People all around the world are pushed into the life of a refugee. The situation in the Middle East is only getting worse.

Day after day people are torn from their homes and uprooted from their lives by forces out of their control. People are forced to try and escape their own countries just to stay alive. If they are able to stay, the conditions are abysmal.

When these people go to other countries, the conditions aren’t much better. Many times, they are forced to move around constantly, hoping to find a shred of hope anywhere they can.

There is no clear solution to the problem of displaced peoples. One thing that can be done, though, is providing somewhere to live and restart their lives.

Our state is more than capable of handling more refugees. The Seattle metropolitan area is ripe with new bustling companies that are desperate for labor. Additionally, giants of the corporation world like Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing call Washington their home.

Refugees can take advantage of reduced community college tuition if they agree to pay it back upon finding work. Through a system like this, refugees can truly integrate into our society and help make it better.

While our city is far removed from the conflicts that produce refugees, we can still support them. Bellevue is a very expensive city to live in and might not be the best place for refugees to live.

Instead of letting the wealth of Bellevue be a hindrance, we can allow it to help. Bellevue residents can help fund programs for refuges through slight tax increases. This is more than reasonable to help these desperate people.

Both our state and city are already huge melting pots of culture from around the globe and adding more can only be a good thing.

I encourage you to support helping people from around the world that have been forcedly removed from their own country.

Abraham Hamshou

Bellevue High School senior