Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
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
