Finding Home in Migration: Montagnard Refugees and Post-Migration Identity

Abstract

This essay examines post-migration identity of the Montagnard men who came to the United States as refugees. In particular, given the salience of home to identity, interview participants' notions of home space are explored. Findings are discussed first in terms of emotional, relational, sociocultural and political significance of home spaces that were identified by the participants. Then, the articulations of home are discussed in terms of implications they have for the current post-migration theories of cross-cultural adaptation and diaspora. The Montagnard men's experiences with and views of home shed light on applicability and limitations of the theories.     

Tending School: A Forum on the Experiences of Refugee and Immigrant Students in the United States System

This article contributes to the investigation of refugee and immigrant education. As one part of a comprehensive qualitative study, it showcases the school experiences of three students: Quincy, a refugee from Afghanistan who came to the United States at age thirteen; Emily, an immigrant from Poland who arrived at age six; and Maung, a political refugee from Burma who arrived at age eighteen. The school experiences of these students mirror those of many children who come from countries and communities outside the dominant culture of the United States.The framework of investigation is based on the notion that school life for minority children, in this case, refugee and immigrant students, can be examined from a critical and political perspective; that is, contextualized socially, economically, and politically (Apple, 1990). Students who are not grounded in the mainstream culture struggle to get along in school settings that are institutionalized according to the moral, social, and cultural dimensions of society. Critical theorists contend that student voice can become an organizing force to negotiate and construct multiple interpretations of school life within the reality of institutionalized ways of being in school. In this study, a focus on finding and developing student voice offers the possibility of passages between private and public (Miller, 1990) to permit the sharing and envisioning of multiple interpretations of school life for students and for those with whom they interact with in school settings.     

Promoting the attitudes of nursing students towards refugees via interventions based on the contact hypothesis: A randomized controlled trial

A randomized controlled study was implemented on 90 nursing students in Turkey. The sample was divided into two groups: intervention and control group. The intervention group received education on refugee health and participated in a practical internship with refugees. Three scales were administered to the two groups at baseline (pre-test) and the end of intervention (post-test): "Xenophobia", "Attitude Towards Refugees" and "Intercultural Sensitivity". The three scale post-test scores of the intervention statistically significantly differed from control group and showed a statistically significant interaction between the groups and time in the two-way analysis of variance. The three scale post-test scores significantly differed from the pre-test scores in the intervention group, showing more relevant effects on xenophobia scale, two subscales of attitude towards refugees and intercultural sensitivity scale. The interventions based on the contact hypothesis improved nursing students' attitudes towards refugees.     

“We’re not a bank providing support”: Street-level bureaucrats and Syrian refugee youth navigating tensions in higher education scholarship programs in Lebanon

Scholarships are increasingly used to expand higher education access for refugee youth in exile, but less is known about their equity implications. Drawing from scholarship on street-level bureaucrats and Nancy Fraser’s theory of social justice, I identify street-level bureaucrats’ (SLBs) decision-making within refugee higher education. Drawing on 62 interviews with Syrian youth and organizations in NGOs in Lebanon, and 24 organizational, scholarship-related documents, I elaborate the fundamental (mis)alignments that emerge in scholarship-granting organizations’ goals, and the needs of refugee youth they seek to support. Organizations over-emphasize transitions to university, overlooking the most vulnerable youths’ transitions through university. Though youth link their futures to opportunity and not geography, SLBs seek to fund youth willing to return to Syria and engage in post-conflict reconstruction.     

论晋西北根据地安置移难民的社会效应

抗日战争时期,晋西北抗日根据把安置移民和难民作为根据地人力资源开发和利用的一项长期而重要政策。这一政策的执行,促进了根据地经济繁荣;形成了互助互济的良好社会风气;引起了社会关系的变动;为夺取抗战胜利提供了有力保障,对增强党的凝聚力树立了典范。     

Uses of the Past in Refugee Documentaries in Sweden and Germany

Migration not only entangles people, cultures and societies but also histories and memories of diverse groups across national and cultural boundaries. The article focuses on mediated memory cultures of migration both theoretically and empirically. The first part discusses how cultural memories of migration in cross-medial flows of remediation can entangle ‘mnemonic imaginations’ of diverse groups within societies across time, cultures and media. In response to the conceptual framework of ‘entangled media histories’ this theoretical part explores entangled media histories of migration from the angle of memory studies. The second part of the article gives selected case studies. They reveal how media have historically mediated migratory memories and how they make use of this media history in contemporary productions. The examples are two Swedish documentary films of 2011 and 2015 and two German television documentaries of 2015 and 2016. With this theoretical and empirical approach the article shows how media actively contribute to debates about contemporary migration movements by the help of time-travelling migratory memory and media history.     

里约奥运会难民代表队的实践达成与理念倡导——基于全球难民治理的视角

国际奥委会与联合国难民署共同倡议、推动并组建了里约奥运会难民代表队,为全球难民治理理念和机制的更新提供了范例。难民代表队有助于提升全球难民治理的能力体系,彰显了国际奥委会的普世伦理与价值,提醒国际社会应加强难民群体的权利救济与人文关怀。然而,难民代表队的组成与固有的奥林匹克理念与框架之间产生一定的矛盾,其象征局限性也离难民安全健康状况的改善存在一定的差距。应进一步发挥体育在促进全球难民治理、推动世界和平与发展进程中的作用与价值。     

Culture in acculturation: Refugee youth’s schooling experiences in international schools in New York City

As the number of refugee children and youth across the world continues to grow at an alarming rate, the needs of refugee populations require more and sustained attention. This qualitative study explores the specific academic and socio-emotional needs of refugee students in New York City (NYC), a city that has received refugees and asylum seekers from over 50 countries. Using qualitative research methods and drawing on the literature on refugee students’ school experiences and acculturation theory, in this article we ask how refugee students describe the key features of international high schools that foster students’ academic success, social and cultural integration, and academic well-being. Moreover, we examine how the notion of culture itself can interfere with these efforts.     

When worlds collide: Academic adjustment of Somali Bantu students with limited formal education in a U.S. elementary school

This paper reports on the findings of a two-year ethnographic study of newly arrived Somali Bantu refugee students in a U.S. elementary school (K-6) in Chicago. These data paint a detailed picture of students’ behavioral and academic adjustment to school, and the drivers behind “behavioral incidents” (instances when children’s behavior presented a problem for school staff) and their academic engagement or disengagement. Bantu students required a degree of flexibility and accommodation from their teachers, whose attitudes toward acculturation could generally be characterized as “assimilationist” (requiring students to conform to U.S. culture and school rules) or “multicultural” (respecting and accepting the students expressing their heritage culture at the school). This study illustrates the difficulties faced by refugee students with limited or interrupted formal education (SLIFE) when adjusting to U.S. schools, and the pressures placed on teachers and other school staff. Strategies used by teachers in working with SLIFE are described. These findings also extend the literature on the academic engagement of immigrants to this group of SLIFE. In this study, SLIFE were disengaged not because of disinterest or resisting adult expectations at school but because they were unfamiliar with the culture of schooling and did not have the academic background necessary to complete school tasks. The study also illustrates the need to provide schools with adequate support to accommodate the needs of SLIFE.