Journey to the Third Coast

So many people are flocking to Austin that it is one of the fastest growing cities in America.

New paragraph here: According to Forbes magazine, it is actually the fastest growing city.  Austin’s culture, music scene, and the ever- growing tech industry inside the city are just a few of the reasons young professionals want to live and work here. Americans flock to these city limits.  Among them this ocean of excitement and newcomers are a quieter people.  Most have unheard voices in a language that is not native.  They aren’t running to Austin for the beer and tacos, they are running from war and hardship.  Austin is one of several towns in the US that have with privately funded sources available to help refugees that have decided to flee their own countries.

“The refugee experience, overall, is one that is mixed with gratefulness and relief to be in a safe and stable situation, but it is also one that is mixed with loneliness and isolation because refugees are most often resettled into poverty,” said Patricia Hagen, former director at Girl Forward, which is what? The reader doesn’t know.

Now, we need what’s called a nut graph. How many refugees are now in Austin? From which countries? How many resettlement non-profits are there in Austin? What are they called? Where does their funding come from? Settle the reader in here with some hard information.

Hagen said goes further to say that the former status of refugees in their native counties   does not have any  sway over the living conditions once they are resettled.  Entire families will be put into two bedroom apartments, whether the family size is two, or eight, Hagen said. It doesn’t matter what sorts of hardships refugees have fled. They are all treated the same when it comes to resettlement, she said.

  When it comes to family matters, xxxx – finish your transition.

“Often adults will sacrifice any opportunity to learn English or further their education by working as many jobs as possible to give their children the tools that they need to  succeed,” says Hagen.

An uncertain future seems like a small price to pay when considering the living conditions of refugees abroad, says who? This needs attribution.

“It’s hell here” says Dogon Nshimiyimana, a Congolese refugee living in Gihembe, one of the biggest refugee camps in the world.
“Transitioning [to the camp] was difficult because we used to have food but arrived in the camp we started starving and  some of us started falling sick because of the rain and we did not have shelter.”

Now, explain why he is in the camp. Don’t move on to the next quote. Slow down and help the reader understand where we are in the story and what has happened to Dogon.

Dogon said drug addiction amongst refugees who live in the camp, most of which whom have lives live there for over twenty years, is what? complete your thought.  There is little to look forward to after moving to a camp like Gihembe.  Education, if available, stops at ninth grade., if children are able to get one at all.  The nearest town is over an more than one hour away. and With no mode of transportation or electricity, applying for a job there is almost important, especially without connections, said whom?

“[We] do not have hope that will repatriate [to our] homeland, that is why most  young people are addicted to drugs and prostitution.  We do not have enough food and sometimes people kill themselves because of not having perseverance.”

Though his options are few, Dogon Nshimiyimana remains hopeful and is trying to finish a college degree in order to help others in his camp.

Do you have  quote from him you can end with?

Refugees, after being torn apart by war and sometimes separated by oceans have one thing to cling to in such troubling times.  Hope.  Whether here in Austin or oversees, it seems that when stripped of family and possessions that is the only thing that remains.  The journey to the third coast is not an easy one that is filled with uncertainty and beaurocratic red tape.  But refugees still seek asylum here, and like many other Austinites flocking to our city, are coming here for a new future.