nights and gaze into the dark for that land where spring evenings are light.

The ones she had borne into the world, and the ones they in turn would bear, would from the beginning of their lives say what her own tongue was unable to say: At home here in America-back there in Sweden.

There are still Karls and Kristinas coming into your midst in this heart- land, escaping to this good land from Indochina, Afghanistan, Africa, Latin America, Iran, the Soviet Union, and Eastern Europe.

There are still Kristinas among you-who suffer silently the pain of longing for a home forever lost-who need your understanding and patience.

There are still children of these Karls and Kristinas among you who need your guidance and patience to make them truly feel at home here in America.

This is the challenge and opportu- nity that the Statue of Liberty symbol- izes for us today and as we move toward refugee resettlement in the heartland and elsewhere in America in the 1990s.

U.S. Refugee Program: A National Effort

We strive in the Department of State to represent all of you-for America's refu- gee program is truly a national effort- seeking to achieve a humanitarian goal.

The Refugee Act-our national charter for the refugee program- adopted into law in 1980, defined this coal as follows:

The Congress declares that it is the historic policy of the United States to respond to the urgent needs of persons sub-

ject to persecution in their homelands, includ- ing, where appropriate, humanitarian assistance for their care and maintenance in asylum areas, efforts to promote opportuni- ties for resettlement or voluntary repatria- tion, aid for necessary transportation and processing, admission to this country of refu. gees of special humanitarian concern to the United States, and transitional assistance to refugees in the United States. The Congress further declares that it is the policy of the United States to encourage all nations to pro- vide assistance and resettlement opportuni. ties to refugees to the fullest extent possible.

The objectives of this Act are to provide a permanent and systematic procedure for the admission to this country of refugees of special humanitarian concern to the United States, and to provide comprehensive and uniform provisions for the effective resettle- ment and absorption of those refugees who are admitted.

This is the goal of the President; this is the goal of the Congress; and this is the goal of the American people.

Refugees Need the Heartland

I believe President Reagan had this heartland in mind-this land of his roots-when he declared:

Some believe the wellspring of American generosity is running dry. Nothing could be further from the truth. The drive of our peo- ple to assist refugees in need overseas and to resettle those who need it is an integral part of the American ethic. I am convinced that with God's help we will continue to meet our responsibilities to the world's refugees.

Whether we speak of the sponsor- ship committee of a church in the Dako- tas helping a refugee family feel at home in America or one of the hundreds of English tutors in Iowa who volunteer their time-such personal commitments by individual Americans are what has made refugee resettlement so successful in this part of our country. Wherever the future lives of these refugees may take them-I assure you-the memory of your first extended hands of help and hospitality here in the heartland will remain with them forever.