#1439 Power, Policies and Prejudice in a World of Refugees
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 September 2021
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 9/4/2021
Today we take a look at the slow motion disaster that is the worldwide refugee crisis. We start with the recent focus on Afghan refugees fleeing their country in the wake of America's 20-year war before expanding the view to American and European policies toward asylum-seekers from around the world.
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SHOW NOTES
President Joe Biden has allocated $500 million in new funds for relocating Afghan refugees following the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. The U.S. had already vowed to help evacuate over 80,000 Afghan civilians
We speak with Minnesota Congressmember Ilhan Omar about her memoir “This Is What America Looks Like,” the Biden administration’s recent airstrikes in her birth country of Somalia and why the U.S. must remain a country of refuge for people fleeing war
Ch. 3: ‘Desperation And Frustration’: Rep. Omar Reacts To The Biden Refugee Cap - All In - Air Date 4-19-21
“It’s with desperation and frustration that we are speaking out against the Biden administration in their backtracking on this. We do applaud them for changing course, and we just want to make sure they follow through with clear communication.”
Ch. 4: Why seeking asylum in America is so difficult - Vox - Air Date 7-12-18
America has led the world in refugee resettlement for 15 years, but asylum cases have pushed political tempers to a tipping point.
Ch. 5: Green Thinking: Climate and Refugees - Arts & Ideas - 6-15-21
What role do museums and heritage organisations have to play in the climate emergency? How do we stop cultural and historical landmarks from falling into the sea, or is it time to learn to say goodbye?
Ch. 6: This is the worlds deadliest border - Vox - Air Date 5-14-15
Nearly 2,000 migrants have perished in the Mediterranean so far this year. Vox's Dara Lind explains why.
Ch. 7: Death toll surges as migrants try to reach Europe - PBS NewsHour - Air Date 11-27-20
There’s been a surge in the numbers of people drowning in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean as migrants from Africa try to reach Europe. Activist groups are blaming European Union policies for their deaths.
In which John Green discusses the Syrian refugee crisis and the growing number of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, and Eritrea crossing the sea with the help of smugglers to seek refuge in European Union nations.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 9: Red State Refugees - The Documentary Podcast - Air Date 8-25-20
President Trump has dramatically reduced the numbers of refugees arriving in the United States, vowing to protect native-born Americans’ interests. But there’s a catch - some of the nation’s reddest communities may not survive without them.
Ch. 10: The Cycles of Trauma for Vietnamese Americans - In The Thick - Air Date 7-23-19
More than forty years after the Vietnam war, Vietnamese refugees are being deported under Trump's immigration policies.
VOICEMAILS
Ch. 11: New listener - Mike from Texas
Ch. 12: Misplaced focus on Manchin - Dan from Greenville, SC
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 13: Final comments on theories of change whether you want them or not
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions)
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award-winning Best of Left Podcast in which we shall take |
| 0:07.2 | a look at the slow motion disaster that is the worldwide refugee crisis. We start with |
| 0:13.0 | the recent focus on Afghan refugees fleeing their country in the wake of America's 20-year |
| 0:18.0 | war before expanding the view to American and European policies toward asylum seekers |
| 0:24.2 | from around the world. Clips today are from Democracy Now, all in with Chris Hayes, Vox, |
| 0:30.8 | Art and Ideas, the PBS NewsHour, Vlog Brothers, the documentary podcast, and in the thick. |
| 0:45.0 | In response to the Taliban's takeover Afghanistan, President Biden's allocated half a billion |
| 0:50.4 | dollars in new funds for relocating Afghan refugees, including those who applied for special |
| 0:59.0 | immigrant visas, known as SIVs. The U.S. had already vowed to help evacuate over 80,000 |
| 1:05.3 | Afghan civilians who qualify for these visas and risk retribution from the Taliban, |
| 1:10.4 | such as translators and interpreters for the U.S. military or NATO. There's already a |
| 1:14.9 | backlog of more than 17,000 Afghan nationals, 53,000 of their family members awaiting visa approval. |
| 1:21.7 | For more, we go to Manoj Gavindaya. He is the director of policy and government affairs at the |
| 1:27.1 | refugee and immigrant center for educational legal services known as Rhaesis, which has resettled |
| 1:32.8 | more than 600 Afghan refugees since 2017, including 116 this year, among them 79 kids and a family |
| 1:41.1 | of 10 just last night. Welcome to Democracy Now Manoj, a start off by saying what is happening. |
| 1:47.2 | You're talking about hundreds. The number of people who are trying to get out of Afghanistan right |
| 1:52.8 | now are in the thousands, perhaps the tens of thousands. Thank you so much for having me, Amy. |
| 2:01.2 | Yeah, I mean, we are talking about thousands of people who are trying to flee Afghanistan. |
| 2:07.1 | About 18 to 20,000 have applied for something called Special Immigrant Visas, SIVs, which are |
| 2:13.8 | available to Afghan citizens who provided valuable and faithful service to the United States |
| 2:21.4 | government or contractors to support their efforts during the U.S. led war. |
... |
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