Two Years ago, February 25,
2014, the first thought that came to my mind when I landed at JFK, New York,
was a line from a movie entitled “Gangs of New York.” The Star, Leonardo DiCaprio, was “cordially”
received by a New Yorker. Picking him out among the influx of Irish immigrants
featured in the movie, he said to him, “Welcome to America, son! Your long,
arduous journey is over.” As I was terribly jet-lagged alongside my family from
a flight that originated 7,057 miles away from Uganda; and since we arrived in
New York with other fellow refugees to be resettled in various States in
America, it was perfectly logical, I guess, for that line to pop into my head.
After what seemed to be another endless
procedure of finger printing and iris scan, all of us refugees got separated to
our respective destination. Ours was to Dallas, Texas and we arrived on the wee
hours, the next day. Thus, we began the long journey of finding a “durable
solution” in the US against the backdrop of seven years as refugees in Uganda.
We fled from our country, Ethiopia in 2007.
To expedite our integration in the melting pot, we were given intensive
“cultural orientation” before we arrived. At the outset of the orientation, we
were given some quiz to test our knowledge of the American way of life. Then,
we delved into the three days orientation wherein the following points were
emphasized to us.
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| Being seen off by friends at Entebbe International Airport, Uganda, Feb. 24, 2014 |
1. The importance of learning English
language, lest one should get stuck in “entry level” jobs.
2. The importance of finding whatever
jobs as soon as possible because Americans don’t look kindly on people who take
advantage of their “welfare” system.
3. The importance of hygiene such as
bathing, applying deodorant, teeth brushing. And the use of sanitary pads to
women.
4. The importance of shopping wisely,
being economical, buying from thrift shops, etc.
5. The importance of tolerance since you would be
living in a culturally diverse and multi-ethnic neighborhood anywhere in the
USA.
6. The importance of being friendly at
work during break time since Americans are gregarious who love to have a chat
about sports, culture and the like.
7. The importance of avoiding political
discussion at work places.
8. The importance of keeping doctor’s
appointments, being punctual at community clinics.
The session was interactive and we were lucky to have a trainer who did
her level best to answer all of our questions. Unfortunately, it didn’t take
long for us to find out that there are serious gaps between the “cultural
orientation” and the reality we faced here. It’s impossible to go into detail, though, and
show the gaps point by point. For the moment, therefore, I would confine myself
to two points.
A. During the orientation, we were promised that
at some stage of our resettlement, the agency who gave us the orientation would
check upon us by paying a visit to find out what challenges we faced; whether
the tips given to us during the orientation helped in our smooth resettlement.
To date, I know of no refugee to whom such a follow up, as promised, made to
him or her.
B. Although, it is impossible to address
all the challenges refugees might face while resettling in the US, in light of
the health challenges most refugees face due to a change in life style, the
cultural orientation is severely inadequate.
Since most refugees get resettled from poorer regions such as
Africa to the richer United States where the difference could be stark between
having little food and having plenty of junk food, no word is mentioned as to
the possible impacts this might have on refugees’ health. Given the
thoroughness of the cultural orientation on other spheres of life; and given
the availability of literature, albeit scattered, on how refugees with little
history of blood pressure and diabetes succumb to these health problems after
resettlement, one finds this oversight in the cultural orientation
inexplicable.
The research
conducted by an anthropologist, Carrie Perkins, on Burmese refugees “dietary
adjustment” after resettling in the Dallas, Fort Worth area can serve as a
powerful pointer, among others, to revamp the “cultural orientation.” Since
the orientation cannot escape from being criticized as “patronizing” in some
areas, it ought to have gone on extra mile by reminding refugees on the
importance of physical exercise, lest they add on the already unflattering
statistics on obesity in America.
Although, most
refugees start out life with “entry level jobs” that may involve some degree of
physical exercise, compared to the physical exertion they were facing due to
the rampant infrastructural problem in the third world, their life as blue
collar here could be equated as sedentary. There is hardly a job here that
involves walking long distance; or loading and unloading heavy goods with no
machine, etc. From this too, one can infer the stark difference as well as its
impact on health just like the food they eat here as opposed to the one they
were accustomed before.
Research Associate, Hunt Institute for
Engineering and Humanity at Lyle School of Engineering, SMU
Email: khahmed@smu.edu
Twitter: @Hussainkiflu
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