COMING TO AMERICA: Syrian refugee experience
By Megan Baynes
Worcester Magazine
(Editor’s Note: This is the second in a two-part series looking at refugees living in Worcester, the challenges they face and the services designed to help them.)
Unless you work for Walt Disney, life rarely ends “happily ever after.” Like the “American Dream” it is a happy ideal, but not always achievable. For many Syrian refugees, this is the dream they come to America searching for. They have been searching for that elusive happy ending since war broke out in their homeland five years ago, in 2011.
Mohammad Al Asmi, Mahmoud Al Nayef and Obaida Al Shamal were relocated to Worcester nine months ago, in search of place they could live with their families without fear of attack. Despite relatively low expectations, the American Dream has long since faded.
“I knew that it was not up to all the hype, and what I was on seeing on TV was not all it all, but when I came, I did not anticipate all these problems, Al Nayef said to Worcester Magazine through an interpreter.
According to an article in The Guardian, which references Department of Human Services data, the US has accepted 2,174 Syrian refugees since 2012 — roughly 0.0007 percent of America’s total population; a fraction of the millions that are currently displaced. President Barack Obama has committed to taking 10,000 Syrian refugees in the coming year, five times the number the US has taken in the past four years. Even if America took that many, Syrians would still represent approximately 0.004 percent of the population. That ratio stands in stark contrast with the much poorer, and smaller, countries bearing the biggest burden of the Syrian refugee crisis.
However, there is a fear among some Americans that bringing more refugees from Syria to America may result in a Paris-style attack, based on supposed Syrian documents found in the aftermath.
Regardless, according to State Department, the process of relocating Syrian refugees to America is markedly different from the way refugees currently arrive in Europe. Indeed, officials say the refugee screening for this particular group is the most intensive vetting process of any group that arrives in the U.S. The registration process begins with the UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, and includes in-depth refugee interviews, home country reference checks and biological screenings, such as iris scans. Those who pass these background checks are referred for overseas resettlement based on criteria designed to determine the most vulnerable cases. Priority goes to survivors of torture, victims of sexual violence, targets of political persecutions, the medically needy, families with multiple children and a female head of household.
Then the U.S government performs its own intensive screening — a process that includes consultation from nine different government agencies who meet weekly to review a refugee’s case file. Multiple law enforcement intelligence and security agencies perform “the most rigorous screening of any traveler to the U.S.” said a senior administration official, in an article by Time. Biometric information, such as fingerprints, are collected and matched against criminal databases. Biographical information, such as past visa applications are scrutinized to ensure the applicant’s story coheres.
Worcester is a community that has historically been rich in multiple cultures, due to the large numbers of refugees and immigrants who call the city their home. The Seven Hills Foundation commissioned a report in 2015 that looked at the foreign-born population in Worcester. The findings were eye-opening.
Worcester is home to an estimated 37,970 immigrants from 85 different countries, composing 21 percent of the city’s total population – compared to 15 percent statewide.
Foreign-born entrepreneurs also account for 37 percent of all business owners in Worcester, double the statewide rate.
The problems Syrian refugees face are not unique; they are also faced by other groups of refugees in Worcester. Yet, because of many misconceptions or perceptions surrounding Syria, the 27 Syrian refugees in Worcester County tread a particularly difficult path as they try to reunite their families, and finally find a place to call home.
SCATTERED FAMILIES
Few refugees come with their families, and most come alone. Al Nayef is still waiting for his parents and younger sister to be allowed to come to America.
“I arrived by myself,” he said. “I left with my parents. They were in Jordan, and we are the same case. So we came here on the understanding that they would bring [my family] here later on. But now they are sending them back to Syria.”
He said he does not know why they are being sent back. Despite trying to contact the agency that resettled him, and the UNHCR, he has not received a satisfactory explanation.
Al Nayef said he has nine brothers and sisters scattered around the world. One sister, he said, resides in Saudi Arabia, another in Canada. The rest are dispersed everywhere in between. His youngest sister, he said, is being sent back to Syria with her parents They hope to depart for Turkey soon after they return.
His case is not unusual.
Al Shamal’s family are in Jordan. They had a resettlement interview a year and a half ago and have heard nothing since. The UN does not respond when the family asks about the delay, Al Shamali said, so they must wait.
LANGUAGE BARRIER
Most interviews with Syrian refugees have to take place with the help of an interpreter because most of them speak only a few words of English.
little English when working for an airline in Syria before the start of the war. He is keen to continue his learning. Al Asmi said he already speaks 13 different languages, including different Arabic dialects, but added, “That doesn’t matter here. Here, English is important. We need to know English; those 13 languages mean nothing.”
Their lack of language skills is not because they do not want to learn English. According to the refugees we spoke with, there is a significant lack of resources available to them, or that they know how to access. Despite the number of ESL schools in Worcester many are full, and the waiting list can be as long as six months.
The refugees who met with Worcester Magazine fall under the care of Ascentria (formerly Lutheran Social Services of New England).
“[The resettlement agencies] said, ‘When you come here, you can learn English and get a job,’” Al Nayef said, “but once I got here, I was told I had to get a job immediately.”
Refugees are given eight months in which to learn English, find a job and become selfsufficient. After the initial 90-day resettlement period, the agencies have a Refugee Case Management Program, run through the Massachusetts Office of Refugees and Immigrants, in which they continue to provide services from eight months to a year. After these eight months the refugees are expected to be self sufficient, or they go on to state welfare. As a result, many get stuck in a cycle of poverty, from which they lack the language skills to escape.
Al Nayef said he has received almost no support in the form of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes.
“The interpreter is the one who essentially said, ‘You’re on your own, good luck,’” he said. “They were supposed to help with getting the job and getting settled in, but they didn’t do that.”
All he was taught, according to Al Nayef, was, “How is the weather”in the form of a single, one-hour English lesson.
CONFUSION AND MISUNDERSTANDING
Al Asmi’s eyes well up with tears when he talks about his family.
“They [the resettlement agencies] told me I cannot bring them over,” he said. “They told me once I become an American citizen I will not be able to bring my family over. My brothers and sisters and parents are still there.”
According to NOLO, a website offering legal services, “If you have lived as a refugee or asylee in the United States for less than five years [whether or not you have become a green card holder or a U.S. citizen], and you come from one of the countries listed by the U.S. government, you may file an AOR to help your spouse, your unmarried children under age 21, and your parents apply for refugee status through the U.S. Refugees Admissions Program.”
Although the process to bring over siblings is more complicated, the site explains, it is still possible with the filing of a “Form I-130 [which allows U.S. citizens to petition for many more categories of relatives than green-card holders can, including brothers and sisters.]”
Al Asmi said he has the number for his Ascentria case worker saved in his phone, but it turned out to be for a different member of the Ascentria community. When located, his actual case manager told Worcester Magazine, “[Al Asmi] can bring his biological parents, not the siblings. It has to be the spouse, biological parents or children under 21.”
According to Teri Hegarty, marketing and communications manager for Ascentria, there was a misunderstanding. “There was clearly a miscommunication here, as every one of our case workers knows that there is a family reunification application process available to them.”
Hegarty said she was unfamiliar with the details of Al Asmi’s case, but welcomed him to contact the agency.
Jozefina Lantz worked for Lutheran Social Services for 17 years, until the organization re-branded as ‘Ascentria’ in September 2014. She now freelances as a refugee and immigrant services expert and consultant in Massachusetts. Having moved from Slovenia 33 years ago, she said she understands in part how the refugees feel when they first arrive.
She declined to discuss Ascentria and their practices.
With regard to the resettlement of refugee families, Lantz said, “There is no guarantee because much depends on their own personal screenings. It is a host of issues, so nobody can really give you a true answer.”
Although it is a possibility that, with the right support, Al Asmi may be able to bring over his family, nothing is guaranteed.
“Worcester is no worse than any other place,” Lantz said. “It may even be better off than other places.”
AGENCY SUPPORT
According to the Ascentria Website, “Changing [its] name was a vital component of our new corporate strategy. The Ascentria name will help us open doors for new partnerships and expand our funding opportunities with foundations, corporate sponsors and donors, in support of our new clientcentered model of care.”
Jeffrey Kinney, board chair, and Angela Bovill, CEO, wrote in their 2014 annual report (the most recent available), “Last year we went through a transformation. We launched our new name, redefined our mission, broadened our appeal to forge new partnerships and chartered our course with a new vision and client-centered strategy.
“Our faith calls us to serve people in need, and empower them so they don’t just survive, but thrive.”
They continued, “We’ve made difficult decisions from changing our identity, to creating a more ambitious strategy so we can serve more people in innovative, holistic ways.”
According to the report, Ascentria resettled 877 refugees in New Hampshire and Massachusetts through its Services for New Americans Program. In Massachusetts, more than 80 percent of employable adult refugees were employed with 90 days of their arrival, according to the report. In New Hampshire, 90 percent of refugee clients were economically self-sufficient within six months of arrival.
Nationally, Ascentria runs 60 programs, boasts 1,400 employees and recruits 1,000 volunteers. In 2014. 86 percent of operating fees – just over $58 million – were spent on refugee and other services and programs. The amount is significantly higher than the American Institute of Philanthropy’s minimum standard that nonprofits spend 60 percent on programs. It is also higher than the United Way of the National Capital Area’s minimum requirement of 80 percent of total expense.
It is not clear how much is being spent specifically on resettling refugees.
“Ascentria, like every other resettlement agency, has a contract with our national VOLAGs [voluntary agencies], which oversees and approved the amount of cash assistance each refugee receives and the amount each agency receives for operational expenses to support the refugee,” Hegarty said, adding that support includes case managers, transportation and other costs. “In addition, each agency is allowed to allocate a small portion of that funding to a ‘flex’ fund to be used for emergency situations for refugees who may have complex medical or other situations for which other funds are not available.”
Funding is provided on a per-capita basis, Hegarty said, and is regularly monitored and audited.
Ascentria is receiving help in assisting refugees in the form of a $456,695 grant from The Health Foundation of Central Massachusetts. The money will fund a pilot project, the Partnership for Refugee Wellness.
RESOURCES NEEDED
Catholic Charities is the oldest resettlement agency, and although it has yet to deal with any recent Syrian refugees, its workers help resettle approximately 50 clients a year. But there is a struggle between the amount of resources available and the number of refugees who need help.
“We always need more resources,” said Diane Lambert, senior administrator for programs at Catholic Charities.
Needed resources include basic need items, such as clothing, household goods, food cards and Walmart gift cards.
“Resettling refugees is really a part of our mission,” Lambert said. “We are guided by the principles of Catholic social teaching, particularly the concept of solidarity. We are all one human family, regardless of our economic, racial, or social differences. We are all brothers and sisters, wherever we may be.”
STILL AT RISK
Living it America is not always the safe haven refugees hope it will be.
One refugee spoke with Worcester Magazine only on the condition of anonymity, because he said he has family still in Syria and feared retaliation by the regime if they discovered he had spoken to the American media.
Like Mahmoud, he came to America nine months ago with his wife, mother and young child. They made the decision to flee their country after his mother became a victim of the regime. She was shot in the leg in 2011, he said, and it was only this year, in America, that she received surgery to repair the damage.
The family, he said, was unable to take her to the hospital in Syria, because all hospitals were controlled by the regime. Had he taken to her the hospital, the man said, they would have questioned why she had a bullet wound, and accused her of supporting the rebels. He said it is highly likely she would have been killed. His mother, he said, had to be transferred between different houses every two days to avoid her being caught and questioned by the regime. Only when he bribed a doctor, he said, was the family able to somewhat fix her wound and flee the country. She is now wheelchair bound.
His mother does not let her disability deter her. Although, she does not speak English she has learned to say, “America very good!” She flashes a thumb’s up and beams, prompting laughter from the other refugees.
“We are happy here,” his mother said in broken English. “We are safe.”
Safe, but not free from the horrors of a war-torn country.
The man’s wife suffers significant mental trauma, having witnessed the murder of her seven cousins via barrel bomb. When the regime ran out of rockets, they resorted to filling barrels with dynamite, glass shards and nails – dropping them across Syria, even on the houses of the innocent. The bombs can inflict incredible destruction on both buildings and human casualties. Most die instantly. From the day she saw her cousins die, her husband said, she did not speak another word for four months.
“Her first words were, ‘I need mommy. They are coming after me. They are going to kill my children. They are coming. They are coming. They are going to get us.’” he said. “She would not go to the bathroom alone, which is next to the room, for four months. I had to go with her. Sometimes, I would wait to go to school to pick up my son, hoping she will go out, that at least she will leave the house. She would not even go to pick her son up.”
His wife is receiving medication but Dr. Amjad Bahnassi, a psychiatrist and interpreter for the refugees, said the language barrier is too much for her to receive much in the way of counseling.
She struggles to interact with her 4-year-old son, who likely will not remember much of the life he has left behind. Bahnassi doubts he will remember anything.
The son is currently attending a local school.
“The teacher keeps sending home notes saying, ‘teach him English! Teach him English,’” the boy’s father said, “but who is going to teach him English? We need someone to teach us English.”
He laughed when saying that, but there was a palpable frustration in his voice. Like Al Asmi, he said he receives little support from Ascentria.
“It is an impasse,” according to Bahnassi. “Apparently, Lutheran [Ascentria] has courses, but he said the timing is very difficult … He has so many multiple medical appointments for everyone in the family, he has to take them. When he goes to the appointment later, after 3 p.m., there is no translation [service].
“So, basically, if he attends a Lutheran course he cannot go to his appointments because there would be no interpretation possible.”
NOT UNUSUAL
Dr. Marianne Sarkis is an assistant professor of international development and social change at Clark University in Worcester. She has also been working with refugees for about eight years.
She said she was not surprised by the problems the refugees are encountering.
“I came across a lot of cases like that when I was doing my ethnography here,” Sarkis said. “There was one family who came with eight or nine children, and they were resettled by one of the agencies. But after they were brought to Worcester they were just dropped at home and left. They didn’t know where to go for groceries, they didn’t know who to talk to, they didn’t know how to use the phone … Their landlord was gone on vacation. They didn’t have electricity. It was in the summer, but they were just left on their own. Luckily a community member was able to call on her behalf to get the electricity back, and to take her grocery shopping.”
Refugees, she continued, are completely dependent on the resettlement agencies. However, the role of some agencies ends after they bring the refugees to America. Because of a lack of communication and coordination, another agency doesn’t always pick up where they left off, which makes it easier for some refugees to fall through the cracks.
With the primary interest of resettlement agencies aimed at getting refugees up and running within eight months, refugees who do not assimilate immediately in that time could be left behind.
“All refugees come from an environment of trauma,” Sarkis said, “so they come with a lot of psychological and mental health issues that are not addressed after they are resettled. Between the English, the mental health, whatever gender norms they are used to: between all of these challenges and having to be self sufficient in eight months — or the stress of having to resettle in a new alien environment — the period of adjustment is really difficult on all of them.
“Some refugees have primary, or even secondary education, yet others don’t even have basic literacy skills in their own language and have never learned how to read or write. A lot of the cultures are oral cultures, so they don’t have a lot of written material.”
Those issues, Sarkis said, make it difficult for refugees to resettle.
“Eventually,” she said, “after five, or six, or even seven years they start to integrate, especially if their kids are in school, but it’s really difficult for the parents to get to that point, where they feel like, ‘Oh, okay, we are assimilated or acculturated or just we are fitting right in.’
“So the cultural adjustment — they [the resettlement agencies] recognize that there are a lot of limitations and challenges with the cultural adaptation and acculturation, but that really is not their primary interest,” Sarkis said. “Their primary interest is really getting people up and going in eight months, getting people jobs — just getting them out there to work and earn wages.”
According to Sarkis, it can sometimes take up to eight months just to teach a refugee how to hold a pencil and write his or her name. The current system, she said, does not allow any period of cultural, or psychological, adjustment for the refugees once they arrive in America.
“You need culturally-competent, traumainformed, people to work with the refugees,” Sarkis said. “You need someone who is familiar with the language, who is familiar with the culture, the traditions, the way people talk about things. Each culture is unique. There are a lot of culturally-bound concepts. For example, some women will not tell you that they are depressed, because there is a lot of stigma attached to any mental health issues.
“So they find different ways of telling you that they are hurting emotionally, but refer to the pain in terms of headaches in back pains. Every time you see them and ask, ‘How are you doing?’ they’ll say, ‘I have a headache.’
“Then you start asking, ‘What’s going on with everyone having chronic headaches?’ and you understand that they are lonely, they are depressed, they are really overwhelmed by everything and they are having a lot of challenges and lack support or resources to help them adapt to their new environment,” Sarkis said.
If you do not know those code words, she said, or are unfamiliar with the culture, “a doctor might just give her an Advil and say, ‘Come back in two weeks and see me,’” she continued. “One woman I knew was given pain killers that just knocked her out, because her back was hurting. But every time I saw her, her back was hurting, and eventually we got to the bottom of things. She had just given birth and was still expected to clean, cook and care for her other children.”
COMMUNITY
Despite the problems faced by the refugees, the local community has stepped up to help those in need.
At the Worcester Islamic Center, the large and newer of the Worcester mosques on East Mountain Street, Bahnassi said he tries to provide support for the refugees. He told the story of how he came across an elderly man in the community who was crying. His benefits had been cut, Bahnassi said, because he was unaware he was supposed to reply to a form that had been posted to him. The form was in English and the man was unable to read it and did not know he had to reply. Bahnassi said the WIC was able to help, and the man has since had his benefits restored. He said the center tries to offer as much support to the refugees as possible, including translating documents.
Most important, WIC offers a community where the refugees can come together, with people from similar backgrounds, in a place of understanding.
Imrana Soofi, who immigrated years ago from Bangladesh, works closely with both the WIC and the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester, which is considered the mother mosque in Worcester. She established the nonprofit Muslim Community Link, and she and her board have identified social integration as a critical need among refugees.
MCL has partnered with ISGW to start a family and child play program. The organization is also partnering with WIC to start a farmers market, where vegetables from refugee farmers in Worcester will be sold.
In addition, Soofi said, MCL is starting running a pilot program, a 12-week workshop on trauma and healing, having recognized many new refugees arrive in the US having experienced or witnessed untold horrors and abuse.
MCL, Soofi said, is dedicated to all communities, but ensures the most underserved, including refugees, are included.
“We don’t want to do anything just for refugees, because we feel very strongly it stigmatizes them,” Soofi said. “They are already stigmatized [when they come here].”
MLC also works to create and strengthen social and societal bonds, with Soofi saying refugees need to feel a sense of belonging and inclusion in their new community. Some work has already been done, according to Soofi, mentioning the city’s Community Health Improvement Program, which has a cultural competency component.
“We all need to step up,” she said. “All of us. We all understand that yes, there are issues. We’re all scrambling to get ourselves better able to serve [refugees].”
WAITING
Al Nayef is not ungrateful to be living in America, away from the constant fear of attack. He wonders, however, what kind of life he and his friends will have here if they cannot speak the language, obtain a job, and have no idea when they will next see their families? Despite the fact each was skilled in his trade prior to arriving in the US, they are on the brink of getting caught in a cycle of poverty, from which it is unlikely they will be able to free themselves.
They cannot get a decent-paying job, due to their inability to speak English, so even if they were receiving support to bring over their families, they would struggle to find the money to finance the trips.
“We are having a very difficult time,” Al Nayef said. “[The] English language is the hardest, but really it is everything that is really difficult. We tried to apply to go back. We asked to be returned, yet, I was told I could not return to Jordan, because the charity who brought me here would get in trouble for not being successful at resettling me.”
RESILIENCE
While the challenges are many, and the adjustment difficult, it is important to remember refugees are resilient.
“They eventually at some point adjust, in their own way, but it’s really difficult,” Sarkis said. “They adjust within five years, 10 years maybe. That’s a very long time.
“But I really don’t want to undermine the resiliency of people … I know very few people who have actually gone back home. They’re here, they’re in their own communities, they don’t have to fear the wars or conflicts from which they fled. They are facing a lot of problems, yet despite all these challenges they remain hopeful that their children will have a better life than theirs. And so they continue on, day after day.”
Source: worcestermag.com