An Experience with "Refugees"

On Saturday, I had my first experience volunteering at Safari Thrift, and the experience was distinct from any previous ones. For starters, I was one of four volunteers working. The other three seemed to be around my age, and were clearly of African, Asian, and Indian ethnicity, had thick accents, and had strong relationships with the staff at Safari Thrift. Noticing this, I mindlessly assumed they were refugees who had worked with the ACC and desired to give back to them—that’s great, right? I didn’t think much of it after that, I knew that volunteering with refugees would be no different from volunteering with anyone else, and, like we have talked about so many times in class, it should have no effect on how I treat or perceive them as people. After talking to them for about an hour as we worked, I mentioned something about a restaurant that was near my school. They asked me what school I attended and I replied University of Denver. Their immediate response was, “Oh! We go to DU!” Turns out the three “refugees” are not refugees at all, but are simply international students at my school, are actually in my class, and are studying similar subjects as me. Awkward.

What surprises me most about this experience is my own subconscious prejudices and assumptions surrounding refugees. I didn’t necessarily treat them any differently after I learned they were not refugees, but it absolutely changed my opinions of them. It left me wondering if this is okay. Is it okay that these mindless presumptions exist, even in people who have learned and talked about refugees for four hours a week for over four weeks? And if this is not okay, what do we do about it? I look forward to continue working with refugees and also with people who are not refugees at all, because they all undoubtedly have something to teach or show us about our understanding (or lack thereof) of refugees.