Westcott’s article, “A Brief History of Refugees Paying Back the U.S Government for their Travel”, focuses more on the negative effects these travel loans have on immigrants. She starts out the article by explaining that not all immigrants who have resettled in United States, are able to afford the cost of travel to their new home country. Not only that, but most immigrants don’t even know English well enough when they first get here, for them to get an American job right away.
The article continues to explain that before refugees even arrive in this country, they already have to face one of the most stringent background checks. This idea makes you already believe that the immigration process to come to America is already overwhelming enough for these immigrants.
We than get to look at the perspective of Syrian refugee, father of four, who lives currently in south Florida. He is struggling with his debt of $2,174, and states to Newsweek, that “he had no choice to agree to it, (travel loan agreement), because that’s the only way to get a flight over here.”. This shows that immigrants, especially ones with big families, constantly feeling overwhelmed with payments, as they were forced to agree with the loan, even when its unaffordable to the new coming immigrants.
The article then goes on to announce that Canada had recently made it so that the government will not only cover the cost of Syrian immigrants traveling to their country, yet cover their medical exams as well. This statement is basically implying that America should do more to welcome immigrants into their country.
Sources:
Westcott, Lucy. (12 December 2015). A Brief History of Refugees Paying Back the U.S Government for their travel. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/brief-history-refugees-paying-back-us-government-their-travel-403241