Refugee Quotes - Page 9

• The time has come to end the suffering and the plight of millions of Palestine refugees in the homeland and the Diaspora, to end their displacement and to realize their rights, some of them forced to take refuge more than once in different places of the world.

  Mahmoud Abbas

  Rights, Suffering, Different

  Transcript of Mahmoud Abbas Speech to the UN General Assembly, www.haaretz.com. September 23, 2011.

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• You believe what you want to believe. You see, you don't have to live like a refugee.

  Tom Petty

  Inspirational, Believe, Want

  Song: Refugee

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• When people go to a new country, whether as refugees or immigrants, kids usually assimilate easily, but it's much harder for the grownups. Especially, oftentimes, for the mothers, because they are usually confined to the house. They're not going to school, and they're not necessarily holding down a job. It's tough. It's not easy to assimilate to a new culture when you're an adult.

  Firoozeh Dumas

  Mother, Country, School

  Source: www.hbook.com

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• In my opinion, those politicians are making decisions based on calculations related to polling numbers and strategic political agendas. But if they are to talk about refugees in a human way - far from how this would affect their careers or individual comforts - and if they, for a second, look at a mother, sitting on a road somewhere, holding her children, shivering with cold, and crying because they are hungry, I'm sure there is a part of their humanity that would shiver.

  Yasmine Elmasri

  Mother, Children, Decision

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Every refugee finds his American dream on the backs of the nightmare of Black suffering in America.

  Louis Farrakhan

  Dream, Black, Suffering

  Source: www.finalcall.com

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• I would like to ask you all to see a ray of hope as well in the eyes and hearts of refugees and of those who have been forcibly displaced. A hope that is expressed in expectations for the future, in the desire for friendship, in the wish to participate in the host society also through learning the language, access to employment and the education of children. I admire the courage of those who hope to be able gradually to resume a normal life, waiting for joy and love to return to brighten their existence. We can and must all nourish this hope!

  Pope Francis

  Children, Eye, Heart

  Pope Francis' address to participants in the Plenary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People at the Clementine Hall, w2.vatican.va. May 24, 2013.

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• Syrian refugees are Trojan horses.

  Donald Trump

  Horse, Syrian Refugees, Trojans

  Sixth Republican top-tier debate, www.cbsnews.com. January 15, 2016.

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• On the screen I saw tanks rolling through dusty streets, and fallen buildings, and forests of unfamiliar trees into which East Pakistani refugees had fled, seeking safety over the Indian border.

  Jhumpa Lahiri

  Safety, Tree, Tanks

  Jhumpa Lahiri (2000). “Interpreter of Maladies”, p.31, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Over the last few years, Greece has been in the world spotlight for all the wrong reasons - because of its economic crisis, and then because of the refugees from Syria.

  Dakis Joannou

  World, Reason, Economic

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The largest weight is now on Germany's shoulders. Chancellor Merkel must continue to convince people of the EU's importance; she must spearhead the effort to redefine the EU. In order to do this, Germany must become a muscular democracy. It needs to shoulder far more responsibility for the physical security of Europe, especially Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean. So far, unfortunately, Germany has taken the lead in disrespecting Europe's borders by opening its doors to more than a million refugees and migrants.

  Anthony Glees

  Taken, Responsibility, People

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Why are all these refugees rushing to the beauty and strength of Europe and to the United States and not rushing to their own capitals or the capitals of the Muslim world? We ought to be pushing back. We ought to be putting people back on these boats and putting them back into the places where they came from and telling these leaders in the Arab world, "You have a responsibility as well."

  Michael T. Flynn

  Responsibility, People, Leader

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Only in America could a refugee girl from Central Europe become secretary of state.

  Madeleine Albright

  Girl, America, Europe

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• Modern man is a hard driven nomad without any stability, not (as the Bible has it) a wanderer or a pilgrim, but a refugee-an escapist. Instead of meditation and reflection there is only speed, fear and “distraction.

  Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

  Reflection, Men, Meditation

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• You bring up identity politics and I think that this is really causing a divide in the American left where we're rallying too much around identities. We should celebrate our heritage, we should organize by identity, but we shouldn't advocate and push for certain identities. We shouldn't talk about women suffrage, or plight of Muslims, or refugees; we should talk about our common American values.

  Sam Rasoul

  Thinking, Identity, Common

  "Sam Rasoul on Democracy, The Democratic Party and Identity". Interview With Amina Chaudary, www.theislamicmonthly.com. May 10, 2017.

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• I thought of New York as a free city, like one of those prewar nests of intrigue and licentiousness where exiles and lamsters and refugees found shelter in a tangle of improbable juxtapositions. I had never gotten around to changing my nationality from the one assigned me at birth, but I would have declared myself a citizen of New York City had such a stateless state existed, its flag a solid black.

  Luc Sante

  New York, Cities, Black

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• People feel that building a rocket for Mars is an exciting project, but if you see the refugees around the world and the millions of homeless people, then for me it's insulting that people are fantasizing about leaving planet Earth and going wherever.

  Pedro Reyes

  People, Leaving, Insulting

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• ...in the midst of migrants in search of a better life there are people in need of protection: refugees and asylum-seekers, women and children victims of trafficking...Many move simply to avoid dying of hunger. When leaving is not an option but a necessity, this is more than poverty.

  Antonio Guterres

  Children, Moving, People

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• I dont support terrorism and never have. As a Sri Lankan that fled war and bombings, my music is the voice of the civilian refugee.

  M.I.A.

  War, Voice, Support

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• I approached UNHCR because I believe in what the United Nations. I believe refugees are the most vulnerable people in the world. They are affected by everything, including landmines. They are vulnerable to everything.

  Angelina Jolie

  Believe, People, World

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• For a novelist, it’s kind of an onerous burden to represent an entire culture. That said, I’m in a unique position to speak on behalf of Afghanistan on certain issues that I feel are important, particularly the issue of Afghan refugees.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Unique, Issues, Important

  "Khaled Hosseini, Kabul’s Splendid Son". Interview with Michael Mechanic, www.motherjones.com. May, 2009.

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• While I was rapping I was always involved in youth work - I ran music workshops for teenagers and young offenders all the time and also ran a charity for refugee kids for a time.

  Doc Brown

  Teenager, Rap, Kids

  Source: www.comedy.co.uk

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• Australia will take more refugees from Syria in response to the growing international crisis but it will not increase the total number of asylum seekers it accepts.

  Tony Abbott

  Numbers, Australia, Asylum Seekers

  "Tony Abbott signals extending military campaign to Syria - politics live" by Katharine Murphy, www.theguardian.com. September 7, 2015.

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• The bottom line is that we've become a nation of thieves, a value rejected by our founders. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, was horrified when Congress appropriated $15,000 to help French refugees. He said, 'I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.' Tragically, today's Americans would run Madison out of town on a rail.

  Walter E. Williams

  Running, Father, Thieves

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• Nothing but physical impossibility, lack of space and money would make me close my doors to Allied refugees.

  Edith Cavell

  Doors, Space, Impossibility

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• I am sometimes sad when I hear the personal stories of Tibetan refugees who have been tortured or beaten. Some irritation, some anger comes. But it never lasts long. I always try to think at a deeper level, to find ways to console.

  Dalai Lama

  Thinking, Irritation, Long

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