“The relocation of peoples has ignited and disrupted the idea of home and expanded the focus of identity beyond definitions of citizenship to clarifications of foreignness.”
Toni Morrison
Meet Syrians caught in one of the biggest upheavals in nine years of war
A Syrian woman uses olive branches as firewood to cook in a makeshift camp on the outskirts of Qah, a village in northern Idlib .
Home to four million civilians, northwest Syria is in the midst of a humanitarian catastrophe. Intense fighting in Idlib has forced 950,000 people to flee since December 1. More than 50 percent have been women and children. Many of these families had fled the area previously during earlier waves of violence.
Read the full story: International Rescue Committee
Tent
In the refugee camp in Larissa, Greece, tents double as climbing frames: Doctors of the World UK
Jennifer Ballengee
There are currently 65.3 million forcibly displaced people in the world—the highest number ever on record. Over 20 million of these people are recognized by the United Nations as refugees of war. Millions of these people live in tents—fields of tents, small cities of tents, in official refugee camps run by UNHCR, government organizations, or non-profits, or in “unofficial” groups of tents by the side of the road, just outside of a port, gathered under a highway bridge, in an airport, on an abandoned Olympic soccer field.
The global lost: 56,800 migrants dead and missing in 4 years
Read the full story: The Associated Press
Remembering the Deportees
Mexico–United States barrier at the border of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, USA. The crosses represent migrants who died in the crossing attempt. Some identified, some not. Tomas Castelazo
Paul Miers
Given the U.S. government’s new policy of deporting legal asylum seekers at the Mexican border, we should remember the deportees whose deaths led Woody Guthrie to write “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos” in 1948.
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“I Have Become Lost Like My Homeland”
One refugee’s firsthand account of his family’s harrowing journey from Syria to Europe.
- Read the full story: Slate.
‘I’m A Survivor Of Violence’: Portraits Of Women Waiting In Mexico For U.S. Asylum
“Hitting a woman for a man is as normal as eating a tortilla from a food stand on the way to work,” said Karen Paz, 34, from San Pedro Sula in Honduras, revealing a scar from a burn on her left shoulder. “He wanted to burn my face, but my daughter started screaming when she saw him taking the pan with boiling butter. She pushed him, and so he aimed for the arm instead.”
- Read the full story: The Picture Show – NPR
Voices From the Caravan: Why These Honduran Migrants Are Heading North
For days they have traveled north from their homes in Honduras, walking, taking buses and hitching rides in cars and trucks. They have carried only the essentials in small bags and knapsacks.
- Read the full story: The New York Times
‘The Jungle’ Tells The Stories Inside A Real Refugee Camp In Northern France
Ahmad and Ghobsheh herald from predominantly Muslim countries whose residents are barred from coming to the U.S. under President Trump’s travel ban. Ahmad is from Syria, Ghobsheh from Iran. Both are members of The Jungle cast, a play that received near universal critical acclaim when it debuted at the Young Vic theater in London.
Over There We Think That Here Everything is Easy
Roberto, 17, Honduras
In my country you can call the police but they never come. We have a saying about them: “Why are you going to call the thieves?” People regard them as thieves because instead of helping us, they take things from us… there’s very little security.
- Read the full story: New American Story Project
Home and the Human is supported by the Martha A. Mitten Endowment in the College of Liberal Arts at Towson University