Willison 1 Megan Willison Professor Watkins English 1B October 8, 2018 Refugees who Exit to the West Imagine having to pack up everything and leave your home country because you are in a great deal of danger. Visualize yourself having to move to a completely new place where most likely you will not fit right in. Around the world, there are people who are forced to do this every day and these people are known as refugees. According to USA for UNHCR a refugee is, someone who has been forced to flee his or her home because of war, violence or persecution, often without warning (unrefugees.org). In the book Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, the characters, Saeed and Nadia pack up and move from the unnamed country they were born in because it is on the verge of going into war. They are forced to leave their home country because they are in danger. They only have each other because Nadia is no longer in contact with her family, and Saeed s mom was hit by a stray bullet that killed her so his dad wanted to stay behind because it didn't feel right for him to leave without his mom. As they move from country to country, Saeed and Nadia find themselves growing farther and farther apart. When Saeed and Nadia are in London they talk about a Light and Dark London. Dark London shows the readers a negative dangerous place while light London reflects on hope. A poem called Refugees by Brian Bilston compares to Exit West because it sheds light on what Saeed and Nadia go through being a refugee. Refugees is an eye-opening poem that shows two different points of views on refugees. It first shows a dark side where it talks about refugees not being welcomed because they are dangerous, and then when you read it from the bottom to the top it talks about how they should be welcomed and accepted. Exit West and Refugees shed light on
Willison 2 what a migrant goes through. We see the dark side and the light side of being a refugee. The dark side shows a negative and dangerous side and it resembles all the bad that refugees go through, while the light side shows us that there is hope. In Exit West dark London represents all the conflicts Saeed and Nadia face as they are essentially forced to leave their homeland to go and try to find safety. Saeed and Nadia end up in three different countries throughout the book, and each country brings different dangers. As Hamid explains, The island was pretty safe, they were told, except when it was not, which made it like most places (Hamid 107). This is claiming that no matter where they go, they can never feel completely safe especially while living in the refugee camp. No matter what country they are in, fear follows them into the new countries even though they escaped their home to avoid the threat of violence. USA for UNHCR states in the article Refugee Statistics, by the end of 2017, 68.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide. That was an increase of 2.9 million people over the previous year, and the world s forcibly displaced population remained at a record high (USA for UNHCR). This is illustrating that this issue is a real-life situation that people face. 68.5 million people were forced to leave their homes due to danger. Saeed and Nadia face danger in every place they move to. In Mykonos, they were told not to trust anyone, especially in the camps. They even had their own money stolen by Saeed's old friend. In London there are riots, and in the United States, Nadia's work almost got robbed. No matter where they go they always have to be on the lookout for danger. Hamid reveals the danger that they are in when he claims, At night, in the darkness, as drones and helicopters and surveillance prowled intermittently overhead, fights would sometimes break out, and there were murders and rapes and assaults as well (Hamid 146). This quote is just one example of what kind of danger Saeed and Nadia are around. In my opinion, this danger is making everything worse. Refugees should be coming together, but instead, they are blaming each other. Natives should be accepting
Willison 3 because by them not being accepting of others trying to find safety they are essentially just making their country a dangerous place. Not only are Saeed and Nadia in danger, but they also are having trouble connecting. Saeed and Nadia cannot just be happy and carefree, they are in new places where they have to look out for themselves. Hamid illustrates how relationships are changing when he states, All over the world people were slipping away from where they had been, from once fertile plains cracking with dryness, from seaside villages gasping beneath tidal surges, from overcrowded cities and murderous battlefields, and slipping away from other people too, people they had in some cases loved, as Nadia was slipping away from Saeed, and Saeed from Nadia. (Hamid 213). This is showing that becoming a migrant is a kind of death. Saeed and Nadia leave their home, family, work, friends and they move to different places where they start with nothing. They cannot just be themselves because they are not familiar with what is around them. Dark London resembles all the bad that comes with becoming a refugee and migrating to another country and the poem Refugees shows what it's like for Saeed and Nadia to not be welcomed. In the poem Refugees, if you read the poem from top to bottom, the poem illustrates how people born in a country should be the only ones allowed to live there. It tells us that refugees do not need homelanders help, and they should not have to share their food, homes, or countries. When you read Refugees from the top to the bottom the readers see that some homelanders believe refugees are very dangerous people. They do not want to share their land or food. As Bilston states, We need to see them for who they really are / chancers and scroungers (Refugees 5-6). These lines from the poem are stating that homelanders see that refugees just want to take advantage of them and take everything that they have. Reading Refugees has given me an insight into what Saeed and Nadia go through and what people in our everyday lives go through. In comparison to
Willison 4 Exit West, the poem Refugees gives the readers a insight on what people might see Saeed and Nadia as. It shows us what they are put through. They leave their country to find safety yet, they end up in a country that is still dangerous for them. Homelanders might not see refugees as humans, which can cause violence. Some homelanders do not see them as people just trying to find safety and they see them as people trying to take over their home and food. I believe that this is such a controversial situation and people are never going to be able to see eye to eye. Some people might be okay with refugees in their country and others might not be okay with it. The experience I had when I was reading the poem was that it was very eye opening on what immigrants, refugees, and migrants all go through. It shows me how much others can get violent when they are not welcomed. The poem also helped me see why Nadia and Saeed experience such violence. Many people around the world are in Saeed and Nadia s situation. Helprefugees.org states on their website that, one person becomes displaced every 3 seconds. That s 20 people forced from their homes, every minute or 28,300 every day (Helprefugees.org). This quote observes how often someone becomes displaced in the world. Every day 28,300 people are forced to leave and go to a country where not everyone welcomes them. This happens every day in our lives and most of us are oblivious to it happening. The reading experience I had while I was reading Exit West was that it made me realize how fortunate I am to live in a country that is not in war. I have always wondered what it would feel like if I did live in a country that was on the verge of a war and how it would be to just pack up everything and leave my home and Exit West shows me what that might feel like. Although one may be in danger when escaping to another country, it can also be hope for one to live happily. Exit West refers to a light London which represents hope for Saeed and Nadia. Saeed and Nadia go through a lot of tough situations, but they always remain hopeful that they will find their new home and they can rekindle their relationship. Throughout all the bad that they go
Willison 5 through, they always have hope for new beginnings. For example, they go through a couple different doors and through each door they go through, they are hopeful of something. They are hopeful of either a new home, safety, new beginning, and even hopeful to get their relationship back to normal. As Hamid states,...both of them were filled with hope, hope that they would be able to reconnect with their relationship (Hamid 189). No matter how tough their situation is, they always stay positive and try to figure out a solution. As much as they are drifting apart, Saeed wants to make everything okay with Nadia because he knows that she is the only person he has left from his past. While Saeed and Nadia were in London they joined two different groups. Nadia joins a council that has many different cultures and nationalities. This group represents the beginning of something new for Nadia because she comes from a country that is divided. In the group, Nadia can be her own individual in the diverse area. For Saeed, he does not feel welcome in the council, but he does feel welcome in a group with the bearded man. He feels welcome in this group because they all share the same religion, homeland, and culture. This group is like a taste of home for Saeed because everything in it is all familiar and it gives him hope. I believe that we go through experiences that change us. Hamid states,...that everyone migrates, even if we stay in the same houses our whole lives, because we can t help it. We are all migrants through time (Hamid 209). I believe that this quote reflects hope because it is showing that no matter what we all drift from one place to another which helps us grow as a person. Whether that is mentally or physically, we all grow and change. Helprefugees.org notes on their website, There are more people on the move than ever before and there is no reason to believe that this number will fall in the near future. Many of the key drivers of displacement protracted conflict, failed states, human rights violations, climate change continue to rage, across the world (Helprefugees.org). This is pointing out that many people are forced out of their country for many reasons. Some people have no control over this and have nothing but
Willison 6 hope to rely on for a better future. Light London represents hope for Saeed and Nadia, but being in an accepting country can help one feel at home. Reading the poem Refugees from the bottom to the top was completely different from reading it from the top down. The poem is illustrating that homelanders should come together and protect them from the danger that they are in, not make it worse. Each person is equal no matter where they come from or what they believe in. Bilston emphasizes that the world can be looked at another way / do not be stupid to think that / a place should only belong to those who were born here (Refugees 1-3). This quote is stating that no matter where you come from, you should be welcomed into any country. Just because you are born somewhere does not mean that you own it. This poem really shows two different perspectives on how people look at refugees. You read it from the top to the bottom and it almost shocks you at how heartless it is, and then you read it from the bottom to the top and you see equality and hope. In Exit West when Saeed and Nadia go through the second door they find themselves in London, in an empty mansion. When a housekeeper discovers all of the migrants from all over the world riots take place. Eventually, the natives get over the initial fear of the migrants and both the natives and migrants discover that they are just as likely to get along than not. This is showing that it is much easier to just get along then it is to make the world a dangerous place. Thus, it reflects on the poem Refugees message of being accepting. My reading experience when reading Refugees from the bottom to the top was happy because no matter what, we are all equal. We need to treat others the way we would want to be treated if we were put in their shoes. Refugees relates to Exit West because it gives a different point of view on how migrants should be treated. Those who exit to the west went through a roller coaster ride, it took them a couple countries, but they find a safe place, new people, and eventually they are able to return home. According to UNHCRA.org, In recent years the United States has been the world s top resettlement
Willison 7 country, with Canada, Australia and the Nordic countries also providing a sizeable number of places annually. (UNHCRA.org) This emphasizes that although many of them have not resettled, countries are starting to accept refugees. Homelanders should not be so harsh when other people come to stay in their country because everyone deserves to be treated equal. Homelanders do not own the land. In conclusion, Exit West and Refugees give us a light and dark insight on being a refugee. In Exit West Saeed and Nadia face many bad situations and in the poem Refugees we get a glimpse of how homelanders might feel when refugees come to live in their country. When homelanders aren t accepting it can cause more violence and division in the country. Therefore, when the homelanders are not accepting, Saeed and Nadia experience more violence. No matter what situation they are facing Saeed and Nadia have hope throughout everything that they go through. In the second part of Refugees, Bliston illustrates that no matter where a person comes from they should be welcomed. Being a refugee is both a death and a rebirth. A death because you are leaving everything behind and you are put to the test which causes you to not be yourself, but it can be a rebirth because it can make you a stronger and better person. Exit West and Refugees observe on a real-life situation that happens in the world. Many people are forced to leave their homes and migrant to another country. I believe that refugees should be treated as normal people because they have been unlucky with their circumstances and have no choice but to leave their homeland. If anyone else was in the situation of a refugee, they would react much, much worse. Nobody in our world deserves to be put under that pressure, and it makes me feel privileged to have a roof over my head. After all, refugees are human beings like us. We are all alike, we all migrate through time.
Willison 8 Works Cited Bilston, Brian. Refugees. Brian Bilston s Poetry Laboetry, BrianBilston.com, 23 March 2016. Hamid, Mohsin. Exit West. Riverhead Books, 2017. Refugees: The Key Statistics, Facts on Displaced People. Help Refugees. Refugee Statistics USA for UNHCR. Definition and Meaning USA for UNHCR. United Nations. Resettlement. UNHCR, www.unhcr.org/resettlement.html.