Exodus Refugee Immigration - Overview

Overview

Exodus works with both the Church World Service and Episcopal Migration Ministires to resettle the refugees that are assigned to Indiana. Most of the refugees Exodus receives are from the Chin and Karen ethnic groups in Eastern Myanmar (formerly Burma) and Western Myanmar, respectively. The Myanmarese government, controlled by a military junta, has declared these two states as no-go zones. Anyone caught in these zones can be shot, forced in to labor, and exploited legally. As a result many Chin and Karen flee to neighboring Thailand and Malaysia where they may wait years in refugee camps until being resettled in the United States. Most Chin and Karen refugees are resettled into the Southport, Stop Ten, Stop Eleven area of Indianapolis.

Exodus Refugee Immigration has 11 people on staff, most of which are caseworkers. Of these 11 people, 5 were refugees themselves once, and are members of the Chin people and the Karen people. They work actively with the burgeoning Chin and Karen populations in southern Indianapolis, providing translation, transportation, medical, financial, and social services.