The Refugee Resettlement program is part of the International Institute of Rhode Island. Our mission is to enable all area residents, especially immigrants and refugees, to become self-reliant, invested participants in our communities, while fostering respect and understanding among all people.
This blog is a means of communication between IIRI and those who are interested in volunteering or helping out with events related to refugee resettlement in Rhode Island. It is also a means of sharing news and stories pertinant to refugees and refugee resettlement.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
Immigrants make up roughly the same share of the U.S. population today as they did a century ago.
But changes in the global economy, and in U.S. immigration law, have dramatically shifted where U.S. immigrants are coming from.
A century ago, U.S. immigrants were overwhelmingly European. Today, Latin America and Asia are the big drivers of U.S. immigration, and Europe accounts for just a small fraction of the whole.
Talat Nawas, practicing medicine everywhere but home
Dispossessed and dispersed, they embodied the Palestinian plight.
Panith Sovann, a Cambodian-American refugee from the Khmer Rouge, will be the first Miss Cambodia to compete in an international beauty pageant since 2006.
Sovann was born in the Khao-I-Dang refugee camp in Thailand to young parents who were orphans thanks to the Khmer Rouge. Her parents escaped to the refugee camp illegally and faced death and possible deportation back to the Killing Fields many times.
Sovann is competing in 2013’s Queen of the Universe pagaent held in California. This is truely inspiring!
Read more here:
http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2012082258193/Lifestyle/khmer-rouge-refugee-a-rare-miss-cambodia.html
In Lebanon, you’ve seen refugees pouring in for more than seven, eight months. Initially, many of them came from border towns that border the Syrian-Lebanese border. Many of those people who left had family members. In a lot of these border towns, there’s a lot of intermarriage, and the distinction between Lebanese and Syrian isn’t as clear-cut. So, many of them who fled from areas around Homs, for example, after February, when there was the massive government attack on Homs, many of them fled and stayed with friends and relatives in Lebanon. However, the numbers are swelling. They’re really increasing. So, the U.N. refugee council has roughly 37,000 registered refugees in Lebanon, but they acknowledge that the number is actually much more. Many people have not registered yet, and there are people moving in all the time. The situation is not ideal, but it’s also not uniform. The people who came initially, as I mentioned, who were housed with family members or who were housed in shelters or abandoned schools, maybe have been relatively better off than the people who are coming now, who are having to pitch tents and being in even more precarious conditions.
Eritrea's flag-carrying runner seeks asylum in UK to flee repressive regime
It was while his team-mates on Eritrea’s Olympic team were out watching the men’s marathon in the Sunday sunshine that Weynay Ghebresilasie finally decided to take the decision that has changed his life forever.
Without a goodbye, the 18-year old walked out of his quarters at the Olympic village, threw away the sim card that had been given to him by the team’s minders and embarked on the process of claiming asylum in the UK – turning his back on a life as a conscript in the army of one of the world’s most reclusive and repressive regimes…
Muslims in North Smithfield ask for protection after sign vandalized
This is very sad and shows that there is still work to do in Rhode Island to ensure that everyone is treated with respect. To get involved with Welcoming RI contact Michelle DePlante at mdeplante@iiri.org
The Providence Journal / Sandor Bodo
Imam Mufti Ikram ul Haq presides over the prayers at Masjid Al-Islam in North Smithfield during the holy month of Ramadan last year.
NORTH SMITHFIELD, R.I. — Muslims at the Masjid Al-Islam on Sayles Hill Road have asked police for extra protection and help from the FBI after their sign was vandalized and half of it stolen early Sunday. Mufti Ikram ul Haq, the masjid’s imam, said that in light of other recent incidents — the shooting deaths at a Sikh temple in Wisconsin and the burning of a mosque in Missouri — members are concerned that the vandalim may be part of a larger pattern against Muslims or people perceived as Muslim. He said a surveillance video, which has since been turned over to police, shows a man smashing the sign with a hammer at 3:30 Sunday morning and driving away with a part of it in his car.
An inside peek.
What is it like working or volunteering in an office of refugee resettlement?
Well, that answer changes every day. Here is my perspective (an intern, sitting in a cubicle in the center of everything):
To my left, I hear French being spoken. Somewhere in front of me, a southeast Asian language, perhaps Nepali or Burmese. To my right, job counseling meetings in both fluent and broken English. There are children running around, young couples looking for work, and elderly individuals trying to make ends meet while simultaneously trying to adjust to the absolute culture shock of living in America after being in their home countries and refugee camps for many decades.
Life in this office is always changing, but one thing remains the same. Our caseworkers, staff, and volunteers are caring and passionate individuals trying to help people live their lives here in America. Every day there are new people and different tasks to do. As an intern, I help newly arrived refugees find their way around the city (Providence). I teach them how to use ATMs, navigate the public transit system, and get to important medical appointments. I do the little things that are actually incredibly important in the process of adjusting to American life.
Although our caseworkers work so hard at managing different clients’ cases, they simply don’t have the time to tour them around the city and teach them how to use buses and other things like that. This is where interns and volunteers come in. We provide that extra time and effort that really helps refugees resettle. You get to work one on one with people from all over the world, and in turn, you learn so much. It’s a truly enriching experience.
If YOU want to help out in this incredible process, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Mary Ellen Lynch, at maryellenlynch@iiri.org.
Forwarding this message to our lovely followers.
The following email has circulated around the office, and I figured that I would reach out to the Tumblr community. If you or anyone you know is from Rhode Island and is an immigrant or refugee, share your story! Just send us a message :)
I wanted to reach out to all of you because for the Welcoming RI project we are looking for local immigrants and refugees in RI.
The project involves a pair of 2 Providence College Global studies students interviewing each immigrant/refugee and producing a final story that will be displayed at IIRI along with a portrait canvas photo. The interview will most likely occurring at the beginning of October for 1-2 hours and there will be an opening reception to introduce each immigrant/refugee and their story.
We’re hoping to interview a total of 16 individuals for the project from diverse countries of origin, gender, age, geographic location in RI, and sectors (health, education, business, etc).
In high school, a friend’s mother told me that “the government should ship back all illegal immigrants.” Ship back — as if we were damaged furniture.
Coming Out: A Confession from a Harvard Student
Both were successful individuals, but thanks to the instability of the Fujimori regime, my parents lost everything. Both of them held university degrees, but as is the case with many professional immigrants, Mom and Dad saw themselves relegated to unfulfilling work once settled in America.
This reminds me of one of the waiters at the Salvadoran restaurant in Berkeley, California; he was a university professor back home but over here he’s a waiter.
(via thenoobyorker)
Caring for young and old
Displacement and refugee resettlement affects entire families, from newborn infant to oldest grandparent. The UNHCR and organizations such as IIRI work hard to service all of these people, provide the best care, and reunite families.
This first news article discusses the Early Childhood Development Center that has been started in Nepal for refugee children between the ages of 2 and 5.
“Looking at the desperate situation of many children…both in the camps and in the host community, we felt the need for a special day care facility which provides a safe and nurturing environment for these children,” said Sangita Khatiwada, Senior Protection Assistant at UNHCR’s sub-office in the eastern Nepal town of Damak.
This article tells the story of an incredibly strong 99 year old woman from Bhutan.
Unlike many elderly refugees in eastern Nepal’s camps who pass their time reading scriptures and chatting with each other, 99-year-old Bishnu Maya Bharati grabs her refugee identity card and visits the UN refugee agency’s office every now and then, asking about her resettlement case.
