Archive for the ‘cultural adjustment’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 17, 2012
Police in Rock Island, Illinois reminded refugee parents that they may discipline their children as long as it is reasonable, e.g. a spanking. An article in Quad-City Times covers the topic:
…For immigrants unfamiliar with the laws and customs, and who have a limited ability to speak or read English, adjusting to life in the United States can be challenging.
Refugees from the Asian nations of Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar (formerly Burma) were invited to meet Saturday with representatives of the Rock Island Police Department and the Community Caring Conference as part of a program to help the new residents better understand and adjust to the city.
About three dozen people attended the session, including translators who spoke Nepali and Karen, a Burmese dialect…24-year-old Tika Bista, part of the group of Nepali immigrants, raised a question about acceptable methods for disciplining a child.
“When I was a child, my parents hit me to put me on the right track,” Bista said.
He said many immigrants come from parts of the world where corporal punishment is more accepted than it is in the United States, and because their children go to American schools and know English better than their parents, the adults worry that their attempts to discipline the children could result in the youngsters calling police.
Jeffrey VenHuizen, Rock Island’s deputy chief of police, said officers have to respond and investigate when they receive a call about the possible abuse of a child.
“As a parent, you have a right to discipline your child,” he said. “The discipline has to be reasonable.”
VenHuizen said he considers a “swat on the bottom” reasonable.
“As long as your discipline is reasonable, we’re not going to arrest a parent for disciplining a child,” he said
The issue is an example of the cultural differences that can make immigrant populations reluctant to seek help from the police, he said. VenHuizen said many immigrants come from countries where the police are violent and corrupt, which makes them distrustful of American police as well... Read more here
Posted in children, cultural adjustment, Karen, Nepali Bhutanese, police | Tagged: children, cultural adjustment, Karen, Nepali, police, Quad-Cities, refugees, resettlement, Rock Island | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 22, 2011
There is a new documentary film from Clarkston, Georgia called A Place In The World about The International Community School — a small charter school that brings together refugee children and teaches them alongside local American children so that they can learn from one another.
SYNOPSIS:
A Place In The World is a feature-length documentary about a small charter school called “The International Community School” (ICS). The school takes on an issue that plagues many communities: what to do for the refugee and immigrant populations whose children are falling behind in traditional public schools. ICS’ conclusion: placing these kids together with local American children will allow for a trade-off that, if nurtured and encouraged, will benefit both parties greatly. The school is comprised of about half refugee students, half local American kids.
ICS is located in a small suburb outside of Atlanta, Georgia – a place with its own divisive history of acceptance, integration, and social change. In a way, ICS acts as a microcosmic laboratory for how we can all get along. The community ICS serves was reported by the New York Times to be “the most diverse square mile in America” where over 60,000 refugees have been resettled. ICS’ refugee student body accurately reflects the global sociopolitical climate at any given time. If there is strife and violence somewhere in the world, there are most likely children from that place at ICS. Such a concentration of peoples, naturally, brings friction. The parents, coming from worlds apart, hold various ideologies, religions and values that come into conflict with one another. The children, whose identities are still being formed, see something very different. They are stretched between two worlds: one of cultural meshing, and one of traditional belief. Despite their many differences, all the families have something very much in common – they want a better life for their children… Read more here
ABOUT THE SCHOOL:
The International Community School is a K-6 Charter and IB World School, advancing the promise of America by cultivating voice, courage and hope in refugee, immigrant and local children in DeKalb County, Georgia… Read more here
Posted in Atlanta, children, cultural adjustment, education, left-wing, school for refugee children | Tagged: A Place In The World, charter school, Clarkston, documentary, refugees, resettlement, The International Community School | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 15, 2011
Mechanicsburg in Central Pennsylvania is another site of “secondary migration” – refugees moving away from their primary resettlement area, looking for better opportunities or wanting to join family or friends. Catholic Charities Immigration and Refugee Services in nearby Harrisburg also resettles refugees directly to the area. The area’s factory jobs are a good fit for those with limited English. The Somali Association of Central Pennsylvania works to help refugees become independent. An article in The Patriot-News explains:
To most, learning to write down a telephone or Social Security number wasn’t a big deal.
But to 67-year-old Abdiyo Osman, who doesn’t know English, the task is a milestone.
Displaced from Somalia three years ago because of a tribal war that’s been brewing there for 20 years, Osman has been in Mechanicsburg ever since.
Some might wonder why the refugee came to the midstate, a place the polar opposite of her native land. She came here for the Somali Association of Central Pennsylvania.
Established in 2008 in Hampden Twp., word of mouth spread spread quickly that Somalis had gathered there to start new lives in the United States. Once they arrive, the association helps them adjust to life much different than back home…
…Osman spent a short time in Kenya before coming to the states, but she never got an education — until she came here.
Three times a week, Osman meets with several other refugees and takes classes in a tiny room in a small building in the West Shore office park off the Carlisle Pike. It is there Osman has learns how to write and adapt to American Culture.
One week it’s a lesson about the U.S. medical system and health care. The next week it’s budgeting money and opening a bank account. “It’s important to be able to do those basic things,” Osman said.
The Somali Association of Central Pennsylvania also works with various hiring agencies to help find refugees work in factories. Since most can’t speak English yet, it’s work that’s easiest to find.
With a job and basic life skills, refugees take steps toward the association’s idea of success — independent living.
It’s a life defined by opportunity as much as challenge… Read more here
Posted in cultural adjustment, economic self-sufficiency, employment/jobs for refugees, ESL & ELL, Harrisburg-Mechanicsburg, language, secondary migration, refugee, Somali | Tagged: Catholic Charities Immigration and Refugee Services, factory, Hampden, Harrisburg, limited English, Mechanicsburg, refugees, resettlement, secondary migration, Somali Association of Central Pennsylvania | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 21, 2011
The US Department of State and the International Institute of Akron are resettling about 350 refugees annually in Akron. Secondary migration from other areas of the US is significant, with 350 more refugees arriving annually. Adult refugees here face the usual barriers to medical care, such as transportation issues, the language barrier, and cultural differences that hinder understanding and communication between medical staff and patients. Medical workers treat refugees for parasites, hepatitis, tuberculosis, dental problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other health issues. Although most refugee children are in good health when they arrive, some have medical concerns not typically seen in American-born children — e.g., hepatitis, latent tuberculosis, anemia, failure to thrive, parasites, chronic ear infections and certain oral health problems. An article in the Beacon Journal has more:
…Each year, about 350 refugees from Myanmar, Nepal, Iraq and other countries arrive in the Akron area with the help of the International Institute of Akron, according to Kate Sass, the institute’s director of refugee resettlement. Another 350 refugees who have been living in other cities throughout the United States also relocate to the region in a typical year…
...Cultural differencesAlong with the obvious language barrier, things such as transportation issues and cultural differences create challenges, Van Nostran said. Some patients also struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder from their past experiences.
The staff has learned, for example, that it is considered rude in some cultures to only use one hand instead of two to give patients their prescriptions or other paperwork.
In another case, Van Nostran said, hospital staff were concerned that a refugee couple were ignoring their newborn shortly after birth. The staff later learned this was the custom in the family’s native culture, which believes doting on a newborn will draw the attention of “evil spirits.”
“It has challenged us not to make assumptions but to ask specifically about cultures,” she said…
…When refugees arrive, they must have an initial health exam within 30 days for parasites, hepatitis, tuberculosis, dental problems and other health issues.
Some refugees have latent tuberculosis, which isn’t active or contagious but still must be treated with a nine-month course of antibiotics to avoid an active infection in the future, she said.
“You learn a lot,” Erme said. “Health-care providers who take care of refugee patients need to be open to learning and realize that what we were taught in our medical professional education may not always apply to this population.”…
…Caring for children
…Although the majority of children are in good health when they arrive, he said, refugees have some medical concerns that typically aren’t seen in American-born children — things such as oral health problems, latent tuberculosis, parasites, anemia, failure to thrive, chronic ear infections and hepatitis… Read more here
I think that the International Institute of Akron resettling refugees into crowded housing with rats and roaches also must not have been particularly healthful for refugees in Akron.
Posted in health, housing, substandard, housing, overcrowding, secondary migration, refugee, children, PTSD, cultural adjustment, language, RMA (Refugee Medical Assistance), Akron, International Institute of Akron | Tagged: refugees, resettlement, International Institute, PTSD, language barrier, Akron, hepatitis, latent tuberculosis, anemia, failure to thrive | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 1, 2011
As if the difficulties for refugees in adjusting to a new culture weren’t hard enough – while dealing with the heavy emotional baggage that stems from loss of family, loss of home, and extended periods in refugee camps – the US refugee resettlement program continues to place many of them in crime-ridden neighborhoods where the refugees fear for their lives. Thus, exacerbating mental health conditions (I have lobbied with the State Department for change in this issue since 2001 – see a 2005 letter). Philadelphia is one of the problem resettlement sites. An article in NewsWorks has the story:
War, torture, loss of family and friends–refugees arriving in the United States often carry heavy emotional baggage. Then they endure the strains of adjusting to a new culture. Agencies working with refugees new to Philadelphia are puzzling out how to help this population cope with its burdens…
…Refugees may have experienced loss of family, loss of home, arduous flight, extended periods in refugee camps, and then all of the challenges around readjustment.
For Khin Khin, who is from Burma, the readjustment struggles began right away. She fled to the U.S. with her husband, who was persecuted in Burma for his political activities. Arriving in Philadelphia, a service agency set her family up in a temporary apartment in a very bad neighborhood. “I know that America is not heaven, but we think that we can live very safely, but my husband when we first arrived, he was robbed,” recalled Khin Khin. “He was so scared to call the police because that guy said, ‘if you call the police I will kill you’, so he is so scared.”
Khin Khin remembers hearing gunfire all the time. She felt isolated, since no other Burmese families lived nearby. She had a sick infant, who required several surgies. At times, stress, anxiety and worry were and still are overwhelming. During a recent physical, she says her doctors recommended counseling. Khin Khin says she was told to share her feelings with a therapist, but she doesn’t want to do that because she is too shy… Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, cultural adjustment, dangerous neighborhoods, Lutheran Children and Family Service (Philadelphia), mental health, Philadelphia, reform, safety, State Department | Tagged: Burma, crime, dangerous neighborhoods, mental health, Myanmar, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, State Department, U.S. Department of State | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 24, 2011
Last May Nancy Lee wrote a post suggesting the need for a handbook or manual for refugees to have as a guide through resettlement. Finally one refugee resettlement contractor is preparing one – albeit only for Nepali-Bhutanese refugees resettled in New Hampshire. The handbook will focus on the difficulties faced by refugees as they adapt to their new life in America. This effort comes three years after the US began resettling 60,000 Nepali-Bhutanese refugees here. An article on PRWeb explains:
Lutheran Social Services (LSS) Services for New Americans will develop and publish a bi-lingual guidebook for Bhutanese refugees resettled in New Hampshire.
Funded by a grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, the Nepali/English Handbook for Living in the USA will focus on the difficulties faced by refugees as they adapt to their new life in America. LSS will subcontract with S & T Communications to produce the handbook.
S&T Communications, located in Manchester, NH voluntarily publishes Aksharica Nepali Newsletter (www.aksharica.com) for Nepali speaking refugees and immigrants living in the US. On behalf of S&T Communications, Rajesh Koirala, the editor of Aksharica will write the handbook. Rajesh has over 15 years of experience in writing and journalism.
The U.S. Government began resettling Bhutanese refugees in March 2008. Since that time, more than 1,200 Nepali speaking refugees have made New Hampshire their new home in America.
Most refugees have spent a considerable part of their lives in refugee camps. New Hampshire offers them a safe haven, but an entirely new set of rules, customs and systems. Coping with this culture shock can prove difficult. The handbook will provide an easy reference allowing Bhutanese refugees to receive information about their new communities at their own pace… Read more here
Posted in Nepali Bhutanese, New Hampshire, community/cultural orientation, Lutheran Social Services of New Hampshire, Lutheran, cultural adjustment, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, language | Tagged: bhutanese, guidebook, Handbook for Living in the USA, LSS, Lutheran social services, Nepali, Nepali-Bhutanese, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 20, 2011
An article in Public Radio International’s The World explains the issue of managing refugee children in their transition to a new culture — in particular, their newfound power of dialing 911. The article also explains related language-barrier problems.
Fargo police officer Cristie Jacobsen has responded to a lot of 9-11 calls, but few with less urgency than this one. “A teenage girl called the police on her mother because her mother had prepared a very simple ethnic meal for her and she didn’t like it,” said Jacobsen.
Coming to a new nation as a refugee — adjusting to a new language, culture, and climate — is always a struggle. But now in Fargo, North Dakota many refugee parents are being manipulated by their children.
Refugee children have been calling the Fargo Police because they don’t want to do the dishes or wear a particular shirt. They’ve also gotten a lot of calls about this: Parents were taking away their kid’s Mountain Dew.
“The children didn’t like it,” said Jacobsen. “Because they had gotten used to drinking it, they enjoyed the caffeine splurge and things like that and so it became a power struggle.”… Read more here
Posted in children, cultural adjustment, language, North Dakota | Tagged: 9/11, children, Fargo, police, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 1, 2011
It seems that the best way to help immigrants with acculturation – the process of assimilating new ideas into an existing cognitive
structure – is to meet them part way between our culture and theirs. Nooga.com has an article about Boy Scout leaders in Chattanooga who show adept skill at guiding Burundian refugee youth into American culture by tailoring Boy Scout values and traditions to the young people’s experiences and understandings. That’s at the heart of any good teaching no doubt, whether one is teaching adults or children, or Americans or the foreign-born. You have to know your students — not treat them like numbers.
Before a recent hiking outing in the Pocket Wilderness, a member of East Ridge Scout Troop 127 asked Scoutmaster Ben Powell if he’d be bringing along a rifle.
“Why?” Powell replied.
“In case we see a lion,” the scout answered.
Considering the scout’s background, the question wasn’t unreasonable. Of Troop 127′s nine members, six are refugees from Burundi, a small, landlocked country in Eastern Africa with a long history of conflict…
…Powell described the development of the troop as one of continual adaptation, as leaders and scouts have grown in their understanding of one another. Troop leaders now rarely ever wear the Boy Scout uniform, due to a negative association with uniforms wrought from years of civil war in their native country.
To work towards forming stronger relationships, Powell’s approach has been unconventional, but with purpose. In the basement room where the troop meets, a whiteboard shows the tenants of the Scout Law, with the hand-written corresponding words in Kirundi, the indigenous language of Burundi…
…”To be effective working among the Burundians, you have to unpin a lot of your ideas from normality, and that can be disruptive to a lot of people personally,” Powell said. “For example, we discovered that for our Burundians, the forest is not only a place with dangerous animals, but also where military units took people to murder them. So, they are pretty hesitant about places other Scouts would typically enjoy.”
J.R. Caines, pastor of East Ridge Presbyterian, refers to the Burundians as family. He described the church’s mission with the troop as one of not “reaching out, but reaching in.”
“They’re thinking about the future, about having to one day get a job and find their way in America,” Caines said. “So it’s not as much about learning the typical Boy Scout outdoor skills, but also the cultural skills, the way that American culture works.”… Read more here
The only part of the story I’m wary about is the emphasis on Christian values. Those are a significant part of American culture, but not all Christian values – or all of each sect’s values – necessarily represent our common values. Refugee resettlement is a public program serving our whole society. I hope that the Boy Scouts in Chattanooga stick to that part of Christianity that represents the universal human values from which we created our culture, including trustworthiness, loyalty, helpfulness.
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Burundian, Chattanooga, Christian, churches, converting refugees, cultural adjustment, faith-based, teenagers | Tagged: acculturation, American values, Boy Scouts, Burundian, Chattanooga, East Ridge, East Ridge Presbyterian, kirundi, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 25, 2011
The Penfield Post in upstate New York has an article today profiling Rochester’s Catholic Family Center and a local hospital that works with refugees.
Irondequoit, N.Y. — “Opposite” is the word Dim Sian Huai has for her life in Rochester for about the past two years.
Originally from Burma, in Southeast Asia, Dim obtained refugee status and lived in Malaysia before moving to Rochester with her brother and sister.
“The place (Rochester) was chosen for me,”…
…According to 2008 data, the latest for which data is available, 87 percent of refugees coming in to New York state were resettled upstate. Of that 87 percent, 16 percent of those refugees are settled in Rochester.
“I think the environment here (in Rochester) is easier, and housing and jobs are semi-decent,” [Jim] Sutton [a physician’s assistant and director of community medicine and the refugee health program for Rochester General] said. “Plus, Catholic Family Center is one of the better resettlement agencies in the country.”
He works with refugees primarily from a medical standpoint, and organized a conference on the topic earlier this year. The response to that two-day conference surprised even him. It drew 400 participants from 29 states.
“There are three traumas refugees go through,” Sutton said, pointing first to whatever happened in a refugee’s
native country, then becoming, in effect, “a person without a country” in a camp, then resettling in the U.S.
“We see a lot of symptoms of unhealed trauma,” Sutton said, “yet it’s also extremely rewarding to help someone who’s so vulnerable and wants to do the right thing … Even a little bit of help always gets a smile and a thank you.”
…Sutton works closely with people like Jim Morris, associate director of refugee services at Catholic Family Center.
The center has a three-month resettlement program, Morris said, during which they provide or arrange “core services” — like housing and education — as defined by the federal government.
The national network with whom the center works sends biographies of potential refugees who might settle in Rochester, Morris explained, and the center accepts about 99 percent of them.
…Most are resettled in the city of Rochester because they need to be close to public transportation and city services, Morris said, but added that he knows families that have relocated to Henrietta, Pittsford, Perinton, Brighton and beyond after their initial arrival.
…“There’s value in understanding other cultures and people,” Morris said, adding that refugees are also rejuvenating some whole blocks and neighborhoods in Rochester. “It’s a story of urban development… Read more here
A local volunteer reported in October that a neighborhood in Rochester where CFC was resettling refugees has the highest crime rate in all of New York state. Politicians in states losing population have long succeeded in pressuring the federal government into placing refugees in these areas (often extremely dangerous areas) and I never hear public or private partners in the resettlement program criticize this.
Also, I see that CFC says it takes 99 percent of refugees that the USCCB offers them, which differs from statements that other private resettlement agencies have made about their national affiliates forcing them to take refugee clients.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Family Center (Rochester), cultural adjustment, dangerous neighborhoods, faith-based, health, language, mental health, population levels, using refugees as pawns to boost, Rochester, USCCB | Tagged: Brighton, Henrietta, human rights, Perinton, Pittsford, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 21, 2010
In the black and white thinking of refugee officials even a rat biting a baby can’t be as bad as the circumstances from which refugees have escaped. Would you rather have the refugee family die back in a refugee camp? An article in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette tells how a rat bit a Burmese refugee baby in an apartment. If only the refugees had complained about the rats, but its an acclimation problem you see. But isn’t that why we have refugee resettlement agencies to help refugees with these tasks?
…A report that a toddler had been bitten by a mouse or rat would cause most Americans fear and outrage.
When Dr. Charles Coats – who treated 19-month-old Sage Dar for the bite – learned what had caused it, he was incensed.
“You just don’t hear about rats or mice in the United States attacking babies,” Coats said. “You should never have to worry about your baby being bitten in your own home.”…
…Be Ki, Sage Dar’s mother, lives in Autumn Woods Apartments on the city’s far southeast side with her three children, while her husband works in Illinois. She speaks no English.
…She said that as the complex’s clientele became largely Burmese three years ago, it has been an educational experience for everyone. Recent immigrants have had to learn how to make their way in a bewildering new society, and management has had to learn about which issues it needs to watch because of tenants’ lack of familiarity. For example, plumbing that you cannot pour cooking grease into…
…“You don’t want to take their culture away from (immigrants), but we do try to help acclimate them,” she said. “There’s a lot behind the scenes we try to do. We’re like social workers and landlords here.”…
…Washington said it’s important to remember that issues that arise are not a “Burmese problem,” but simply an acclimation problem. Anyone would have difficulty fitting in to a new culture, and everyone involved needs to learn as they go. Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, children, cultural adjustment, Fort Wayne, housing, housing, substandard, rats and roaches, safety | Tagged: Burmese refugees, fort wayne, rat bites baby, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
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