Dr. Jeanine Ntihirageza who is from Burundi, a country in
Africa works with immigrants coming from Africa. She started working with
immigrants from 2001. The first immigrants she worked with were the Sudanese
women. She had to teach them English in order for them to live here and get on
with life. Her lecture was about the immigrants and refugees that came to the
US from Africa.
The African immigrants and refugees look for resettlement because
of the wars that go on in their respective countries. The countries such as
Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda, Congo, Sudan etc. all had wars going on in their
countries so the inhabitants had to leave their countries and get settled
somewhere else. The above mentioned countries were refugee producing countries.
As there were war going on in many different countries at the same time some
people had to go through multiple migrations and as a result they sometimes forgot
their country of origin. They couldn't answer the question, “Where are you
from?”
From the video “hunger for education, but police on my feet”
we saw an African refugee being attacked by the police for no reason. There has
always been a discrimination against the black people in the US. They claim not
to be racist but racism has become a part of their culture. In the video we saw
since the victim was black they suspected him to be a criminal. As an immigrant
the victim has already gone through a lot of struggle and on top of that he
fell victim to racism as well. These caused a lot of problems for the African refugees
and immigrants to the US.
Africa is a really big continent consisting of 57 countries
and an area of 11,205,146 square miles. The continent has an area which is more
than the US, China, India, Europe, Argentina and New Zealand combined. As the
continent is so big there are about 2000 to 3000 languages and as many as 8000 dialects spoken all over
the continent. The languages and dialects are so different that people of the
same country sometimes don’t understand each other’s languages.
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| The actual size of Africa (courtesy Dr. Ntihirageza's slide) |
African immigrants and refugees started arriving to the US
long ago but the number increased to a great extent after 1990. According to
the US 2000 census, about a million African immigrants live in the US. As so
many immigrants started to arrive they had to get all the basic needs to live
properly in the country. Although they got resettlement very quickly but the
other basic needs such as food, house, clothes were not so easy to get. Also as
they were not familiar with the English language and they didn't know much
English it was very difficult for them to get jobs and get along with other
people in the country.
.jpg) |
| http://newsarchive.medill.northwestern.edu/uploadedImages/News/Chicago/Images/Urban/HERITAGE(1).jpg |
The culture of Africa and the US varied a lot. The immigrants
had to get used to the new culture as it was very different from their culture.
There are two types of elements of culture. The surface elements of culture
included food, clothes, holidays, personalities, arts etc. but just eating food
or wearing clothes or celebrating holidays of another culture doesn't give a
person the entire knowledge about that culture. To know a culture properly the
elements of deep culture should be known. Elements of deep culture include
ethics, family ties, gestures, religion, values, ceremony, marriage, folk myths
etc. To know a culture properly these elements of deep culture has to be known
properly.
The immigrants face a culture shock as they first come to
the US and get to know the new culture. There are some phases they go through
and finally get adjusted. The first phase is the honeymoon phase where they
have optimistic and ideal feelings about the new culture. But then comes the
hostility phase where they are faced with feelings of frustration,
disappointment and the feeling of not belonging. After that comes the humor
phase where they recall their previous experiences and laugh at themselves. Finally
comes the home phase where they get adjusted to the culture and feel at home.
When a person is brought to a new culture there are feelings
of vulnerability and being different. He/she has to learn the most basic things
of that new culture in order to survive. Even the smallest day to day
activities are so different and they have to relearn everything they have
learned previously. Strong peer support is required for a person to get through
the first phases of the new environment. The mothers, the fathers and the
children are affected in different ways due to the immigration. The mothers
have to become the source of income for the family, the fathers refuse to get
educated at an old age and the children think they are smarter than their
parents. But the
children go through a lot of difficulties as their peers and
teachers in school look at them differently. Sometimes the children have to
take the responsibility of the family and becomes the head of the family. All these
changes in roles inside a family all in all hampers the relationships inside
the family. As a result violence and problems are seen quite often.
We can help these immigrants by getting to know them, making
them feel loved and accepted not making them feel different. We have to educate
ourselves and learn about their culture to help them fit in. We have to become
friends with them, be a volunteer, help them express their feelings because everyone
has something to say. Everyone has something unique abilities and if we can
explore that then we can bring the best out of them. As they are born out of
the game, we have to help them get in the game because that is the only way
they will have a chance to become a part of us.
The immigrants offer a lot if we can look into them deeply. Every
person has a unique talent and they have to be given the right opportunities to
express themselves. The ability of a fish cannot be judged by making it climb a
tree. In the same way the immigrants cannot be judged by their ability to speak
English or play American football. The immigrants offer their past experience,
their language learning skills and all the other things they have to offer. As
they have so much to offer we should welcome them in Chicago. If we welcome new
immigrants, refugees and give them the opportunity to express themselves then
it will help enrich Chicago’s unending talents.
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