Who Are Refugees?

Refugee's are people who were forced out of their home country due to violence and/or persecution.

When these families start the application process to come to America (or whatever other country will accept them), they go to the Resettlement Support Center (RSC).

Resettlement Support Center (RSC): is an entity funded by the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State to prepare the paperwork on refugee cases before the refugees are interviewed by officials from the Department of Homeland Security's United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. (https://definitions.uslegal.com/r/resettlement-support-center-rsc/)

Undocumented Immigrant: a foreign-born person who doesn’t have a legal right to be or remain in the United States.&nbsp;

The USCIS helps our new friends coming in, find a new place to live. They give them a small orientation on what it is like to live in a new place. That way when the come to their new house, they are not scared or shocked by what they see!

Refugees can be you or they can be me but most importantly, they are people.

They are people who came into the United States legally. Every person who is a refugee had to go through the screening process.

Refugees are normal people! They do everything that we do, the only difference is that they were not born in America!

Rachael Swimley is a junior at the University of Montana Western. After living in Bozeman Montana, she moved to Dillon to study elementary education. She is very excited to write this book and to be collaborating with Shelby Austin with this book.

Shelby Austin is a freshman at the University of Montana Western. Born in Helena Montana, she is in Dillon studying elementary education. Rachael met Shelby in 2018 and they have been inseparable ever since. Rachael is very excited that Shelby said yes to collaborating with this project

Written by: Rachael Swimley Illustrated by: Shelby Austin&nbsp;

It is finally time! Our new neighbors are ready to come and live with us. In 2017 when the travel ban was lifted, people from all over the city of Boise, Idaho came in to greet those who were moving to the United States.

*The photographer of the photos on these pages is Madeline Scott. These photos are from her gallery called THE LUCKY ONES. She was asked to come take photos when these refugees were first coming into Boise, Idaho. She captured many reactions to people coming into the United States for the first time.

Sometimes, families are reunited in the United States. This picture above shows a mother and son being reunited after many years and how many emotions are going through the people at this moment.

-https://www.unrefugees.org/refugee-facts/what-is-a-refugee/

-https://www.state.gov/j/prm/ra/admissions/

-https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/who-is-undocumented-immigrant.html

Thank you for reading my book! I hope you enjoyed it! Much love! --Rachael Swimley

The RSC collects data and conducts interviews to those people who need to get out of their bad situations.

After getting help from the RSC, then the Officers from the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) help those who are coming into the new country.

This book, Who Are Refugees?, was created as an idea to get the understanding of the difference between refugee's and undocumented immigrants. In today's society American's have a skewed view of this subject because it is not taught in many schools. Refugee's have been through an admission process (https://www.state.gov/j/prm/ra/admissions/) to get into the United States.

Refugee: "A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence." (UNHCR)

Persecute: to harass or punish in a manner designed to injure, grieve, or afflict specifically&nbsp;:&nbsp;to cause to suffer because of belief

Refugees go through a screening process through the US government. This shows if the refugees are prepared to go through the process of moving out of their country to our country. I do want to mention that not all refugees move to the United States, they move to any country that will accept them. 

We need to realize that moving into a new country is scary for these people because of the way some people are acting. We need to not be disrespectful to those who are coming into our country because they are now legal citizens.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services&nbsp;(USCIS) is the federal agency that oversees lawful&nbsp;immigration to the&nbsp;United States. We are a component of the Department of Homeland Security. Individuals who wish to become&nbsp;U.S. citizens&nbsp;through&nbsp;naturalization submit their applications to USCIS.