Quotessence
Home / Topics / Refugees Quotes

Refugees Quotes

Browse 214 quotes about Refugees.

Refugees Quotes

“The intimate relationship between the military-industrial-complex and the refugee-industrial complex is that they serve each other by first destroying nations and controlling their resources; and second by bringing to the West cheap laborers who do both menial and highly skilled work. This means that the system benefits from the victims twice: once by destroying their nations and stealing their resources, and twice by capitalizing on their labor and skills. More ironically, refugees often make ideal consumers for goods produced and promoted by the same corporations and warmongers who destroyed their countries, lives, histories, and memories forever.”

WarIllusionPropagandaExileRefugeesMisinformationDisplacementMilitary Industrial Complex
Author:Louis Yako
Create image

“A refugee is someone who was forcefully taken out of their time and place. They were then placed in another time and another place that insist on dehumanizing them. It is a tragedy. The ultimate paradox and irony of this tragedy is that, in many cases, those who caused their displacement and those who hate them in their newfound ‘homes’ in exile are the same people! In this way, they leave no place for a refugee to feel at home or even alive.”

WarInspirational QuotesViolenceConflictHumanitarianismIraq WarRefugeesDisplacementMilitary Industrial ComplexAsylum
Author:Louis Yako
Create image

“Enough rationalization. They simply had what you wanted, so you took it. [My chair-- I shit on my good chair!] You shit more than just your chair. You shit the world. All you ever cared about was winning -- And you did. The last man standing on a mountain of filth [. . .] Kazumi taught forgiveness. She accepted all refugees looking for a better life. And you turned that against her. Kazumi would show mercy. I'm not Kazumi.”

DeathForgivenessMurderRevengeRefugeesReclamationRick RemenderTokyo GhostDebbie DecayCultural DecayKazumiFlak
Book:Tokyo Ghost, Vol. 2: Come Join Us
Create image

“Through love, tribes have been intermixing colors to reveal a new rainbow world. And as more time passes, this racial and cultural blending will make it harder for humans to side with one race, nation or religion over another.”

WorldLoveHumansWarReligionHateHumanityPoliticsPeaceUnderstandingRelationshipsUnitedRaceMarriageKindnessAcceptanceHumilityFutureRacismDatingUnityToleranceDiscriminationBridgesNationalismBarriersDivisionSexismWarfareWorld PeaceTogethernessNationalityAssimilationColorsRefugeesTribalismWallsRacial PrejudiceReligionsCulturesCultural BarriersTribalInterracialBlending
Book:Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem
Create image

“You may come or not to walk beside me, I won't stand still in silence while the oceans burn and the sun turns dark - I will either right the wrongs or perish in the attempt - and even if I burn to ashes in trying to humanize my surroundings, those ashes of mine will still smoke inclusion, equality and humaneness - I am not born a human to crawl as an indifferent vermin, I am born a human to embrace death for the values, the principles, the virtues that ought to be the foundation of human civilization - I am sleepless and I will stay sleepless till all the children of earth can sleep in peace with a full stomach and a happy heart, without worrying about guns and bombs, without worrying about prejudice and phobia, without worrying about discrimination and deportation - I will stay sleepless till the whole world becomes a family, not in theory, not in philosophy, not in argument, not even in futuristic vision, but in reality and practice.”

Social JusticeHumanitarianDiscriminationService Of HumanityActivistBlack Lives MatterReformerRefugeesSocial ReformHumanitarian Crisis
Book:Sleepless for Society
Create image

“Please do not look only at the dark side All the newspapers in the free world explain why you return their readers understand how you feel You have the sympathy of millions As a tribute to your sorrow we resolve to spend more money on nuclear weapons there is always a bright side If this were only a movie a boat would be available have you ever seen our movies they end happily You would lean at the rail with 'him' the sun would set on China kiss and fade You would marry one of the kind authorities In our movies there is no law higher than love in real life duty is higher You would not want the authorities to neglect duty How do you like the image of the free world sorry you cannot stay This is the first and last time we will see you in our papers When you are back home remember us we will be having a good time.”

HollywoodSocial JusticeRefugeesFree World
Book:Selected Poems of Thomas Merton
Create image

“Spanish speakers will already have noted that recogiado is really not a word. However, we must remember that these villagers are Quechua speakers and at times unknown Spanish words are heard in such a way that people can make sense of them. Prior to the political violence, there were no refugees (refugiados) in the highlands. Certainly people moved about, and not always of their own volition. However, the category ‘‘refugiado’’ was a product of the war: the term figured in the state discourse, that of the soldiers and on the radio. ‘‘Refugiados’’ was heard as ‘‘recogiados,’’ making sense both of the word as well as its meaning.31 Recoger – to gather up, to take in, to shelter. Precisely what villagers were doing with the arrepentidos. ‘‘Recogiados [the gathered up ones, the taken in ones, the sheltered ones] and others’’ were in fact those who had come from other places seeking refuge; they were also those unnamed people who came in search of redemption.”

WarRefugeesPeruQuechuaRecogiado
Author:Kimberly Theidon
Create image

“The Soviet Union in American accounts tends to be a deprived, and depraved, hell, but there was also much that was sweet, and sheltered, about it, and this book’s portrayal of that country touches the bone for an exile. So does the novel’s evocation of that subtle Soviet sense of living with eyes and ears everywhere; of how sinners find crumbs even at a table set for the new saints of socialism; and of the integrity that survives, miraculously, even in such circumstances. So that the Muscovites mocked in the early part of the book receive, as well, a kind of hidden sympathy. No human being deserves the trauma of a life in a place like the USSR, and that person’s ultimate judgment must take that into account.”

TraumaSocialismCommunismSoviet UnionRefugeesUssrExpatriatesExilesRussion
Book:The Master and Margarita
Create image

“Cu o strângere de inimă, fiecare își privea casa și trecea mai departe: . Iar peste sufletele oamenilor se rostogolea și un val de indiferență: >. Cine se gândea la suferințele patriei? Nu ei, nu cei care pleacă în această seară. Panica anula tot ce nu era instinct, freamăt animalic al trupului. Să iei ce aveai mai prețios pe lume și pe urmă... Și numai ce trăia, ce respira, plânge, iubea avea valoare în noaptea aceea! Puțini erau cei care își regretau bogățiile. Strângeai în brațe o femeie sau un copil, restul nu mai conta; restul putea să dispară în flăcări.”

WwiiRefugeesRefugiațiWwii FranceWwii History Casualty
Book:Suite Française
Create image

“Dar porțile de fier din toate gările erau deja zăvorâte și păzite de soldați. Mulțimea se agăța de bare, le zgâlțâia, apoi se retrăgea în dezordine pe străzile vecine. Femeile fugeau plângând, cu copiii în brațe. Erau oprite ultimele taxiuri. Li se ofereau două, trei mii de franci ca să părăsească Parisul. Dar șoferii refuzau, nu mai aveau benzină.”

WwiiRefugeesRefugiațiWwii FranceWwii History Casualty
Book:Suite Française
Create image

“Dar nu putură să intre în curtea mare încuiată, zăvorâtă, apărată de soldați și de mulțimea presată, strivită de bare. Rămăsaseră acolo până seara, luptându-se zadarnic. În jurul lor, oamenii ziceau: -Asta e! Plecăm pe jos. Rosteau cuvintele astea cu un fel de stupoare deznădăjduită. Se vedea bine că nici ei nu credeau. Se uitau în jur și așteptau minunea: o mașină, un camion, orice i-ar fi dus de acolo. Dar nu apărea nimic. Atunci plecau spre porțile Parisului, ieșeau, își târau bagajele după ei în praf, mergeau, ajungeau în suburbii, apoi la țară și-și ziceau: . Soții Michaud plecaseră și ei tot pe jos. Era o noapte caldă de iunie. În fața lor, o femeie în negru care purta strâmb pe cap, peste părul alb, pălăria cu doliu, se poticnea pe pietrele de pe drum și mormăia, cu gesturi de nebună: -Rugați-vă ca fuga noastră să n-aibă loc iarna... Rugați-vă!... Rugați-vă!”

WwiiRefugeesRefugiațiWwii FranceWwii History Casualty
Book:Suite Française
Create image

“I was sleeping on the couch one afternoon when suddenly I sensed that someone was leaning over me. When I opened my eyes I saw the burly farmer standing there, unbuttoning his pants. Instinctively, I knew what he was up to! Hans wouldn’t be as easy to dissuade as the sturdy young man who had guided me up the mountain. With no time to think I let fly with my foot, kicking him in the groin. The force from the kick caused him to inadvertently fall forward, hitting a small end table with his mouth. When this happened he bit his lip and broke his dentures.”

RefugeesNazisGerman HistoryWomans Strength
Book:Suppressed I Rise
Create image

“A circular letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to all German authorities abroad shortly after the November pogroms of 1918 stated: "The emigration movement of only about 100,000 Jews has already sufficed to awaken the interest of many countries to the Jewish danger.... Germany is very interested in maintaining the dispersal of Jewry... the influx of Jews in all parts of the world invokes the opposition of the native population and thereby forms the best propaganda for the German Jewish policy.... The poorer and therefore more burdensome the immigrating Jews is to the country absorbing him, the stronger the country will react.”

ImperialismRefugeesAntisemitism1967Rights Of Man1918StatelessnessPogrom
Book:The Origins of Totalitarianism
Create image

“Monsieur Alfred Backert, a resident of Bischoffsheim, lived near the village center. He recalled the war years in Alsace-Lorraine and remembered the women from Mannheim who were sent to Bischoffsheim, ostensibly for their safety by the Nazi Regime. He later served in the French army and was stationed in Germany for a number of years. Frau Heinchen, the elderly woman with her dog, who talked to me on the windy hillside overlooking Überlingen on Sunday afternoon, December 1, 2002. She recalled the Polish and Russian prisoners, whom she called Cossacks, and vividly remembered the hanging of the Russian soldier, described in this book. According to her, it was the farmer’s wife Clarissa who was raped by the Russian soldier and later, bore his child. She remembered the lager (warehouse) that was used to house the prisoners, saying that it was located on a field near the municipal hospital. She also told us the location of where the one room schoolhouse had been. For the limited time that we talked, she glowed and became twenty-one years young again.”

FranceGermanyWorld HistoryRefugeesWorld War TwoBischoffsheim
Author:Captain Hank Bracker, "Suppressed I Rise."
Create image

“Dead and mutilated bodies, famine, and citizens handicapped by economic sanctions are all part of the warlords’ bartering chips for seizing power and securing valuable concessions. Many proud nations of indigenous people perished in battle for control of lands that rightfully did not belong to the army bearing superior forces. No army returns territory it took, unless compelled to do so by hard costs. The meek might inherit the earth someday, but for now the most aggressive and ruthless armies control the turf.”

WarArmyWarningWarfareViolence Against WomenRefugeesBattlesDisplacementBattlefieldTurf Wars
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
Create image

“That there is no autonomous space in the political order of the nation-state for something like the pure human in itself is evident at the very least from the fact that, even in the best of cases, the status of refugee has always been considered a temporary condition that ought to lead either to naturalization or to repatriation. A stable statute for the human in itself is inconceivable in the law of the nation-state.”

RefugeesNation State
Book:Means Without End: Notes on Politics
Create image

“Only those who cross the border qualify for the legal designation of 'refugee'. International agencies and the international media tend to focus mainly on those who cross borders. But those people displaced from their homes who seek sanctuary elsewhere in their country should not drop off the international agenda, and their practical needs of sanctuary often go unmet. Since mass violence occurs in states that are fragile, even though much of a country may remain safe the state is unlikley to have the capacity to cope.”

RefugeRefugeeRefugeesRefugee CrisisBorder Crossing
Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
Create image

“When the Furies were released in the Middle East, an evil emerged beyond my worst imaginings. The joy of the Middle East has been replaced by fear, pervasive in Iraq and Syria and darkening the lives of people throughout the region. This is why refugees have been flowing out of the Middle East by the millions for Europe. If President Bush’s seeds of democracy or the Arab Spring had bloomed, these families wouldn’t be risking everything to leave. Many in the region have simply lost all hope, which is understandable. If you lived in Libya after the fall of Gadhafi, you’d be terrified. You can’t work, you can’t sell your goods, your children can’t go to school, you can’t even drive around without fear of being kidnapped by bandits or terrorists. It’s not a place where people can be happy and even marginally prosperous. It’s pure chaos. It’s worse in Iraq and Syria.”

Middle EastRefugeesMiddle East ConflictSyrian Refugees
Author:Richard Engel
Create image

“Today, most countries fail to comply with the 1951 Convention. Signatory states in the developed world find ever more elaborate ways to disregard or bypass the principle of non-refoulement, adopting a suite of deterrence or non-entrée policies that make it difficut and dangerous for refugees to access their territory: carrier sanctions, razor wire fences, interception en route. Signatory states in the developing world do tend to admit refugees more because of geoghraphical necessity and international pressure than law, and when they do, they still almost universally fail to implement the socio-economic rights in the Convention. And, yet, paradoxically, many of the most generous host countries in the world are not even full signatories: Jordan, Lebanon, Thailand, Nepal, and Turkey, for instance.”

PoliticsRefugeesRefugee CrisisInternational Politics
Book:Refuge: Transforming a Broken Refugee System
Create image

“Building a neighbourhood takes a very long time. It takes at least twenty years and then some. Like a garden, a neighbourhood must be tended regularly and by many people. There are seeds to be sown, little plants to water. And yes, every day there are weeds to be pulled, small problems to be solved before they overwhelm what is good. It is a humble task, and it is never over. There are days when you think the slightest storm could blow all this loveliness away.”

RefugeesNeighbourhoodsNeighbours
Book:The Other Face of God: When the Stranger Calls Us Home
Create image

“Hand Watches” I opened the drawer where I store old keepsakes and tokens. My eyes paused on hand watches with dead batteries, frozen in time… Gifts from teachers and friends— offered to honor my accomplishments, to praise my respect for time. It never occurred to them, or to me, that Time could die of a heart attack— that it would cease to matter the day my homeland was occupied and destroyed. The day the plunderers —both foreign and within— colluded to burn and erase all that was beautiful. Since then, I’ve refused to wear hand watches, and I never will until my people reclaim their Time and dignity. And when that day comes, Time will no longer matter. For then, I will become— a butterfly, a sparrow, a daffodil or an orange blossom, perhaps an apricot blossom on a branch, an unstoppable stream of water flowing beyond time and timing. In that same drawer, I found pens that had run dry, like mummified corpses. In a moment of despair, a lightning bolt of realization struck me— leaving behind a terrifying question: What if this is a wound that no amount of time can heal— a cause so vast that all the world’s ink cannot write its cure?”

WarTimeLossExileInvasionRefugeesColonizationArabic PoetryDisplacementArabic Literature
Book:سرطان في كل مكان [Cancer Everywhere]
Create image

“The Civil War was ABOUT something. It was fought FOR something. And—let us never for a moment forget it—it WON something. Under everything else, the war was about Negro slavery. It was fought for freedom—and if ever anything was worth fighting a war for, freedom was and is the cause. . . . And that is why the Civil War is worth remembering. It gave us a broader freedom, and it laid upon us the obligation to live up to that freedom and to make it unlimited, for everybody. Freedom is indivisible. Winning it for the Negro, we won it also for all of the people who then were or ever would become Americans—for the man who has fled from oppression, misery and discrimination overseas as well as for the fugitive from the American slave pen and auction block. We can never have, permanently, a second-class citizenship in this country; because of the Civil War, we are no longer that kind of country. We might just as well stop trying to find a comfortable middle ground between the ideas of Abraham Lincoln and Adolf Hitler. There simply isn't any such place.”

FreedomImmigrationAmerican Civil WarRefugeesSecond Class Citizen
Book:The Meaning of the Civil War: An Address Delivered at the Chicago Historical Society, April 12, 1961
Create image

“Naturalization, on the other hand, also proved to be a failure. The whole naturalization system of European countries fell apart when it was confronted with stateless people, and this for the same reasons that the right of asylum had been set aside. Essentially naturalization was an appendage to the nation-state's legislation that reckoned only with "nationals," people born in its territory and citizens by birth. Naturalization was needed in exceptional cases, for single individuals whom circumstances might have driven into a foreign territory. The whole process broke down when it became a question of handling mass applications for naturalization: even from the purely administrative point of view, no European civil service could possibly have dealt with the problem. Instead of naturalizing at least a small portion of the new arrivals, the countries began to cancel earlier naturalizations, partly because of general panic and partly because the arrival of great masses of newcomers actually changed the always precarious position of naturalized citizens of the same origin. Cancellation of naturalization or the introduction of new laws which obviously paved the way for mass denaturalization shattered what little confidence the refugees might have retained in the possibility of adjusting themselves to a new normal life; if assimilation to the new country once looked a little shabby or disloyal, it was now simply ridiculous. The difference between a naturalized citizen and a stateless resident was not great enough to justify taking any trouble, the former being frequently deprived of important civil rights and threatened at any moment with the fate of the latter. Naturalized persons were largely assimilated to the status of ordinary aliens, and since the naturalized had already lost their previous citizenship, these measures simply threatened another considerable group with statelessness.”

TotalitarianismRefugees1967NaturalizationStateless
Book:The Origins of Totalitarianism
Create image