Wednesday November 18, 2015
By Sonia Gutierrez
Columbia, SC -- As the debate over allowing Syrian refugees to come to the Palmetto state continues, a Somali refugee who settled in Columbia in 2005 talks about what it means to be an immigrant looking for a new home.
"Conflict of a refugee resettlement isn’t anything new to the Midlands area" said Breana Grace, an Associate Professor with the University of South Carolina and refugee expert.
She says there’s been about 120 people resettled each year in South Carolina for the past 5 years.
In 2004 South Carolina was debating Somali refugee resettlement. "There were concerns that they wouldn’t be able to integrate to the community and in fact the opposite is true" said Grace.
To the concerns about religion, Muslims and terrorism that were raised then, Grace has one thing to say, "modern U.S. resettlement started in 1980 in this country and no refugee has ever committed an act of terrorism in the United States".
The U.S. refugee process takes 18-24 months and it includes extensive background checks.
For those who did resettle here from Somalia, Brieanna says their experience has been pretty normal. "In fact onw of the young Somali Bantu kids who grew up here ultimately graduated from high school and now he’s double majoring in engineering and math" said Grace.
Aden Sadik Mabruk came to Columbia in February of 2005. "I wasn’t even aware of the fact that we weren’t even wanted here" said Mabruk.
He says many of the people he arrived with are now in other states, including his parents. "Many got terrified of the situation so they decided to move where there are other Somali’s so that they can get help" said Mabruk.
He was left with what he calls, his American family, "a lot of the Somali people lost their sponsor but I didn’t lose my sponsor in fact my sponsor made a promise to my mother that until I graduate they will look after me" said Mabruk.
He considers himself very lucky for that.
"A lot of people would say I’m excelling, I’m not so sure about how much I’m excelling but I'm just an individual who’s trying really hard to get where they want to get" said Mabruk.
Breanna Grace says Muslim refugees were able to integrate without a problem and now the debate over Syrian refugees has become more of a political issue because most of them are at the beginning stages of the resettlement process.
"In reality there are very few Syrians coming to the U.S. and a lot of that has to do with the length of time that it takes to process" she said. "A lot of people who are fleeing from Syria haven’t been in camps long enough to be adequately placed to be proceed from the U.S. government".