Stepping out of Exile

I always drive by the house where about 50 refugees live. It’s right in the middle of the city. It’s very old and run down. Sometimes I notice plastic over the windows. Is that for insulation? …or, against rain? it’s definitely not a hotel.

I went there yesterday to ask the manager about getting to know a refugee who lives there. I would like to meet together about 8 times and write about these visits in order for others to read on line. The purpose is to get to know each other and to do things together. By writing about it, I hope that more people might catch the vision to do the same kind of thing.

So, I asked the manager, “Can you recommend someone who would like to meet with me and who could follow through on these visits?” The manager understood immediately, “You mean like ‘adopt-a-refugee!’” Great idea! But, from the manager’s experience, the question is whether the refugee will follow through on the visits.

Unfortunately, when people have been waiting for an answer about their asylum for more than a year -and usually longer than several years, then they lose all hope and all motivation. More often it is easier simply to do nothing and to remain indifferent about everything. As I heard about the situation, I thought this seems like a self-assigned exile for the refugee, and I wondered how does anyone ever escape from exile?

The manager thought for a moment and then went to invite Mike (name changed) to come and meet me. Mike is about 20 years old. He is finished school and except for a few odd jobs that he helps out with, he waits around with the others for the asylum decision. He has been waiting like this for several years.

I explained to Mike what I wanted to do. He didn’t quite know how to answer. It would have been easier simply to invite him over for a visit. I want to get to know him and to hear about his life and experience in Austria as a refugee. Unless he wants to tell me, I am not going to ask about his former life or why he fled his country, and I will write about only what he wants me to say. I hope this will be a place where Mike can say a lot -perhaps more than he has said before.

I suggested a day to meet and exchanged telephone numbers with him. I encouraged him to think about it and to call me if he decided it would not suit to meet. As I walked out, I noticed that Mike hung around, and probably afterwards continued to ask the manager what this is all about.

Twenty minutes later, Mike called. “I can meet. Where should I come.”

“Wait in front of your house on Sunday at 2 p.m. and I will come and get you.”