Speech #960175477

I would like to compliment the gentlewoman from New York for taking leadership in this area. Mr. Chairman. from the time of the pilgrims to the new immigrants. our Asian cousins who are moving to this country. we have always stood for in this Nation as being a haven for people escaping persecution from foreign countries. Last month I joined other women Members of Congress on a trip to Asia. While there. we viewed for the first time the holocaust that the Cambodian people were experiencing. For me. it was a very conscienceraising experience in terms of overall refugee issues. I did not realize until I went to Asia. the magnitude of the problem facing us in terms of the refugee situation. I did not realize the outmoded definition that we now have of a refugee that limits that primarily to those from Europe. when at the same time the refugee problem is enormously present in Asia and Africa. But far more devasting was the fact that I did not realize what an incoherent. inconsistent disjointed. fragmented. splintered refugee series of policies and programs that we have. One of the main aspects that I like about the gentlewoman from New Yorks legislation is that for the first time we will have a coherent. consistent. compassionate policy on refugees that. No. 1. the refugees themselves can understand. and. No. 2. those private voluntary agencies that will carry most of the burden of refugee policy will be able to understand and administer to facilitate the resettlement of people in this country. There are two other aspects of the legislation that I would particularly like to compliment the gentlewoman on. and they are. No. 1. the fact that she mandates that intransit centers where people are waiting to come to the United States we will mandate educational. language. and other training for people about to enter this country. In the Lumphini Refugee Transit Center in downtown Bangkok. I was absolutely shocked to find 6.000 people who would be going primarily either to Canada or to the United States--mostly to the United Statesin which they were waiting to come into this country. and there was no language training. no orientation into the United States. no preparation for entering the job market. One of the men I spoke to told me he was going to Montana.