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Thanksgiving is the warmest of holidays.  It is uncomplicated by gift-giving or getting and uncluttered by a round of holiday parties.  It revolves, quite simply, around sharing a meal with family and friends and giving thanks for them and other blessings.   

Last week I celebrated an early Thanksgiving with 45 refugees, most of whom had come recently to the U.S from Iraq, Senegal, Burma, Nepal and several other countries.  The International Rescue Committee, which had resettled them in the U.S., brought them together for what it called “First Thanksgiving.”  The event was hosted by Ethan Allen, the home furnishings and design company, at its newest showroom in midtown Manhattan.  Farooq Kathwari, Ethan Allen’s CEO, is the chairman of the board of Refugees International and a member of the IRC’s board.   

Mr. Kathwari, a former refugee himself, welcomed the guests with a recollection of his separation from his family in Kashmir, and his arrival in the U.S. as a young man.  George Rupp, the president of the IRC, spoke about the origin of Thanksgiving, noting that the 53 Pilgrims who survived their first year in the New World gave thanks for making it through the winter and for their first harvest.   The Pilgrims, like many of the refugees in the room, were fleeing persecution, he said.  Finally, Ban Ki moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations, spoke of the need for more protection, assistance and resettlement opportunities for the world’s 41.9 million refugees and displaced people.

The dinner began with refugees giving thanks in their native languages before feasting on turkey and traditional trimmings.  As the refugees shared their stories it became clear that resettlement in the U.S. is more than an end to a flight from persecution; it is also the start of a new challenge—to learn English, to find a job, to adjust to a new world, as immigrants have been doing since English settlers landed in Jamestown, VA, in 1607.  The IRC has been helping refugees do this for 75 years.
 
“What keeps me going is I always remember where I was and where I am today,” Mohamed Hashem, a young refugee from Iraq, told USA Today, which covered the First Thanksgiving.  He thanked both Refugees International and the IRC for helping him get to the U.S.  Another Iraqi told of being attacked because she worked as a translator for Americans.  She survived, but her father did not.

The IRC gave three First Thanksgiving dinners this year as part of a “GIVETHANKS” campaign to raise awareness of the challenges facing new refugees in the U.S. 
 
For Iraqis one of the biggest challenges has been getting the U.S. to adopt a comprehensive program to deal with massive displacement.  Currently, one in every five Iraqis is displaced: 2.8 million are displaced within Iraq, while approximately two million more are living as refugees, mainly in Syria and Jordan. 
 
Refugees International, the IRC and other organizations have proposed a four part U.S. program for dealing with Iraqi displacement: 

• A sharp jump in the number Iraqis resettled in the U.S.;
  
• Increased aid for countries hosting Iraqis to pay for augmented health, education and other services;
  
• The creation of conditions for safe return to Iraq;
  
• Iraqi legal and financial assistance to help displaced get home and rebuild their lives.

Iraqis refugees who have resettled in the United States have much to be thankful for, but we have to work with Iraq to help the five million displaced Iraqis left behind.

--Kenneth H. Bacon