Speech #890215044

I bring to the attention of the House an address by Mr. John F. Thomas. director of the Cuban refugee program which he delivered before the American Immigration and Citizenship Conference on May 20. 1966. in New York City. The very able Mr. Thomas. a longtime expert in refugee matters. has skillfully guided the Cuban refugee program which has assisted over 300.000 Cubans who have sought refuge in the United States. I am pleased to insert in the RECORD this thorough analysis of the Cuban refugee program which John Thomas presented: It is a pleasure for me to address the annual meeting of the American Immigration and Citizenship Conference. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the officers and members of this august body. for the efforts made in support of amendments to the Immigration and Naturalization law. We know today that there are some weaknesses in the new law. but we all can take satisfaction from having eliminated the national quota restriction from our basic law. Recently. I have had conversations with several people who have had experience in refugee work. but who have left this field for other endeavors. These persons contend that there does not exist any real basis for refugee work in todays world. They say that the refugee is no different than any other person who has been caught in and by poverty and other social and economic situations which exist in so many parts of the world. Their arguments consistently stress this point: that the know how and experience gained by persons assisting in the refugee field should be put into wider use. and that refugee work per se in a given country should be integrated into the overall aid and development programs for that country. I listened to this same type of argument in South Viet Nam last summer. There was the contention that the majority of ruralliving persons in South Viet Nam needed some form of assistance. and that the needs of the socalled refugees differed little from the needs of the nonrefugee peasants. Therefore. why should a separate refugee office and program be established. I do not go along with these points of view. I think the fact that. at the present time. 9.7 million persons are in refugee status throughout the world is enough reason for the international community to be concerned with the plight of refugees as a single. separate criteria of persons in need. A refugee. regardless of how or why he may be in refugee status. is generally. though not necessarily. outside of his home country. He is generally destitute. having lost in his flight to freedom whatever material wealth he may have accumulated. He and his family. if he is fortunate enough to have his family mfembers with him. find themselves in a state of shock and are not prepared to be melded immediately into the community in which they find themselves. In many instances their characteristics differ from the persons native to their new community. In many instances there are religious differences and often language barriers for the refugees to overcome. In far too many cases the newcomers find themselves in a climate of distrust and even hatred. Therefore. as long as political. economic. social. and religious conflicts cause people to leave suddenly their native habitat to seek asylum in a new territory. there will be a need for refugee work as a specific and separate endeavor. As long as men find it impossible to live at peace with their neighbors and thus have to flee from their homeland. there should be international machinery to offer legal protection to these persons. to see that assistance enabling them to meet the basic necessities of life is available. and to help them regain a normal form of daily life. You will note that I have stressed in the previous sentence "the need for international machinery. to be available for assisting refugees." In this presentday world in which unrest and uneasiness is present as a result of the development of nuclear weapons and the existence of ideological conflicts. the principle of freedom of movement can play a strong role in the movement toward international peace. If countries would recognize this principle of free movement and would join hands in a continuing development of international refugee machinery. a strong link in the movement toward peace would be forged. This point of view stems from my long experience in refugee work. I have become more and more impressed. as a result of my recent work in South Viet Nam with the refugee problem and with the Cuban refugee problem in the United States. by operation of the current Cuban Refugee Program. We now have a fantastically interesting operation since it is based on the willingness of a communistdominated country to permit the orderly outflow of its citizens to a socalled capitalistic country. We think this is a remarkable development that should merit deep consideration.