The International Rescue Committee (IRC) in the EU works to shape European policies in order to help people affected by humanitarian crises - including the climate crisis - to survive, recover and rebuild their lives. Join us this World Refugee Day to celebrate the achievements of refugees around the world - and learn what the EU can do to better welcome refugees and people in need.
Yet when refugees are welcomed into new communities, their influence on culture is immeasurable. Around the world, displaced people have, and continue to, shape policies, art, traditions, dreams and futures in ordinary - and extraordinary - ways.
Explore six ways you can help make space for refugees...
1. Watch this video about how refugees are shaping policies, art, traditions, dreams and futures
2. Read about Zahra, Nelson and other refugee changemakers
3. Learn more: Take our quiz on refugee contributions to culture
Which Academy Award-winning best supporting actor started their speech with these words: “My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp, and somehow I ended up here, on Hollywood’s biggest stage”?
Mahershala Ali
Javier Bardem
Christoph Waltz
Ke Huy Quan
Correct!
Incorrect.
Ke Huy Quan, 2023’s best supporting actor Oscar winner for “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” was born in Vietnam in 1971. Seven years later, his parents decided to flee in the middle of the night to escape oppression and hardship after the Vietnam War, as almost two million other Vietnamese also risked their lives to do. Quan then lived in a refugee camp in Hong Kong until the U.S. granted his entire family political asylum. In Los Angeles, California, Quan reunited with his entire family under the Vietnamese refugee resettlement program.
4. Learn about the different safe pathways to protection that exist for refugees to reach safety in the EU
This World Refugee Day, the IRC is calling on the EU and Member States to increase the number of legal, safe and durable routes to protection for refugees and others in need - without discrimination, no matter where they come from or how they arrived.
Read more about refugee resettlement - an internationally-agreed framework providing pathways to safety for vulnerable refugees in need in countries outside the EU.
Resettlement is the best way EU countries can meet the growing global need. In September, EU states will be announcing their pledges for how many refugees they plan to welcome through this route in 2024-2025. The IRC is calling on EU countries to make ambitious pledges to resettle at least 44,000 refugees next year, and to ensure that resettlement programmes continue to grow. Read more.
5. Tell the EU to expand safe pathways to protection for refugees
