Immigrants and Refugees: Interculturalists Can Help—Are You Ready?
Jan 17, 2022Portions of the following are based on an article (Working with Immigrants and Refugees) by Zara Abrams in the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology October, 2021, pp 30-35.
Do you want to work with refugees? Are you already working with them? According to Russanne Bucci who is the author of the January Opinion column in which she provides a personal account of bringing a refugee into her home and heart, “agency personnel, foster families and refugee youth would benefit from understanding basic models of how cultures vary and of the cultural adjustment process. Interculturalists can provide culture specific information to the foster family and help the family build relationships with members of their foster child’s ethnic and religious groups in the local community. DEI trainers could teach refugee youth about Black History and the racism they observe and experience in the United States. Interculturalists could supplement the agency’s resources by bringing a cultural lens to the dynamics and misunderstandings in the foster family and school setting. Perhaps we could have the greatest impact by working within the system to change policy and influence future legislation. There are more and more refugee children streaming across borders every year, and I believe our profession can help prevent more unnecessary suffering.”
A Human Rights Watch article reported that “UNHCR projected that a half million Afghans may seek to leave by the end of 2021.” SIETAR USA has a number of members who have worked in some capacity with refugees over many years and others who have recently begun volunteering to work with refugees and immigrants. They agree that understanding the context of immigration is essential whether working with individuals or groups. For example, immigrants from the Northern Triangle of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras are frequently running for their lives. Some but not all are undocumented which can add to their challenges. The influx of refugees from Afghanistan to the United States are fleeing the Taliban takeover. Individuals in many of these groups survived perilous journeys to arrive in the United States. Different circumstances but similar fears and trauma. Refugees differ greatly in terms of legal status, level of familial support, education, job skills, and personal experiences of trauma and abuse. Most of these refugees have one strength in common: resilience. It is a good place to start. As you listen to their stories (perhaps through an interpreter), note their examples of resilience. It’s a strength they will continue to use. The strength you bring to the encounter is your listening skills.
The United States is home to over 44 million immigrants from all over the world. They reach our shores with an amazing diversity of religious, linguistic, education and ethnic backgrounds—even when they are from the same country. Their reasons for coming are likely although not always from trauma. For example, some are seeking work, others reuniting with family. The Pew Research Center reported in 2018 that over half of our immigrants came from Latin America and a quarter were from Asia. Many came from the Middle East as well. Encounters with refugees and immigrants confirm both the challenges and rewards of working with this exciting group of people.
Getting here is the first hurdle and the second is navigating our immigration system, which is never easy. Helping immigrants at this stage can smooth out their entry into our culture. Some immigrants of color also face bias and discrimination that sometimes begins immediately but more often as they enter the job market and search for housing. “Racism is finally being recognized as a public health issue—but it’s also important to connect that to the immigrant experience. A lot of the challenges that immigrants experience are actually due to racism” (Laura Minero in Abrams p. 32).
Despite the challenges, research shows that immigrants often have better mental health than non-immigrants (the healthy immigrant paradox). However, once settled in, depression and anxiety can increase, requiring extra support to sustain well-being. This is another point where interculturalists can make a difference. It resembles the U-curve we are familiar with, wellbeing starting on a high and fairly quickly descending as culture clashes occur and life becomes difficult, but usually followed by recovery with the help and support of the community and people trained to recognize when acculturation hits a rough patch.
What can you do to prepare? Some standard tips are:
- Learn about the culture the immigrant came from. Understand as much as you can about their geopolitical, cultural, and legal realities.
- Take the complexities of immigration into account as you develop a relationship with the refugees. When needed, help them find effective, trauma-informed care from medical or psychological experts. Help them overcome the barriers to accessing legal and therapeutic care that many immigrants face.
- Deal with the language barrier using someone from their home country or an interpreter provided by an agency. Some immigrants are bilingual, but as an interculturalist you know that their meaning often differs from your own.
- Help them protect their cultural heritage. They shouldn’t have to leave their culture behind as acculturation progresses.
This list is the tip of the iceberg, but these are items that you need to keep in mind at the beginning of the immigrant and refugee experience in America. Not all refugee work is necessarily with the refugees. We can help by volunteering with the refugee agencies and within the government to influence legislation that will abrogate some of the laws that currently form barriers to smooth assimilation into American culture.
It can be very rewarding work. It is always challenging.
Sandra Fowler, Editor
The Interculturalist: A Periodical of SIETAR USA
