asylum seekers

With the exception of co-founders Rachel Taber and Douglas Hewitt, 1951 Coffee is entirely staffed by refugees, asylum seekers and special immigrant visa holders. The nonprofit establishment counts among its baristas people who left Eritrea, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal, Bhutan, Uganda and Syria after facing political, religious or ethnic persecution. It’s a coffee shop with a cause, giving recent arrivals barista training and employing them in customer-facing roles so they can practice speaking English and engage with the community.  

She tells it every time she runs a cooking class for Free to Feed, a social enterprise that runs classes taught exclusively by asylum seekers and refugees. Founded by community worker Loretta Bolotin and her husband Daniel Bolotin earlier this year, Free to Feed aims to create a cultural exchange between asylum seekers and the general public through conversation, learning and food.

Asylees, like the 85,000 refugees from around the world arriving in the U.S. each year, must be unable or unwilling to return to their country due to persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution. While refugees are resettled from overseas, asylees are already in the U.S. when they present their claims for protection.

Somali refugee Mariam Ibrahim Yusuf campaigns for greater awareness of asylum seekers, despite being homeless and destitute herself. [...] In addition to her public speaking, Mariam is a member of Women Asylum Seekers Together (Wast), a group of women across nationalities that bands together to raise awareness about immigration injustice and the underreported problems that force women to seek asylum.

Immigrants from all parts of the world squat in tent camps around the city until authorities demolish them. Some count among the wave of asylum seekers who have poured into Europe over the past year. [...] Band picks over a section of La Rosée du Matin, or Morning Dew, the title track of Ziga’s new album about refugees.

September 11, 2015

It’s a multiple crisis and Germany’s answer is to be nice. During Greek protests, rioters painted toothbrush moustaches on posters of Merkel. Now migrants, passed on from Greece to Germany, arrive with photos of her as their patron saint. That’s brilliant PR, a triumph of soft power, and not enitirely cynical. There really are many Germans — Gutmenschen — who wish to give a helping hand.

The literature on the relationship between public diplomacy and visas is as polarized as the effects that a nation’s visa policy can have on its image. Visa liberalization policies, such as the broadening of visa waiver programs, can often enhance a nation’s public diplomacy strategy.

Spanish Embassy, Cuba

Immigration practitioner Nicholas Dynon explores how visa policies can either boost or threaten a nation's public diplomacy strategy. 

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