| Should refugees fleeing instability in their own countries be given immigration priority according to how often they go to church? |
| Normally, someone seeking better prospects in the United States would wait several years to be admitted. But Ms. Davydyuk, her husband, their seven children and a daughter-in-law arrived here in Vancouver in May just two years after applying. They joined a growing number of Ukrainians who have streamed into the United States in recent months even as the country has closed the door on other refugees.
What distinguishes the Davydyuks, who are Pentecostal, from other immigrants is a program created nearly three decades ago to benefit those who suffered from religious persecution in the Soviet Union, where the Communist Party hounded religious groups it could not control. Another refugee couple, Anna and Daniel German, made a living in the wholesale flower business in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine, until a bomb crashed into their greenhouses in August 2014. They fled to Odessa, and Mr. German’s grandmother, in Vancouver since 1999, offered to sponsor them under the program that had benefited her own family. “We thought a little and decided to emigrate,” recalled Mr. German, whose family is Baptist. On their refugee application, they had to name the church they frequented and for how long. They were approved in just over a year, arriving in Vancouver in November 2015 with their four children, now 15, 13, 8 and 6. Source: "Soviet-Era Program Gives Even Unoppressed Immigrants an Edge" By MIRIAM JORDAN - NY Times - AUG. 26, 2017 |
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