America’s Ethical Commitment to Sustaining Refugees and National Health

Refugees and the health of a country may seem like two ideas at odds with one another. The word refugee conjures war, poverty, widowed mothers and orphaned babies; a country that creates refugees – people who have to cross an international border because they fear for their lives – is far from a healthy one. On the other side are the several countries that take in refugees as their own, providing socially responsible assistance, a new healthy start and a path to citizenship for people that have been forced from their homes and cannot return. By doing so, these countries are indicating their national commitment to the pursuit of health in terms social progress, openness, sustainability and human caring.

Providing Those Disadvantages and Persecuted With A New Home

Since 1980, when the United States Refugee Act was passed, over 3 million refugees have been resettled to the U.S. from around the world. They are Somalis, Iraqis, Colombians, Burmese, and many others. They now call places like Minneapolis, Seattle and Atlanta home. What does this say about the country that gave more than 3 million of the world’s most disadvantaged and persecuted people a new home, not because it had to, but because it wanted to? At the very least, it says that socially conscious Americans have the ability to care deeply.

Success Is Determined By The Quality Of Integration

While the U.S. resettlement is a government-funded endeavor, with a set intake quota each year, the process is followed through on a community level. When a refugee family arrives in the U.S., someone is there waiting for them at the airport. Someone is there to show them their new apartment, accompany them to doctors’ appointments, help them apply for jobs. It is individuals, families, and non-profit organizations that support refugee families and form the basis of a receptive and welcoming healthy community. This healthy community spirit, and for such a large-scale government program, has truly been the key to its success over the last 30 years. That success is shown by the fact that the United States resettles more refugees annually than all other countries combined, and of course through the many individual stories of resettled refugees in America.

More than just evidence of caring, the longstanding commitment to refugees in the United States demonstrates a variety of other values and abilities: social responsibility, coordinated and organized resources, and an investment in the future and sustainability of the country. Regardless of what health means to each American personally, these values all are essential to good health on a national level, and are all qualities that I would bet were missing in the countries that refugees fled in the first place.

With all the health concerns facing the country both on a national and personal level – obesity, unemployment, smoking, climate change (the list goes on) – we know, through the example of refugee resettlement, that Americans have the ethical values and abilities to confront the challenges, as well as a will to take action.

Healthy Living Marketing subscribes to a deep commitment to business ethics and social commitment, and urges our partners, vendors and clients to create and follow-through on their own personal commitment to acting responsibly as well. For further insight on how to create and sustain your own organizational ethical “compass”, please contact us at (301) 378-0384.

Tags: ethical commitment, healthy community, social progress, social responsibility, sustainability