Globe and Mail (Toronto), July 18, 2009
When the days in the refugee camp seemed to last forever, Bhim Lal Kattel prayed to the gods to let his family return home to Bhutan.
Nearly two decades passed. His children grew and his mother aged. Mr. Kattel gave up his dream of reclaiming his family’s farm in southern Bhutan. The grinding boredom at the Goldhap refugee camp in the nearby Himalayan country of Nepal sapped his spirit.
So, at age 37, with an anxious heart, he decided to take his family to a strange, cold land on the other side of the globe.
Mr. Kattel arrived at Vancouver International Airport on Thursday afternoon, his eyes shining with excitement and fatigue. Despite the warm July weather, his wife, Bishnu Maya, and three children, Prakash, 14, Menuka, 12, and Ganesh, 8, were clad in thick sweaters. His 73-year-old mother was pushed through the international gates in a wheelchair.
This week, as Ottawa issued strict visa requirements for Czech and Mexican visitors, citing a raft of bogus refugee claimants from the two countries, the Kattels were part of another unfolding Canadian refugee saga. Five thousand Bhutanese refugees will be arriving in Canada over the next five years—one of the largest government-sponsored resettlement efforts in recent years.
Earlier, as the plane began its descent over B.C.’s Lower Mainland, Mr. Kattel stared down at the Coast Mountains and thought the landscape reminded him a little of Bhutan’s rugged countryside.
“I was thinking, ‘This is going to be my family’s home,’” Mr. Kattel said.
“Bhutan didn’t want us. Nepal didn’t want us,” Mr. Kattel said, moments after his family arrived at a temporary immigrant shelter in downtown Vancouver. “There is no way to go back now. This is what’s best for my family.”
Seven Western countries agreed to accept the Bhutanese after years of talks between Bhutan and Nepal ended in stalemate. Most—about 60,000—will go to the United States. Many of the Kattels’ friends and relatives have plane tickets to places like Dallas, Salt Lake City and Phoenix. Mr. Kattel wishes more of his friends were going to B.C.
In Canada, the Bhutanese are to be settled in nearly 30 communities from Newfoundland to B.C. Eventually, about 900 refugees—including the Kattels—will move to Coquitlam, just outside Vancouver.
It’s a daunting prospect for the suburban community, and for the country as a whole.
Unlike most immigrants and refugees, the government-sponsored Bhutanese will be landing in Canada without the safety net of already-established countrymen to greet them and ease the culture shock. The Nepalese and Bhutanese community in Canada is tiny.
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart compared the Bhutanese refugees to Wild West pioneers, landing in a strange country with little English, few job skills and even fewer relatives and friends. Many of the younger refugees were born and raised in a camp.
Mr. Stewart said he was in awe of their courage. “I can’t imagine, having spent my entire life in a camp, to get on a plane and fly to a new country. I want them to feel welcomed.”
In fact, city officials, community groups and residents in Coquitlam have laid out the welcome mat for the refugees from a little-known land. The local school board and the Immigrant Services Society of B.C. have set up a summer camp for the kids to polish their English and learn basic computer skills. Host families have come forward to help the refugees with basic tasks such as shopping and learning transit routes. Community meetings held in the spring to discuss the refugees’ arrival were overflowing.
The Kattels are the third Bhutanese family to arrive in British Columbia.
Mr. Stewart said he is determined to ensure the Bhutanese—especially the elderly—don’t drift into isolation. “We’re going to do what it takes to give them every chance to succeed.”
They face a raft of challenges. Most of the adults come from farming backgrounds and have only a high-school education. Some have spent their entire adult lives in a refugee camp and have no work experience. Mr. Kattel worked five years as a security guard in India, where he learned halting but understandable English.
But the biggest shock is sure to be cultural. The Bhutanese are moving from a near-primitive rural setting to a fast-paced modern city. Light switches, flush toilets, refrigerators—even chilled food and drinks—are as foreign as cellphones and computers.
The Kattels’ plane trip to Vancouver took 19 hours, but the family’s journey began 17 years ago when more than 100,000 Nepali-speaking Bhutanese were driven out of the small Himalayan kingdom. The refugees fled to Nepal and spent nearly two decades in camps in the country’s humid, snake-infested lowlands, miles from the tourist-trammelled mountain trails.
When a worker from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees came to the camp, asking who was interested in moving to a new country for permanent resettlement, Mr. Kattel thought of his children’s future and raised his hand.
Nearly two years after that encounter, the family boarded a plane in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, and began their long journey to Canada. As the plane’s wheels lifted from the tarmac, Mr. Kattel felt thrilled and homesick at the same time. Menuka cried from London to Vancouver, telling her mother she already missed her friends.
On Thursday afternoon, as their jet-lagged children slumped onto beds and sofas, Mr. Kattel and his wife listened intently as a Nepali-speaking counsellor showed the couple how to flush a toilet and run a shower. In the kitchen, he pointed to the stove and explained how the electric elements worked. Ms. Kattel, who cooked meals at the camp over a fire stove in the family’s hut, had never operated an oven.
Later that evening, the two other Bhutanese refugees paid the family a welcome visit. One, Saha Bahadur Diyali, took Mr. Kattel to a grocery store, where they bought rice, vegetables and fruit. Back at the shelter, Mr. Diyali, who arrived in May, filled Mr. Kattel’s head with advice on life in the Canadian suburbs.
“We decided that we aren’t many Bhutanese here, so we’ll have to stick together,” Mr. Kattel said.
Original article
(Posted on July 20, 2009)
Comments
Straight to welfare. A burden to every White. In ten years those 60 thousand will be tripled by further immigration, and that number multiplied by four because of all their babies. Every one of them should be given a White, liberal sponsor, who will be responsible for every last thing they do. Mr Bhutan steals a chicken, let Mr Good White Liberal do his two weeks in the county slammer for him. Little Billy Bhutan can’t make the grades for college, Mr Good White Liberal’s kid gives up his place at State U. Little Billy Bhutan rapes a girl in the dorm, Mr Good White Liberal’s kid goes to prison for 30 years. I believe that this office of Mr Good White Liberal is formally known as “Whipping Boy”. Mr Good White Liberal’s only lawful escape from his moral duty will be to go one on one with pitchforks against Mr Bhutan, as the halftime show at the Super Bowl. That would be even more entertaining than the commercials.
Usually if a country doesn’t have enough jobs for its own citizens it makes sense for it to NOT take in any more people who need jobs. This is basic common sense….but…well….never mind. We are long past those days.
“We decided that we aren’t many Bhutanese here, so we’ll have to stick together,” Mr. Kattel said.
When will Whites realize that there aren’t many of us and we must stick together?
Just what this country needs - more immigrants from the third world. These talented and industrious Bhutanese will undoubtedly help stimulate our economy. It’s good to know our leaders in Washington have their hands on the pulse of the nation.
Many of Bhutan’s best and brightest will probably not have access to health care upon arrival, which illustrates the need for Obama to pass his much needed health care reform package.
If it hasn’t already been discussed, I propose that a government funded training program be implemented by the Obama administration on the proper procedures for operating an oven and flushing a toilet.
Dear Lord. When is this insanity going to end? 60,000 coming to the USA? Great. Just what we need, more 3rd world peoples who can never become what the name, American USED to mean.
Yet another immigration disaster for the white english-speaking world, albeit a modest one. Of course these people should not have been condemned permanently to life in a refugee camp, but as they are Nepali speakers whose names suggest that they are Hindus,surely they should have resettled within Nepal or in India.Their resettlement in such countries could, if necessary, have been facilitated with western money.
60,000??? the longest trip begins with 60,000 imported troublemakers and I’m SURE they will become troublemakers…especially if they are muslims.
“Canada to resettle 5,000 Bhutanese refugees, while the US will take in 60,000.”
I’m just wondering if they could increase their numbers to around a million. Why? Because with all the many jobs going unfulfilled we need the peon labor badly. 15 million Mexicans and their 20 million relatives just aren’t enough to keep this economy booming as it has been. And, don’t forget. Bigger boom times are right around the corner.
Some people might say wer’re declining seriously economically and jobs are being lost in the millions, but don’t listen to them, because they’re just right wing racists.
Oh, great! Just what we need - more third worlders in North America. This is one of the worst economic downturns since the Great Depression, and how do our governments respond to it? By continuing to allow good jobs to go to third-world countries, while importing persons who will surely not contribute to the economy here. Makes no sense to me, but hey… that’s modern-day ‘immigration’ for you!
Hmmm, I don’t remember being asked about taking in 5000 Bhutanese refugees nor do I think that ACTUAL US citizens were asked about the 60,000 “cultural enrichers” that they are also foolishly accepting on behalf of the messiah.
Oh and wasn’t this just a beauty of a gem:
“We decided that we aren’t many Bhutanese here, so we’ll have to stick together.”
Here is what I would say:
The only difference is that moronic white liberals laud his blatant anti-White treason, while they would go after me, a White man, with Nazi-like zeal for speaking the TRUTH.
Oh and here’s another:
Uhh what? liberals actually expect me to believe that ALL cultures are equal? What IS THIS NONSENSE!?!?!? Don’t know how to fluch a toilet yet white liberals, with a straight face none-the-less, actually proclaim that they are our cultural equals/enrichers.
We must be truly mad.
That’s just what we need. People who’ve never seen electricity and flush toilets. I wonder how much tax money this is going to cost.
I’ll take these people any day over Somalis or other black Africans.
East Asians in general are hard-working, productive, family oriented, and completely intolerant of black African criminality.
If the majority of the white race is unwilling to defend American constitutional principles and values, I say these East Asians just the people this country needs.
Who can forget the tapes of the Rodney King riots in LA, with Korean grocers and shopkeepers defending themselves and their hard-won businesses with pistols and baseball bats?
I’d take as many of these people who want to come here.
These people are fake ‘refugees’. As many people have pointed out, the Nepalis are kicking out their own countrymen, refusing to accept people who share their blood, culture, tastes, and geographic homeland.
The plan to resettle them in white countries is a demonstration of the power the U.N. has over sovereign governments. We are seeing a foreshadowing of the resettlement of millions of economic migrants under the direction of an unelected international body.
john wrote at 10:48 PM on July 20
You would rather ne disposed by Orientals than Blacks or Mestizos? They only seem nicer because they haven’t reached critical mass in the lower 48. Ask whites in Hawaii about how nice they are treated by the Asian/Pacific majority.
With unemployment at an all time high, what nutcase wants to bring in more unskilled immigrants?
Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart compared the Bhutanese refugees to Wild West pioneers, landing in a strange country with little English, few job skills and even fewer relatives and friends.
That seems like a strange analogy. The Wild West pioneers traversed hostile terrain in covered wagons for a hardscrabble existence in what was then a wasteland. The Bhutanese are being transported by jet to settle in modern cities to live on welfare, with food, shelter and 21st century amenities just given to them.
SKIP: “I’m SURE they will become troublemakers…especially if they are muslims.”
They’re buddhists not muslims.
I suspect (actually I know) that these refugees aren’t Bhutanese. Refugees? From what? At last count Bhutan was the happiest country on Earth. Its economy is growing at double the rate of China’s and it has made the jump from from a benevolent dictatorship (under a king), to a Constitutional Monarchy (with a great deal of opposition from the people too I might add). The rate of modernisation in Bhutan is shocking, and there is talk about slowing the introduction of non-essential items such as TVs to ensure that the Bhutanese culture is retained. Nepal, on the other hand is a different story. Last year the King was deposed by a Communist guerilla force turned party, and the citizens live in fear of civil war. Many have fled to Bhutan, and found that they were rejected for fear they would slow the economy down; so the West has taken them in. The Nepalis come from the mountainous border region where the Communists first established their base.
John wrote:
I’ll take these people any day over Somalis or other black Africans.
Fair enough. But I’m afraid we can’t arrange an exchange program.
But seriously, who had ever even heard of Bhutan before this story?
I’ll take these people any day over Somalis or other black Africans.
#13, John I agree with this, but since our GUBMINT didn’t give us a “none of the above” choice ANYONE is better than ANY black muslim.
THE ETHNO-CULTURAL FACTS
These people, North America’s newest refugees, are blood-and-bone Nepalese, speakers of Nepalese, almost all Hindu [possibly a few recent Christian converts are among them] and fairly dark-skinned.
The ruling class in Bhutan are Bhutanese [racially similiar to Tibetans], speakers of Bhutanese, Buddhists and golden-skinned.
THE BACKGROUND TO THE PRESENT TRAGEDY
Steady Nepalese immigration into the thinly-populated and unpoliced lowlands of Bhutan - a state under British protection but never a part of British India - over the course of a century threatened to turn the ethnic Bhutanese a minority in their country [and any native Fijian or Hawaiian will tell you how that feels] and the benign-despotic Bhutanese regime - ‘Happy-Happy-Shangri-La’ Tourist Board claptrap notwithstanding - began booting out undocumented Nepalese about two decades ago. Many were despoiled for their modest wealth and some were killed in the process of their expulsion.
Nepal and India have plenty of Nepalese-speakers already and absolutely NO fertile and tillable land going spare.
ILLEGAL MASS IMMIGRATION: A VIGNETTE
India already has to cope with a steady influx of Bengali-speakers from Bangladesh. Their steady infiltration into fertile valleys in the Indian Northeast has lead to bloody clashes and pogroms; on more than one occasion tribal locals - some of whom are Baptists whose grandparents and great-grandparents were converted to Christianity by American missionaries - have raided Bengali settlements and massacred every man, woman and child.
Older readers will recall the bloody birth of Bangladesh, now nearly four decades ago.
In the aftermath of that tragic conflict, large numbers of Bihari-speaking Muslims were marooned inside Bangladesh. Their parents had fled India for what was East Pakistan.
Many, not all, had sided with the West Pakistanis against their Bengali neighbors and desired resettlement in Pakistan.
Successive Pakistani governments have come and gone and very very few of these tragic and orphaned Biharis - who regard themselves as Pakistanis unjustly separated from the motherland - have been resettled in Pakistan.
In opposition, Benazir Bhutto favored resettling the Biharis in Pakistan, but once in power, she sadly confessed that she recognised that the influx of so many unassimilable aliens would add yet more instability to a country already cursed with sectarian and ethno-cultural tensions.
Any non-White migration (invasion) to a White nation is a disaster but East Asians like Bhutanese are far more preferred to the others. But I doubt if these refugees are real Bhutanese. I would not mind if they were but these refugees are not true Mongoloid Bhutanese.
The truth is, these refugees are Indian looking Nepalis living in Bhutan. Bhutan is a beautiful Tibetan like mountain kingdom (called the Dragon Kingdom) called by some ‘the last Shangri La’. The place has nearly zero crime and the true Bhutanese people are very peaceful, civilized, happy, friendly and orderly.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcoQjoZ6toI&feature=fvw http://www.topnews.in/files/Bhutanese-Refugee.jpg
And this is how the true Bhutanese look likehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hTmQCAd-FE
These immigrants increased the crime rate, exploited the local people, made the place dirty etc… until the Bhutanese king Jigme Wangchuck had enough and wisely kicked them out. This King brought out a new slogan ‘One Nation, one People’. He wanted to prevent a future civil war in Bhutan. Hindus had infiltrated the neighbouring Buddhist kingdom of Sikkim and forced it to become a state of India in the 70s. The Indian army had invaded Sikkim.
So the fact is these refugees are Nepalis who were returned to their own nation, Nepal. How are they refugees anymore?
I wish the western world were ruled by such benevolent kings who would have the interest of their people at heart. Maybe the Bhutanese King should be invited to America to become its president.
If these are “rural” people, why aren’t they going to work on a farm or farms somewhere? Logic doesn’t seem to be the high-point of the persons involved in relocating these people.
I say these East Asians just the people this country needs.
I’ll take these people any day over Somalis or other black Africans.
Africans or Asians — is that what it comes down to? Is it necessary for us to chose?
Sorry, John, I have a better idea. How about NONE?
On the upside, if they aren’t Muslim, it’s probably not as harmful and they won’t be outbreeding the white population. The Somalis, on the other hand, were a huge mistake.
“Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart compared the Bhutanese refugees to Wild West pioneers…..”
Great analogy, look what the pioneers and frontiersmen did to the native population.
“East Asians in general are hard-working, productive, family oriented,….”
Insanity has taken over our government. Immigration policy should be based on what is best for the US, not the other way around. I fail to see what value a 3rd world peasant, who has never used a toilet nonetheless, could possibly offer an advanced technological society. Madness!!! At what point do we finally say no more? 500M population? 1B population? The gov’t behaves as if there is no bounds of when our quality of life equates to that of te 3rd world. There is no end in sight and this is self inflicted (ie not organic growth rather from immigration). Any sane person can see that a population of 500M or 1B composed of people and cultures from all around the earth will end in very brutal civil strife if/when things get tough. China and india are able to barley maintain their populace which are by and large homogenous peoples and culture. This will all end badly, especailly for white Americans. The only hope for our future white generations is an immediate halt to immigration. And it still may be too late.
To Kenelm Digby:
I don’t know why, but I think Papua New Guinea will be the next outpost, from which the USA will import its 3rd World guests. They’ll be resettled in Hawaii or California.
To Courtney:
Your post reminded me of a scene in “Song of the South”- the Alabama CW song-not the Disney cartoon. In actual footage taken during the 1930’s, there’s a scene where Alabama farm laborers are trudging against the backdrop of a huge billboard, upon which is written:
UNEMPLOYED MEN, KEEP MOVING. WE CAN’T TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN
Those in power never learn, do they Courtney?
Courtney writes:
“…Usually if a country doesn’t have enough jobs for its own citizens it makes sense for it to NOT take in any more people who need jobs…”
Of course, that makes sense to US—and the government well knows this too. Jobs or not jobs is of no concern to them—they’ll just add the latest refugees to the welfare rolls and confiscate YOUR wealth to pay for it.
Their motive? Continue to flood White countries with non-White to dilute the number of Whites and eventually displace them completely, import more low IQd, multi-generational welfare parasites who can be counted on to vote in perpetuity for the democratic party, replace any vestige of Western Civilization with a NWO lorded over by hostile elites who dream of creating a one-world government with ‘international’ laws—and with them in complete control at the top and Kulaks—I mean Whites, at the bottom, that is if there are any left.
Yeah, worked well when the Soviets tried it—to the tune of 65 million dead and ongoing, vicious ethnic conflict to this day.
Bon
Of course White nationalists will oppose this, but I’m not completely sure why. First of all, these folks are Caucasians. It’s a bit of a reach to call them Whites, but they are Caucasians. It’s kind of weird to lump them in with “non-Whites.” I mean, they’re non-Europeans, ok. These are basically Nepali-speaking Hindus who look like East Indians. They will commit very little crime. They should probably do pretty well in school. I’m not sure they will stay on welfare a long time. They are not a multigenerational Underclass and will not become one. In short, other than the fact that they are not of European stock, I don’t understand the whole fuss.
Baptists whose grandparents and great-grandparents were converted to Christianity by American missionaries - have raided Bengali settlements and massacred every man, woman and child.
Now there’s an idea!
To Courtney:
“Your post reminded me of a scene in “Song of the South”- the Alabama CW song-not the Disney cartoon. In actual footage taken during the 1930’s, there’s a scene where Alabama farm laborers are trudging against the backdrop of a huge billboard, upon which is written:
UNEMPLOYED MEN, KEEP MOVING. WE CAN’T TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN
Those in power never learn, do they Courtney?”
During the Dust Bowl problem of the thirties, the State of California distributed pamphlets at the Arizona Utah and Nevada borders. The pamphlets stated that:
(1) There was a terrible unemployment problem in California just as there was in the rest of the country.
We can’t stop you, but come at your own risk was the message.
Robert Lindsay,
These people are not Caucasians.http://www.topnews.in/files/Bhutanese-Refugee.jpg
Besides Pakistanis and Bangladeshis belong to the same race as Indians but underperform in the U.K while even Indian Muslims perform better. Similarly there is a big Indian underclass of Punjabi Sikhs and Tamil Hindus in Canada who behave like Hispanics if not as bad as blacks.
Besides it is irrelevant if they will do well is school or if they will be law abiding. They are not one of us. There is no reason why they have to be brought to American or Canada. Given a choice between low IQ White immigrants and high IQ genetic aliens, wisdom dictates that we take the side of the former. What if the high IQ (which these refugees are not) alien group is hostile to the host? For their own sake it is better these refugees are settled in a culturally similar nation like India or Nepal where they will feel at home and get along with their hosts. American society and these refugees are alien to each other. Thus the fuss is rightfully justified.
“We can’t stop you, but come at your own risk was the message.”
It is really surprising experience for me to learn that many White Americans are highly concerned about the influx of the huge lot of immigrant refugees from Bhutan via Nepal. In fact, it is really shocking to learn that the Bhutanese Refugees are considered as crime- orientd by the people here in America. This is a serious blow to their hospitable status, who love peace and non-violence. They are mostly Hindu Aryans of Indo-European origins. People have come here with their own reasons, mainly to rebuild their life, to shape the future of their new generations after more than a decades of uncertain and difficult refugee life. So far, I have that the majority of the comments posted in this are either exagerated or understated to understand the Bhutanese refugees like Muslims, Somali Bantus or Mexicians or terrorists. I suggest all the commentors to understand Bhutanese refugees more detailly through different trusted medias.
37 Shangrila: First, it doesn’t matter if we are assured that these people are wonderful. We have been told repeatedly that diversity is a blessing, and repeatedly found it to be a lie. If they’re such wonderful people, India ought be happy to take them, just as we’d be happy to take in White refugees from South Africa.
