A day for the displaced

In the fiery debate over immigration — both illegal and legal — one group of people often gets lost in the fireworks: the refugees.

Immigrants are moving toward something. They have their eyes on the future. Refugees, on the other hand, are fleeing. The hound at their heels may be an advancing war, a political rival or even a natural disaster. And that makes the plight of refugees all the more harrowing and desperate.

For such reasons, the International Rescue Committee and the United Nations have set aside today — June 20 — as World Refugee Day. The point is to highlight the refugees' courage. But first, one must come to grips with their sheer numbers.

According to Refugees International, some 23 nations in the world are currently dealing with a refugee crisis. Some of the countries with refugee woes have been in the news — Sudan, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan. Others, such as the Dominican Republic and Colombia in our own hemisphere, exist under the radar. But the sheer numbers are truly staggering. In Pakistan, where the army is currently trying to cleanse villages of rebel forces, some 2.5 million people have been displaced. In Myanmar, that number is 3.5 million.

Closer to home, about 50,000 refugees come to the United States each year. Some 700 of those end up in Utah, usually in the Salt Lake Valley. That doesn't sound like a lot, until you start adding the numbers over a 10-year period. And according to the Center for Public Policy & Administration at the University of Utah, refugees here continue to struggle with the same problems year after year. Their challenges come from all across the board — from a lack of federal funding and a shortage of housing to a paucity of employment, harried caseworkers and a lack of enough income to even maintain a sanitary home.

The center has several suggestions for helping out. Its list includes exploring "mentoring" possibilities, more productive English classes and impressing on refugee children the need to gain skills to support future generations. Other suggestions abound.

This being World Refugee Day, we urge readers to visit the center's Web site (www.cppa.utah.edu) to learn more about the people of the world who have fled devastation and have chosen Utah as their place of safety.