125,000 Communities Strengthened
When I was seventeen I met Nhung, Hoan, and Hui. They had recently arrived from Vietnam to live with their aunt and uncle in the next town over. Nhung was the oldest, a year or two older than me. Her brothers were thirteen and fifteen. I tutored them in English on Saturday mornings at the town library in our New York suburb. Sometimes I helped them with their homework, but mostly we talked. Over the course of that year, my last one before I left home for college, their language improved and I got bits and pieces of their story. I remember that it was Hoan who introduced me to the phrase “to give up the ghost.” He was talking about one of his parents. I remember wallowing between wrapping my head around the unfamiliar idiom, and simultaneously grasping for how to offer condolences in a low voice among the stacks.
This was a long time ago — and while we wrote letters the first few years after I graduated high school, there was no social media and eventually we lost touch. When I think back to that last year of high school I think about my eagerness to leave home, to see something bigger. But I also remember being painfully aware of how privileged I was to be leaving home because I wanted to, to have that choice. Nhung and Hien and Hui taught me that, not in any one moment, but over the course of our mornings together.
Yesterday my heart skipped a beat to read that not only will the Biden administration be upping their annual refugee admissions cap to 125,000, they’ll be prioritizing a community sponsorship model in practice here in Canada where I now live. In Canada, any five individuals can come together to sponsor a refugee directly. My neighbors and I formed a group just over a year ago, back when we could meet for lasagne and salad and wine and strategy while the kids watched The Good Place in the basement.
The two young men we are sponsoring are still in limbo waiting for their paperwork to be processed. Their English is strong — I won’t need to be doing any Saturday morning tutoring. But I look forward to getting to know them over meals and hot drinks together. I’m thrilled that not only will an additional 125,000 individuals have the opportunity to make it to U.S. soil next year, but that millions of people in their host communities will benefit by welcoming them. There’s nothing like getting to know someone from a different part of the world to make you understand your own a bit better.
