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Barbara Didrichsen's avatar

A good friend of mine created the Columbus Crossing Borders art project/film several years ago (https://www.columbuscrossingbordersproject.com/about.html). It's one of the most profoundly moving experiences I've had to bring home the reality about what it's like to be a refugee.

Artists worked collaboratively with their neighboring partner to "cross over" some elements of each painting into their partner's. Some of the artists were refugees, themselves. This happened during the height of the Syrian refugee crisis, and during the Trump administration, when there was a lot of ugly rhetoric about, and policies toward, refugees. But the art created and the refugees featured in the film helped open up a conversation that would not have happened otherwise.

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Diana B.'s avatar

Thank you for this deep and thoughtful article!

No one wants to flee their country: poverty and war are the biggest drivers of refugee flows. But, most immigration research centers point to the positive influence of immigration on America, and to the empty, depopulated states in many parts of the country - everyone fled to the city in these states. They welcome New Americans. Immigrants pay taxes, generate new businesses, and succeed in every way.

Let's look instead at the arms market profiteers that profit off war, jumping for joy that they can sell more missiles. And at the military industrial complex around the world just itching to spread nuclear weapons through proliferation.

About refugees, with all due respect, this statement below in the comment section is not at all correct. Citation for this? "...And the Census Bureau projects that over the next four decades, the population will increase by nearly 80 million--equivalent to four New York States--90% of that from immigration. "

President Eisenhower : Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.

As Barney Frank said, Unless you are speaking Navajo, you are from somewhere else.

https://bangordailynews.com/2022/02/22/opinion/opinion-contributor/america-cannot-forget-those-left-behind-in-afghanistan/

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