I was part of the largest migration in human history
20 million people were displaced following the partition of India
Forty years ago on our first evening at the company guest house in Alexandria Egypt we met John, a genial man with an open smile that displayed a lot of humor as if he was constantly amused at the world. He took to our small family and wanted to know all about our background. When we told him that we were refugees to India during the partition he was blown away. I remember he said how can you be a refugee to a poor country ? He thought refugees only flee to rich countries and he concluded that it must really suck to be a refugee to a poor country and he was right. It sucked!
Although my wife and I had never thought of our arrival into India quite in that way we both realized he was right. It sucks being a refugee into a poor country but it also sucks being a refugee to a rich country that refuses to help you and steals your kids and puts them in horrific detention centers. When I see photos of migrants lined up at our border desperate to get in I am filled with a sense of empathy and hark back to how our parents must have arrived as refugees. These refugees carry just one suitcase or a backpack or a trash bag with clothes. And most of them will be denied asylum to the US the richest country on the planet. At least the…
