This article was written by Lubna Zeidan,
iACT Refugee Program Director
Refugees are on my mind daily and have been since I started work at Interfaith Action of Central Texas in 2002. Back then iACT was called AAIM and I came to it looking for a job, not necessarily a cause. The past 13 years have fused those two things so that I don’t really know when one starts and the other ends.
There are over 14 million refugees and displaced people in the world, less than one percent of them are resettled permanently in a new country – usually about 70,000 in the US.
My concern for refugee issues grows daily with the horrifying and shocking events around the world. I am thankful for the resettlement solution, but I am seeing its challenges as I witness the myriad of ways even a philanthropic minded community like Austin, Texas, creates cultural pitfalls for those newly resettled among us.
Refugees experience two stages of seeking safe refuge – both traumatic: the displacement from the homeland and living in limbo for years or decades in a refugee camp or an inhospitable neighboring country; and the permanent placement in the new home country which is more indifferent than hostile but equally difficult to navigate. Some refugees claim to suffer more at the latter stage, since it is so unexpected.
Refugees have come here to resume their lives and are asking for no more than to live in dignity, with food on the table and a roof over their heads. We as service providers are reminded daily how difficult that can be.
First hurdle, work: Refugees are expected to start working and supporting themselves within 3 months. As an English as a Second Language teacher, I can guarantee that three months is not nearly long enough to learn English. Thus most refugees go to work before they can make themselves understood in English. That means their jobs are the very basic lowest paying ones.
With the cost of living and paying rent in Austin (two bedroom apartments mostly starting at $900/month), it takes more than the $7-$8 an hour income to support a family. Two incomes are necessary for survival. However, we make it very difficult for both parents to work. Mothers of young children need to figure out childcare – can they pay for it? How does one get help in paying for that? With limited school busing, taking children to and from school every day restricts the hours a parent can be outside the home. After school programs are different at every school and most require some negotiation to get scholarships. Many don’t even operate on Fridays. With school and afterschool hours not corresponding to work hours – how can a working refugee family with limited resources manage?
Second hurdle, healthcare: Refugee adults lose their initial Medicaid after 8 months and when working at ANY job make too much for Medicaid but too little for Obama Care. Even those disabled and eligible for Medicaid find other challenges -when Medicaid for example won’t pay for a new brace for a young man with polio since it is not “permanent” medical equipment. The buffer of the Medical Assistance Program (MAP) creates another challenge because to sign up people must show up on a weekday and wait in the office with an interpreter in tow. An inquiry phone call to any city or state service agency gives you an initial recording in English and Spanish and no other options. Even agencies that provide telephone interpretation in other languages start their calls with many options in English or Spanish before you get a human being who can offer you the language line. By then the caller has given up.
Third hurdle, education: Adult continuing education or career building courses are mostly unattainable to refugees. They have no money to spare and very limited time when they are working. It is very difficult to even access English classes which they need first before they are even eligible for a higher level course because they work at jobs that have varying shifts every week.
Refugee children have other more serious pitfalls. They have all had interrupted and inadequate schooling and very limited exposure to English. Trying to function in regular classes is almost impossible. The mandatory standardized tests make it highly improbable for a refugee arriving as a teen to actually graduate from high school. Add to that the cultural barriers, the traumatic experiences, the sense of isolation and alienation common to displaced teens as well as a sense that their parents are unable to help or support them. They are also the poorest of the poor in a group culture that idolizes possessions.
So is it hopeless? Are refugees doomed to a cycle of poverty and failure? Are the handful of refugees who took their families back to their war torn countries right? Is risking death preferable to the risk of homelessness in an American city?
No – I always remind myself that I am seeing refugees in their first months of arrival when everything is still scary and new. But I also run into other families who after the first year or two are doing fine. Many are driving, some have bought homes. Many have found better and more meaningful jobs. Recently while visiting a summer camp, two exuberant young adults came barreling toward me. I didn’t recognize them at first, but they remembered being in our summer youth program. They were both in college and were counselors at the camp. I’ve run into families at Costco, filling their carts with the usual American excesses. I met yesterday with a group of refugee women who were inquiring how to start a support group for newly arrived refugees. As I looked into the eyes of a hopeful teen from the Congo this summer, I saw her excitement about starting school and her happiness at being able to communicate that in English.
So I am hopeful.
To volunteer for iACT for Refugees contact kvemulapalli@interfaithtexas.org . A new mentorship program is now recruiting adult volunteers to mentor refugee teens. The next training is Thursday, Sept. 17th, at 6 pm. Contact lzeidan@interfaithtexas.org
