Activity 8.3 – Writing a Response Worksheet
Please be sure to review the assignment description in LEARN before completing this worksheet.
Referring to the précis you wrote last week in Activity 7.4, write a short response (250 words) to the author’s main idea/thesis. If you agree, make sure that you contribute to the author’s position by adding something new to support why you agree. If you disagree, make sure to explain your reasoning. If you agree and disagree simultaneously, adequately outline the benefits and limitations of the position. As you respond to the author, you will develop your own position (what you think
and believe) in relation to the author. The main idea of the article is to illustrate what refugees suffer when making their journey to another country. Kamal Al-Solaylee states, “… committing to fly 50,000 of them here by the end of 2016 doesn’t entitle us to don a halo.”
(Al-Solaylee, 2020) Many are “rescued” from violence and trauma, yet many never fully recover and some struggle to make ends meet with their new way of living. Many are grateful for making it here and being able to start over, yet many hard times often set in when faced with finance, housing, and occupational issues. Although making the trip here is a great accomplishment for them physically, mentally, oftentimes mental health issues set in with the many stresses that come with a new way of living.
Through the governments choices to sponsor these refugees much of what they do is important, yet for many they need more support to help them navigate their new way of life. In contrast many see the governments sponsorship a downfall to society as it requires more spaces of living where more homes are being built raising the costs to living making it hard for many not just refugees to find adequate housing that is reasonable. There is a great need to help refugees, yet there also needs to be balance when many Canadians are also struggling to make ends meet with the rising costs of living. A thought-out plan that supports both refugees and Canadian citizens who are struggling needs to be developed. © University of Waterloo
