Dan Glickman

Being American has never been about where you were born. Being American is about ideals, principles, strength and faith. Being American is answering the cry for help, even when times are tough.

On Sunday, as the nation marks World Refugee Day, it’s time to reflect on America’s rich history of responding to humanitarian crises, examine the connection between our national morality and our national security, and recommit ourselves to being the world’s moral leader.

As a nation, we are certainly in the midst of challenges: A struggling economy, an unfolding environmental disaster and two ongoing wars. It’s no wonder if we are tempted to focus inward and release ourselves from obligations outside our line of vision. Perhaps it could even be justified.

And yet, America has always managed to maintain its global status as a nation of principle, even in the toughest of times. From offering asylum to more than 400,000 Europeans after World War II to welcoming hundreds of thousands fleeing communism during the Cold War era in the 1980s (another era of tough economic times), I believe we have earned our position of moral leadership by offering safe haven and protection, particularly when it would be reasonable to do otherwise.

Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has resettled nearly 3 million refugees. Indeed, we have led the world in providing asylum to refugees and in providing humanitarian assistance to displaced populations across the world. We have cared for the world’s most vulnerable and taken special responsibility to embrace groups of refugees — Cubans, Vietnamese and Iraqis among them — that have been harmed by U.S. action.

Our actions were honorable, an apt tribute to America’s heritage as a nation founded by and for refugees. They reflected our most basic ideals of human dignity, hope, and an inherent understanding that it is our moral obligation to respond to human suffering.

But I fear we are dangerously close to forgetting that heritage and losing our moral standing. Today, 42 million people are displaced by conflict and crisis around the world. These women, men and children often struggle just to survive, enduring a shortage or lack of clean water, food, sanitation, shelter, health care and protection from violence and abuse. They live in refugee and internal displacement camps in Africa, Asia, the Middle East. Even more live in urban areas where they struggle to earn money for food and shelter, have little access to humanitarian assistance and education and are often mistreated by local authorities.

I recently returned from Pakistan, where 1.3 million women, men and children are displaced by the U.S.-supported war being waged there. I visited a displacement camp where 100,000 people have been living for more than a year. With 115-degree temperatures, few economic opportunities and no immediate hope of returning to their homes, the despair is palpable.

And although many basic needs are being met, it is a life that lacks dignity. It is perhaps most difficult to see the toll displacement takes on the camp’s children — most of whom do not have access to school. How will such a place affect their worldview, resilience and ability to thrive? The truth is, if we don’t do more to assist Pakistan’s displaced, we will compromise our ability to bring stability to the region, and our capacity to fight the growing influence of the Taliban and other radical groups.

Across the border in Iraq, half of the U.S. troops are preparing to return home after seven years of war. Though the military mission is coming to an end, there are nearly 500,000 Iraqis who receive very little assistance, still living in squatter slums that lack basic sanitation, water and electricity.

The struggles and suffering of our fellow humans are greater than ever, and yet America’s response is falling short. Outdated refugee settlement policies do not support refugees well upon arrival to the U.S. The media — and more important, our policymakers — are not paying adequate attention to civilians displaced in the conflicts America is engaged in. We seem to have lost some of our will and willingness to do what’s right.

But we must regain it, because helping to solve these great humanitarian crises is not only a moral imperative, it is essential to our reputation around the world as a humanitarian leader.

Dan Glickman is the president of Refugees International. He served as secretary of agriculture in the Clinton administration and as a U.S. congressman from Kansas.

See this op-ed in the Kansas City Star