skeenshe – Refugee Educational Advancement Lab (REAL)

January 27, 2023January 27, 2023

Pathways through Publishing: Mentorship in Authorship for Refugee Scholars of the Global South

By: Jacqui Hatch 1/27/23

Peer reviewed by REAL members

Throughout time, people have fled their home countries due to the fear of persecution, political and economic instability, armed conflicts, and natural disasters. These experiences show both traumatic experiences during flight, in displacement, and upon resettlement as well as displaced populations’ resilience and agency. The literature on forced migration presents a myriad of challenges faced by those displaced, including the lack of educational opportunities in their new host country, yet it is not the firsthand accounts of these migrant communities that are being shared. Rather than amplifying the voices of those displaced, the responsibility of telling these stories and conducting research has been placed in the hands of scholars in the Global North, most of whom have never experienced displacement.

Looking to change this narrative, the University of Oxford’s Forced Migration Review (FMR), an online journal in partnership with the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN) launched a pilot mentorship program designed to promote the inclusion of authors with forced migration backgrounds from the Global South. To improve access to peer-reviewed journals for researchers who have experienced displacement, FMR’s issue #70 ‘Knowledge, voice and power’ explores issues of representation, influence, privilege, discrimination, and access for refugee scholarship in publication. Per the program mentees, each of these topics serve as key issues and lack visibility vital for systemic change.

On September 28th, 2022, FMR and LERRN hosted a virtual panel with several program mentees who shared not only their interests in forced migration research but also their own trials in access to publish their research. The panelists included academics, scholars, and practitioners (e.g., co-founders of nonprofit organizations, risk strategists and those appealing to local government policies). All agreed that the most predominant barrier to publishing their research is adequate funding and the implicit requirement of credibility.

This was especially true for panelist Rossmary D. Marquez-Lameda, a Refugee Health Researcher and PhD candidate studying Behavioral Health at Indiana University. In reflecting on her research regarding cases of healthcare access for Venezuelan refugees in Colombia, she explained, “often your perspective is overlooked when you do not have credibility. [A funding agency] wants metrics, but [it] does not always acknowledge that there are factors related to prejudice and discrimination that will affect outcomes.” While Marquez-Lameda admits she has more success as a doctoral candidate attending a U.S. university than her colleagues in Latin America, she recognizes the challenges impeding opportunities to gain credibility. “Sometimes you read these funding announcements and you think they were written for the North.” Recognizing that there is still a long road ahead until access to publishing research for displaced people is normalized, she suggests that the best way to mitigate these challenges is through creating meaningful connections in the field. “Research networks are a great place to start. They help connect academics conducting similar research and provide opportunities to co-author, despite geographics.”

Noor Ullah, who previously served as a Youth Researcher on Voices of Refugee Youth, a project exploring the impact of post-secondary and higher education for refugees in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan, described a parallel sentiment regarding issues with credibility. There is a colossal issue with what he described as impossible visa and permit requirements. Noting the clear hierarchy within Pakistani universities, documentation makes it particularly difficult to establish one’s position as a researcher. Additionally, he noted the hostility towards young refugee students in local research cultures. “Research supervisors often act as gatekeepers, determining what can or cannot be published and imposing their own perspectives on research papers. This can result in silencing of refugees’ perspectives in academia.” Among just one of his many suggestions, policy makers must prioritize funding for refugee education, increasing research capacity.

On par with the challenges of credibility for refugee scholars and researchers is the task of establishing identity, a question that has led to much exploration, and at times torment for Aleksejs Ivashuk, representing the Apatride Network, an organization connecting stateless people with the European Union. Ivashuk stated, “I have, and will always, identify as a stateless person but being stateless is not my identity.” In sharing his family’s journey of leaving the Soviet Union after its collapse, he addressed the core issues of being a stateless person. “Stateless people don’t have rights to have rights.” This, compounded with the mass number of stateless individuals, 10 million globally, and nearly 1.5 million in the EU alone, causes a major lack of awareness of who and where stateless people are globally (Berthon, et al., 2022, p. 13). With numbers so substantial, how do we move forward? In sharing his belief on amplifying displaced voices in the political arena, Ivashuk shared, “voices of stateless actors need to be treated as players in discussion, not variables in those discussions. We are not chess pieces.” While the dialogue is essential, there are more explicit factors to be addressed. Ivashuk affirms that racism, state obstruction, misinformation, and any other forms of discrimination need to be exposed through research to end statelessness. “We have a choice to exploit the barriers that restrict the rights affecting the communities to which we belong and challenge the policy makers through our research.”

While each panelists’ pathway to authorship is varied and complex, the key question to be addressed remains “How do we localize research?” It is the same question that James Milner, the Project Director of LERRN, aims to address in the mentoring program. “We want [this program] to act as a place of social cohesion and move away from tokenizing inclusion.” But avoiding tokenization goes beyond just solidarity among those who have experienced displacement. Olivia Berthon, the Deputy Editor of FRM, echoes these sentiments. “We aim to practice what we preach by offering the publication in six languages and are working on procuring resources for additional translations in the hopes to localize [research] contributions.” As stated by panelist Bahati Kanyamanza, the Director of Partnerships for Asylum Access, “local integration is a gradual process with legal, economic, social, and cultural considerations, demanding action from both the individual and receiving society. People in displaced situations must be willing to take on leadership roles and figureheads must be willing to relinquish power. Right now [this] seems near impossible, but there is hope.”

Perhaps the discussion leaves its panelists and attendees with more questions than answers. But to reiterate Kanyamanza, there is hope in access to research for displaced people. Through the panelists’ contributions we see multiple commitments to change. Currently, there are tireless efforts being made to mitigate the obstacles for refugees, stateless people in their access to research. Amplifying refugee voices and their research will create more pathways for future researchers, promoting equity, authorship, and the stories of the Global South.

References

Berthon, O., Ivashuk, A., Kanyamanza, B., Marquez-Lameda, R. D., Milner, J., Ullah, N. “Forced Migration Review- 70, Knowledge, Voice, Power, exploring issues of representation, influence, privilege, access and discrimination.” September 28, 2022. Virtual. Panel Discussion.

Berthon, O., Ivashuk, A., Kanyamanza, B., Marquez-Lameda, R. D., Milner, J., Ullah, N. (September 2022). Forced Migration Review: Knowledge, voice and power: Issue #70. PP 10,12-13. https://www.fmreview.org/sites/fmr/files/FMRdownloads/en/issue70/magazine.pdf

January 11, 2023August 30, 2023

The Temporary Protection Directive – a Model for Responding to Refugee Crises?

By: Jessica Crist and Bernhard Streitwieser

Peer reviewed by REAL members

On December 13th, two REAL members attended an event at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) in Washington, DC on the European Union’s (EU) Temporary Protection Directive (TPD), an initiative set into motion by the EU on March 4th, 2022 in response to the Ukrainian refugee crisis. The TPD was established in 2001. However, it was not used until the war in Ukraine set off an avalanche of human displacement. Monique Pariat, Director General for Migration and Home Affairs of the European Commission, discussed this initiative with MPI Director of International Programs, Meghan Benton. Understanding the EU’s initiative provides valuable lessons to U.S. policymakers who currently struggle to reform migration policy, especially for Central American migrants.

Background

All available figures today attest to an unrelenting rise in global human displacement.

Displacement figures are the highest since World War II. In 2015, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) estimated a global migrant count of 249 million. Only five years later, this estimate grew to 281 million, which is equivalent to the entire U.S. population in 2000. This was a 3.37 to 3.60 percentage increase in statelessness in just five years: 32 million more people losing everything. For context: Canada’s population of 36 million is only slightly larger. Imagine nearly every Canadian losing their home, giving up their livelihood, leaving loved ones behind, and being stripped of their identity.

Among the many factors that contribute to global statelessness – war, civil strife, gang violence, ecological disaster, corruption, and religious and social intolerance – the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of 2021 and the unprovoked Russian military invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022 played prominent roles. The resulting sudden population influxes often stress, and potentially limit, the available systemic resources that governments, civil societies, and institutions have to respond. These disruptions also often trigger negative sentiment, sometimes violent, towards migrants.

Those seeking asylum in the U.S. in recent years were met with nationalist policies attempting to halt migration by separating children from their parents or imposing quotas under the guise of prolonged public health crises (Title 42). The continuing migration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and the political stalemate regarding Title 42 exemplify the need for more open and welcoming migration policies. The perception of control created by TPD has swayed EU public opinion to be more welcoming toward migrants. Additionally, the social and financial benefits provided to migrants through TPD have allowed migrants to better integrate into EU society. Moving forward, existing positive and widely-accepted response models must be explored and cultivated into practice.

The Potential Impact of the Temporary Protection Directive on U.S. Policy

The TPD is authorized annually and has been extended through March of 2024 because the Ukrainian crisis continues. Pariat explained that the TPD is not only a “massive investment by the EU” regarding humane migrant reception, but also an equally important investment in demonstrating orderly and successful migration management to all citizens. In the U.S. and in the EU there are some similarities in the reasoning behind the asylum debate. However, the circumstances are distinct: Ukrainian refugees flee to the EU to escape war, while Central American migrants flee to the U.S. to escape poverty and crime. Even so, adopting policies similar to TPD could improve U.S. public opinion on migrants, control chaos at the border, and provide essential services to incoming migrants.

TPD created a perception of order for EU citizens. MPI director Dr. Andrew Selee explained “the perception of order and control gives it credibility; it’s not so much about the money….Perception is the key.” Credibility is important to counterbalance anti-immigration sentiment, which also includes accusing their political opponents’ efforts as exacerbating what they see as gross government misspending.

Rising nationalism in the U.S. has influenced attacks on the current government and pushed the financial responsibility for migrants onto liberal-leaning states. The “migrant buses,” which forced migrants from the southern border to northern states on frigid Christmas Eve, is only the most recent egregious example. The TPD’s financial and political success is, in part, owed to its impression of order and control, which garners public support for migrants. The U.S. could adopt similar policies to reform their migration system. Doing so would foster a more inclusive public attitude toward incoming migrants.

The social and financial benefits provided to Ukrainian migrants by TPD also aid in the wider integration process. TPD gives refugees access to social benefits, education, economic mobility, and medical care. Pariat explained that TPD creates a “talent pool,” aiming to match Ukrainian migrants with labor market shortages in their host country. As there is no U.S. equivalent for U.S.-Mexico border migrants, those who are bused to various U.S. cities receive humanitarian relief from mutual aid groups, churches, and civilian volunteers. By crafting an integration policy comparable to the TPD, the U.S. government could support essential migrant services rather than rely on local efforts and civilian funds. Public perception would be improved by the control and organization demonstrated by the policy.

The U.S. Temporary Protective Status and the EU Temporary Protection Directive

The U.S. government’s Temporary Protective Status (TPS) policy allows migrant populations from certain countries to stay in the U.S. legally while seeking asylum. However, TPS does not include a pathway to permanent residency. Similar to the EU’s TPD, in the U.S. the TPS policy must continue to be renewed. The TPS program in the U.S. can be renewed for 6, 12, or 18 months at a time, depending on the situation in the designated country. TPS allows beneficiaries to apply for a work permit, but, in contrast to Europe’s TPD, does not award social benefits. This major shortcoming continues to leave most migrants in economic precarity. The goal of the TPD is to integrate Ukrainian migrants into EU society through essential service provisions, while TPS is designed to be temporary in nature and only prevents the immediate deportation of those temporarily approved migrants.

Can the U.S. Emulate the EU’s TPD?

The U.S. government stands to learn from the EU’s TPD by adopting similar policies and contextualizing them to create an organized process supporting humane and orderly migration at the southern border. This would concurrently aid in building positive public reception and inclusion of migrants. Regarding the current discourse on the termination of Title 42 and the temporary nature of TPS, the U.S. urgently needs to attain a credible and organized immigration plan that will ease the strain on the migration system and align the two political parties on the best and most humane approach. Through lowered tensions and an assured orderly process that can be respectable to shelter seekers and also to the hosting communities along the border and further in the country, humanity may yet prevail. The EU’s TPD serves as a powerful next-generation model that U.S. policymakers should think about trying to leverage if they hope to more effectively address migration and humanitarian relief.

November 14, 2022November 14, 2022

Early Childhood Education for Refugees in the United States

By: Isabelle Hoagland

Peer-reviewed by REAL members

Introduction

Early Childhood Education (ECE) is an essential component of a child’s development during critical years of its life, yet it is often inaccessible for refugee families in the United States Despite ample evidence in favor of creating widespread access to high-quality ECE, the U.S. does not have universal childcare or ECE programs. The federal Head Start program does help provide access to ECE for underserved populations, yet many barriers often prevent refugee families from accessing the Head Start program. In this blog post, I will 1) establish the importance of ECE, 2) reflect on my interview with the executive director of the Community Action Agency of Somerville, MA, David Gibbs, who oversees the city’s Head Start program; and 3) provide recommendations to help ensure access to ECE for refugees in the U.S.

Early Childhood Development

Early Childhood Development (ECD) encompasses a child’s physical, cognitive, linguistic, and social emotional development from a prenatal stage through primary school (UNICEF, 2017). Ninety percent of brain development occurs before the age of five, according to the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (2010), providing a small window of opportunity in a child’s early years of life to maximize the scope of the brain’s cognitive and language abilities, social skills, and socioemotional development (UNICEF, 2017). Early education is an essential component of healthy child development (Nurturing Care, 2020).

Research on high-quality ECE establishes both short- and long-term advantages (Morland et al., 2016; Karoly et al., 2005). Children who have participated in ECE are less likely to be unemployed or incarcerated later in life, are more likely to graduate from high school, and on average earn higher salaries than those who do not (Meloy et al., 2019). Longitudinal research of preschool programs has found up to $17 returned in social benefits for every dollar invested (Meloy et al., 2019). Furthermore, according to Meloy et al. (2019), high-quality ECE helps close gaps in educational and life outcomes between lower- and upper-income families. ECE has been shown to increase children’s socioemotional skills and school readiness (Arapa et al., 2021; Barnett, 1992), and provide a healing environment for those who have been exposed to trauma (The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child 2005/2014). For children who have experienced trauma or adverse childhood experiences, ECE programs have the potential to offer a nurturing and healing environment.

Head Start Programs

The U.S. does not have universal childcare or ECE programs. Instead, it is the responsibility of individual states and localities to decide what kind of programs to provide, if any (Park, 2018). Some states offer free preschool and ECE for low-income families, but these provisions are ad hoc. However, in 1964, President Johnson created the federally-funded Head Start program with the goal of providing a comprehensive ECD program that would serve low-income and underprivileged communities (Department of Health and Human Services, 2021). Refugees in the U.S. are eligible to enroll in these programs; however, many barriers exist to accessing them. A lack of qualified, bilingual, and culturally competent preschool teachers, ECE staff, and providers make the programs largely inaccessible to refugee families (Park, 2018). Research shows that families with limited proficiency in English or formal education are less likely to enroll their children in ECEC programs due to enrollment barriers (Morland et al., 2016). Beyond Head Start programs, little to no infrastructure exists in the U.S. for refugee children ECE (Park, 2018). This speaks to the broader issue of the lack of universal ECE programs in the country.

I had the chance to speak with David Gibbs, who oversees the Head Start program in Sommerville, MA. In our conversation, Gibbs explained to me that Head Start is a center-based preschool program that also provides holistic wraparound services for the children and their families. Enrollment in Head Start is typically competitive due to high demand and few slots available. To be eligible for Head Start, a family’s income must not exceed 125 percent of the federal poverty line. However, a child may be otherwise qualified by virtue of 1) having a learning disability, 2) being involved with local child abuse or neglect agency, 3) if they are currently homeless, or 4) if they are a refugee. All children enrolled in a Head Start program receive health supervision, vaccinations, regular checkups, access to mental health and disability specialists, and nutrition specialists. Additionally, any family member may receive referrals to mental and primary health services.

An opportunity exists for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) to establish a collaboration with the Office of Head Start (OHS). This collaboration could work to ensure that refugee families are aware of local ECE programs available to them and could aid in navigating the enrollment process, addressing one of the key barriers to access that refugee families face. There is currently very little communication between refugee services, which are led by the government, and ECE services, which are run by individual states and localities (Park, 2018). According to Morland et al. (2016), “Head Start is well positioned to work with resettlement programs to help ease the transition of refugee families to their new communities, provide centralized access to key comprehensive services, and improve overall school readiness for children of refugee families” (p. 2). However, such collaboration does not exist in most places in the country, likely due to a silo effect within organizations.

Recommendations

Research has demonstrated that collaboration between federal, state, and local agencies is beneficial in creating access to ECE for refugee children (Morland et al., 2016). As such, I recommend the following to help ensure access to Head Start programs for refugee children:

ORR should establish a firm collaboration with OHS. Partnerships between ORR and OHS, whose services typically do not interact (Morland et al., 2016), would help ensure that all refugee families with young children are aware of Head Start programs available to them and ensure equitable access, while also signaling the importance of ECE.
Refugee resettlement agencies should prioritize connecting families with young children to local Head Start programs. A collaboration between resettlement agencies and local Head Start programs would create an avenue to support refugee access to and enrollment in ECE. Refugee families with young children would greatly benefit from Head Start’s wraparound services after they stop receiving support from the resettlement office.

References

Arapa, B., Sánchez, E., Hurtado-Mazeyra, A., & Sánchez, A. (2021). The relationship between access to pre-school education and the development of social-emotional competencies: Longitudinal evidence from Peru. International Journal of Educational Development, 87, 102482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2021.102482

Barnett, W. S. (1992). Benefits of Compensatory Preschool Education. The Journal of Human Resources, 27(2), 279–312. https://doi.org/10.2307/145736

Bouchane, Kollen, Molly Curtiss, and Bethany Ellis. 2016. Safe Spaces: The Urgent Need for Early Childhood Development in Emergencies and Disasters. London: Theirworld. https://theirworld.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Safespaces_report.pdf

Department of Health and Human Services. (2021). Head Start History. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ohs/about/history-head-start

Karoly, L. A., Kilburn, M. R., & Cannon, J. S. (2005). Early childhood interventions: Proven results, future promise. Rand.

Meloy, B., Gardner, M., & Darling-Hammond, L. (2019). Untangling the Evidence on Preschool Effectiveness: Insights for Policymakers. Learning Policy Institute. https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/untangling-evidence-preschool-effectiveness-report

Morland, L., Ives, N., McNeely, C., & Allen, C. (2016). Providing a Head Start: Improving Access to Early Childhood Education for Refugees. 37.

Moving Minds Alliance. (2020). Analysis-of-international-aid-levels-for-early-childhood-services-in-crisis-contexts.pdf. https://movingmindsalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/analysis-of-international-aid-levels-for-early-childhood-services-in-crisis-contexts.pdf

Park, M. (2018). Responding to the ECEC Needs of Children of Refugees and Asylum Seekers in Europe and North America. 70.

Ponguta, L. A., Aragón, C. A., Varela, L. R., Moore, K., Hein, S., & Cerezo, A. (2020). Sector‐wide analysis of early childhood development and education in emergencies in Colombia and considerations to strengthen systems globally. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2020(172), 103–123. https://doi.org/10.1002/cad.20367

Refugee Resettlement and Child Care Partnerships: Partnering to Increase Refugee Families’ Access to High-Quality Child Care. (2014). https://www.acf.hhs.gov/occ/policy-guidance/refugee-resettlement-and-child-care-partnerships-partnering-increase-refugee

Refugees, U. N. H. C. for. (n.d.). UNHCR Education Report 2021: “Staying the course” – The challenges facing refugee education. UNHCR. Retrieved March 27, 2022, from https://www.unhcr.org/publications/education/612f85d64/unhcr-education-report-2021-staying-course-challenges-facing-refugee-education.html

Statman-Weil, K. (2015). Creating Trauma- Sensitive Classrooms. 8.

Taylor, S., & Sidhu, R. K. (2012). Supporting refugee students in schools: What constitutes inclusive education? International Journal of Inclusive Education, 16(1), 39–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603110903560085

The National Scientific Council on the Developing Child. (2005). Stress Disrupts the Architecture of the Developing Brain. 12.

UNICEF-Programme- Guidance-for-Early-Childhood-Development-2017.pdf. (2017). UNICEF.

United Nations Association of the National Capital Area. (2021). Climate Displacement.pdf. Google Docs. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Lpmw8zjzSqDVGWOtQFpmOBeXRolruiJT/view?usp=embed_facebook

US Department of State. (2022). Refugee Admissions. United States Department of State. https://www.state.gov/refugee-admissions/

What is Nurturing Care? (2020, November 19). https://nurturing-care.org/what-is-nurturing-care/

October 31, 2022October 31, 2022

Giving Voice to the Voiceless: The Value of Creative Expression and Arts-Based Education Initiatives for Refugees

By: Ciara Hoyne

Peer-reviewed by REAL members

In 2021, 13,700 refugees were resettled in the U.S., which is approximately 43 percent more than in the year 2020 (UNHCR, 2022). Push factors such as the outbreak of war in Ukraine in February 2022, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, multiple ongoing humanitarian and economic crises, and worldwide climate catastrophes have intensified the flows of refugees into the U.S. A particular challenge to grappling with the rise in numbers of refugees is finding ways to effectively include and integrate migrants into their host societies (Moreira & Jakobi, 2021). Upon resettling, refugees are often confronted with the reality of discrimination and lack of inclusion based upon their linguistic, cultural, or ethnic backgrounds (Brown, 2015). Many refugees also struggle with the experience of cultural bereavement or the “experience of the uprooted person, or group, resulting from loss of social structures, cultural values and self-identity” (Beauregard, 2020) as they adjust to life in a new country. The challenges refugees face have adverse psycho-sociological effects and can inhibit their sense of inclusion and agency within the host community (Beauregard, 2020). As a result, refugees are often left struggling to grasp a cohesive sense of identity, while simultaneously seeking to find a voice and sense of purpose.

While refugees may face undue challenges to feeling included within host societies, opportunities for creative expression or arts based education programs can act as a pathway to improving feelings of inclusion, confidence, agency, and empowerment (Nashwan, Steckler, Abdulhaq, 2019). Creativity allows the individual to see from a different perspective by developing one’s own vision of the world, and often entails synthesizing and channeling past and present experiences into different forms of art (Brown & Bousalis, 2017). This synthesizing process is especially valuable as a coping mechanism for refugee populations who have experienced cultural bereavement and trauma associated with being displaced from one’s home. Refugees can also utilize creative expression as a way to connect to their own heritage and maintain a sense of identity (Beauregard, 2020). For example, creative practices, such as theater and hip-hop dance have significant value for Middle Eastern youth living in the U.S., as it allows youth to connect to the tradition of storytelling present in many Arab cultures (Nashwan, et. al., 2019). Participation of refugee youth in theater and hip-hop reflects the notion that refugees can engage in creative practices that allow them to participate in American culture while still maintaining ties to their native culture. Similar to this idea, artistic practices also incorporate the “expression of ambivalence and change” (Beauregard, 2020), which can aid in keeping refugee students grounded as they navigate considerable amounts of change upon resettling to live in the U.S.

Perhaps even more important to consider is the unique quality of creative practices to exist across cultural and national lines, embodying an ability to connect to a sense of appreciation inherent in all people (Nashwan, et. al., 2019). That is to say, no matter what cultural background an individual may come from, arts-based education is capable of reinforcing and strengthening intercultural relationships. This can invoke change on both the individual and broader community level. According to one study by Moreira & Jakobi (2021), refugees, as well as locals participating in creative intervention projects, were able to cultivate a process of mutual exchange and dialogue. Similar findings were the result of a study on arts cooperation projects in refugee communities in Polykastro, Greece. Overall it suggested that public arts projects can promote the acceptance and inclusion of refugee communities into the broader fabric of the local community (Escaño, et. al., 2021). Both studies reveal that arts-based education projects can improve the relationship between recently resettled refugees and locals within their community. This relationship acts to aid refugees in their feelings of inclusion within society, mitigate the harmful psycho-social effects associated with resettlement, and reduces experiences of discrimination.

In addition to social inclusion, opportunities for creative expression also positively contribute to refugees’ communication abilities and confidence levels. One program based on creative writing workshops for refugees found that refugees were able to benefit from self-expression, and improve their English language skills (Stickley et. al, 2018). Improvement of language skills, coupled with the welcoming environment of the workshop, ultimately provided refugees with a newfound sense of confidence in their abilities to express themselves and to cultivate a voice that can be heard and appreciated within their new community. Despite disadvantages in English language speaking abilities, creative writing workshops for refugees and people seeking asylum have proven to be successful ways for refugees to be socially included.

Confidence-building in creative expression is also relevant to the use of spoken word poetry in multilingual classrooms. One program highlighted spoken word poetry workshops within classroom spaces that allowed refugee students to create their own narratives and engage with their own voice in a way that was not impeded by language barriers or limited proficiency in English (Burton & Van Viegen, 2021). The workshop also allowed both native and non-native speakers of English to collaborate by “negotiating meaning and translating words for one another” (Burton & Van Viegen, 2021). This proved to be successful in helping non-refugee students understand refugee students’ difficult experiences of linguistic standards and discrimination present within the classroom (Burton & Van Viegen, 2021). The enhanced communal understanding of refugee students’ linguistic challenges is valuable because it can lead to a greater sense of compassion and empathy within learning environments and local communities.

Given the benefits of creativity and arts-based education programs for refugee populations, U.S. schools and community service providers should work to incorporate more of these arts-based education initiatives into their curriculums and program schedules. In order to carry out this call to action, I recommend that schools first work to reduce the stigma associated with the arts as less valuable in comparison to other academic endeavors such as math and science. Second, in addition to illuminating the value of the arts, it is essential that schools and community service providers enhance the allocation of arts-based funding in order to gather sufficient resources and support for facilitating programs that can provide refugees with the utmost benefits. Third, I recommend that these arts-based initiatives combine the participation of refugees with involvement of the local community to bring attention to the positive value that refugees can add to society. The transformative power of creative expression and arts-based education can serve as an outlet for refugees to be seen and appreciated by a greater audience. Above all, these initiatives can serve as an opportunity for refugees to feel empowered, hopeful, and welcome in the U.S.

References

Beauregard, C. (2020). Being in between: Exploring Cultural Bereavement and Identity Expression through Drawing. Journal of Creativity in Mental Health Vol. 15 (3), 292-310. https://doi.org/10.1080/15401383.2019.1702131

Brown, C. S. (2015). The Educational, Psychological, and Social Impact of Discrimination on
the Immigrant Child. Migration Policy Institute. 1-17.

Brown, S. L., & Bousalis, R. (2017). Empowering Young Minds Through Communication, Creative Expression, and Human Rights in Refugee Art. Art Education, Vol. 70 (4), 48-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2017.1317562

Burton, J. & VanViegan, S. (2021). Spoken Word Poetry with Multilingual Youth from Refugee Backgrounds. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Vol. 65 (1), 75-84. doi: 10.1002/jaal.1178

Escaño, C., Mesías-Lema, J.M., & Mañero, J. (2021). Empowerment of the refugee migrant community through a cooperation project on art education in Greece. Development in Practice, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2021.1944986

Moreira, A. I. A., & Jakobi, A. L. P. (2021). Re-Voicing the Unheard: Meta-Study on Arts-Based Interventions for Social Inclusion of Refugees and Asylum Seekers. Journal of Education, Culture, and Society, Vol. (2), 93-112. doi: 10.15503.jecs2021.2.93.112

Nashwan, A. J., Steckler, T., & Abdulhaq, B. K. (2019). Healing Through Expression: How the Arts Transform the Experience of Syrian Refugees in Jordan. Human and Social Sciences, Vol.46 (3), 377-388.

Stickley, T., Hui, A., Stubley, M., Baker, F., & Watson, M. C. (2019). “Write here, sanctuary” creative writing for refugees and people seeking asylum. Arts & Health, Vol.11(3), 246-263. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533015.2018.1494450

UNHCR. (2022, July 21). The U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Explained. UNRefugees.org.https://www.unrefugees.org/news/the-u-s-refugee-resettlement-program-explained/

UNHCR. (2021). Figures at a Glance. UNHCR.org. https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/figures-at-a-glance.html