Association of Immigration and Refugee Services Professionals
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Winter/ S pring 2018 Newsletter Maura Nsonwu ViceAssocia President tion of Immigration and Refugee Sandye Mullins Services Professionals President Elect Inside this issue: Message from the Message from the president 1 New Board member 2 President Umoja 3-4 Dadaab 5-6 Board of Directors As we entered a New Year and “Human Flow” Documentary 7 began to transition into spring, I Certification 8-9 Board President reflect on the monumental policy Join ARSP 9-11 Connections 11 Maura Nsonwu and practice challenges affecting immigration work and refugee Vice President resettlement. Regardless of whether (see Natacha Nikokeza’s article) can you are a front-line staff member, Sandye Mullins further compound our feelings of guilt, administrator, policy advocate, pain, weariness, and frustration. President Elect intern, or volunteer working with Holly Sienkiewicz refugee and immigrant Although our feelings/reactions can communities, our role as social never compare to our clients’ Secretary change agents demands that we experience of trauma, overwhelming Raleigh Bailey challenge inequity and champion stress and emotional turmoil, we must human rights for all people. The acknowledge that our work as cultural Treasurer work of cultural allies, in an brokers and social justice warriors can Bob Palm oftentimes deeply flawed also negatively affect our wellbeing. bureaucratic system, can be Charles Figley (1995) coined the term Board Members emotionally, spiritually, and “compassion fatigue” while Laurie Ruth Bersin physically exhausting. Recognizing Anne Pearlman and Karen W. the injustice, indifference, and Saakvitne (1995) penned “vicarious Lisa David intolerance that displaced people trauma” to describe a professional’s experience on a global scale (e.g. Caitriona Lyons feelings of angst and emotional drain escalating violence in Syria; resulting from their work with clients Donna Magnuson refugee camp protests in Rwanda experiencing post-traumatic stress due to food shortage; ethnic Sharon Morrison disorder. cleansing of Rohingyas) can be Pat Priest mindboggling. Oftentimes being The newcomers that we work with privy to stories, of trauma and have often experienced trauma and its Carol Roxburgh suffering as well as witnessing the after-effects. Symptoms of Karin Wachter everyday trials and tribulations that compassion fatigue and vicarious undocumented migrants and trauma in service providers may refugees experience in striving to exhibit as irritability and agitation, a acculturate/integrate, lack of empathy, or manifested as Page 2 Association Newsletter Continued from page 1 ARSP Bids Farewell to physical ailments/conditions such Board Members and as headaches, insomnia, or Association for Refugee Welcomes a New Addition Service Professionals changes in weight/eating P.O. Box 80692 behaviors (see readings on Anita Fabos and Dipti Shah have Austin Texas, 78708 Compassion Fatigue, Vicarious stepped down as board members of Phone (336)209.1551 Trauma, and Secondary Trauma ARSP after many years of service. E-mail [email protected] for expanded symptoms and We thank them for their commitment treatment). To address this to ARSP and look forward to their naturally occurring phenomenon continued involvement as members we must foster self-care and as they serve the immigrant and cultivate professional and personal refugee service community. We Newsletter editor resiliency for ourselves and our welcome a new board member - Dr. Nneze Eluka colleagues. Karin Wachter, Assistant Professor at In adopting this continuous Arizona State University. process, we begin to support and strengthen each other in maintaining our physical, emotional and spiritual equilibrium, grounding us as we move forward to forge justice and healing to those we serve. I know that I am a work in progress as I practice self-care. As I move from winter into spring, observing new Karin worked for ten years as a blooms and the renewal of nature, humanitarian aid worker with the I am inspired to revitalize my own International Rescue Committee emotional, spiritual and physical focused on violence against women self-care. I wish you good health. and girls in war and displacement, Maura Busch Nsonwu primarily in African contexts. PhD, MSW, LCSW Since returning to academia, she has ARSP President worked with U.S.-based refugee resettlement agencies as an evaluator and researcher. Her current research focuses on the intersection of forced migration, violence against women, and social support. Page 3 Association Newsletter Local Initiative: Umoja Shares Support and Hope to Newcomers dates from Rwanda My name is Natacha Nikokeza, my process was not easy; however, we family and I came to the United States had an easier experience than many as refugees from Burundi nine years refugees since we were able to Association for Refugee ago. We left everything behind as we Service Professionals speak some English. P.O. Box 80692 were forced to flee our country; the Austin, Texas 78708 process was long and intense, but we This ability allowed my husband finally resettled in Greensboro NC, our and I to volunteer with resettlement agencies and provide interpretation home ever since. services for new arrivals. This Being a refugee means leaving family involvement allowed us to connect and belongings behind to start a new with refugee communities. life in another country. This also often means learning a new language and We began to know when new adopting a new culture. Refugee families would arrive, and we resettlement agencies receive federal would arrange to visit them and buy funding to help refugees for three or share items that they needed. I months as they transition to a new was able to relate to them as my country. After that period, refugees own experience of feeling must work and become self-sufficient. “helplessness” was still fresh in my Many agree that this timeframe is too heart. short to learn a new language and As the refugee community from successfully integrate into a different East Africa began to rapidly grow culture. Others may say this time- we started a women’s prayer group. period is unrealistic and may set The purpose of the group was to refugees up for failure. Successful give to newly arrived refugee resettlement requires support from the women the opportunity to meet whole community - government, with other women who have been in businesses, and established citizens, so the U.S. longer, and to enjoy the that it is everyone’s responsibility to comfort of speaking their native help refugees achieve their goal of language. The participants were self-sufficiency. very excited to know that they were My family and I were helped by a not alone, that others went through local resettlement agency as well as similar difficulties, and that individuals from churches and other together they could support one organizations. The resettlement another and become independent. Page 4 Association Newsletter Your business Continued from page 3 The United States has a long tradition of welcoming and giving Later, a group of university women hope to families fleeing war and (North Carolina A&T State persecution. The Umoja group is a University, UNC-Chapel Hill, and www.refugeeprofessionals.org shining example of embracing UNC-Greensboro) and practitioners from resettlement agencies joined us. newcomers. Together we can keep the light of hope shining. You can Their inclusion provided another listen to an interview with Natacha level of excitement as it (me), Angelique (Umoja officer) demonstrated that more people cared and Holly (ARSP board member) about us and wanted to help. on NPR’s The State of Things at We organized monthly meeting to http://wunc.org/post/how- support one another; our group congolese-refugee-women-teamed- triad#stream/0 celebrated baby showers for expecting mothers as well as Natacha Nikokeza provided educational sessions on a Center for New North Carolinians variety of topics. We named our Community Centers Coordinator group “Umoja”, which means “unity” in Swahili to symbolize our collective support of one another. The Umoja group has a large Congolese membership however; it is open to all refugee women as its mission is to be inclusive. Umoja has entered its fourth year and the refugee women have taken on leadership roles electing officers to help plan and run the meetings. Page 5 Association Newsletter Association for DADAAB, Forgotten City of Refugees Refugee Service Professionals P.O. Box 80692 New refugee crises are emerging The only roads to and around this Austin, Texas 78708 around the world: Syrians, refugee camp city are not paved. Rohingyas. Another crisis is Urban protections are far away. emerging with Palestinians as the US UN and NGO support personnel Phone (336)209.1551 E-mail cuts funding that feeds the Palestinian travel by armed caravans from [email protected] refugees under UN protection in Nairobi and by chartered planes several Middle Eastern countries. to the landing strip at the camp. It Winter 2018 newsletter However, one group has not received is a high security closed camp, editor much public attention lately. Somali though Somali refugees continue Nneze Eluka refugees in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee to travel on their own across the camp are receiving little public dangerous and isolated desert. attention. In 2014, UNHCR, the government of Kenya, and the Dadaab is a refugee camp in Northern official government of Somalia Kenya, near the Somalia border, signed an agreement authorizing alongside a small town that has a voluntary repatriation initiative grown up around its perimeter. Camp to facilitate Somali refugee history goes back to the early returns to Somalia. However, the nineties, populated mostly by Somalis government of Somalia does not fleeing drought and endless wars. control territory except for a (The few South Sudan refugees there modest and insecure presence in are being moved to Kakuma Refugee Website Mogadishu, the capital. There Camp elsewhere in Kenya.) At its continue to be military strikes in http://www.refugeeprofessi peak early in this decade, there were onals.org/ Mogadishu by Al Shabaab, over 400,000 UN registered Dadaab resulting in loss of civilian lives Facebook refugees.