Recently I facilitated a sociology conference where we had a keynote speaker discuss refugees.
James Hardan from the World Relief Fund discussed them for us:
Immigrants choose to leave but refugees are forced.
The road to refugee:
Flee homeland, leave everything behind, find temporary
shelter (avg stay is 5 years) sometimes living in forest for extended time
Interview with UNHCR; often involves reliving the events
Wait for acceptance and nation to accept you
US resettles 50-60% of worldwide refugees
If accepted, go wherever you are sent and be prepared to pay
back airfare costs!
26 million refugees worldwide.
50-80,000 refugees accepted to US each year
$900 given to each refugee to make it through first 3
months!
IL is 7th largest recipient of refugees
UNHCR – US Dept state – IOM Travel logistics – Resettlement
Services
Worldrelief Services:
Initial resettlement
Employment Services
Education Services/ESL
Refugee Counseling Services
Youth Services
Volunteer and Church Relations
Citizenship and immigration Legal Service
Challenges:
Educational factors: ESL and lagging academics
Family and Cultural Dynamics:
Parent child role reversal
Lack of parental involvement in students’ lives
Lack of parental involvement in school
Different parenting styles and discipline
Past and Current Trauma/stress:
Past trauma and identity crisis
IL refugees:
Bhutanese
Ethnic Lhotsampa
108,000 people displaced
Imprisoned, abused, denial of human rights
Iraqi
Very different from Bhutanese
Recent refugees, short term
Kids have seen and experienced more turmoil than Bhutanese
Here is a video showing you the life in a refugee camp in South Asia:
Here is a video showing you the life in a refugee camp in South Asia:
I want to examine the refugees for cultural differences, especially cultural values. Often, we are so surrounded by our own culture that we cannot see that it is a social construction and there are other realities that exist. So, after watching the movie God Grew Tired of Us and reading The Values Americans Live By written by Kohl, reflect on these questions:
1. Individually,
react to the Kohl reading. What are some
of the values that Kohl mentions that you easily agree Americans have? What are some specific examples that you can
cite from your own life that show these values shaping either you or your
parents or another example?
2. Pick your best
example of how these values are at play in The United States or at SHS or in
your own life. Take turns sharing each
person’s best example. Oldest person in
the group goes first. Write down the
values that others share and their example:
3. As a group,
identify values that are contradictory to U.S. values from the film God Grew
Tired of Us.
4. Look at the list
of values that Americans hold. Identify
American values that might compliment each other. These are called value clusters. List them here:
Value Cluster: ________________________________________________________________________________
Now look for American values that might contradict the other
American values. These are called value
contradictions. List them here:
Value Contradiction:
________________________________________________________________________
5. Do you think
Americans value happiness? Why? How?
It's great how much time and effort people put into helping people they have no connection to and how they give up their time to support them
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