The past couple of months that I have spent learning about refugee resettlement in Buffalo have been an enlightening and somewhat life changing experience. I have talked to resettlement directors, filmmakers and teachers, all who agree that their involvement with refugees is something that they treasure dearly, and has made their life much more fulfilled. There are some problems with the system that need resolved, and some issues that are beginning to be resolved as the community and resettlement agencies begin to focus on working together.
To start off my third and last article on refugee resettlement, I would like to bring some attention to an issue that arose last month regarding the Heart of the City film screenings in Buffalo. See part 2.
Heart of the City Neighborhoods, Inc. (HOTC) is a non-profit group that focuses on creating programs that improve the quality of housing along with promoting sustainable projects for the Lower West Side. HOTC hosted their first ever film series at Buffalo's Theater of Youth during the months of June and July. Their goal was to have public screenings of documentary films relating to sustainable housing in order to create discussions around the films.
Chance Encounter Productions (CEP) was invited to show their film "Nickel City Smiler". A short time after they sent their materials, however, they were informed via email from Heart of the City that their film was regretfully not going to be shown. The Heart of the City Community Outreach Coordinator stated in the email that "a number of our partners were passionately angered by the film, and were offended by our screening of it."
NCS was the only locally made film slated to be featured in the series. Documentaries from other parts of America were shown, including one titled "Welcome to Shelbyville", which has some of its own controversy swirling around it. CEP believes that they were censored by resettlement agencies, some of which are partners with Heart of the City.
"The goal of this film has always been to get the community involved," says Director Scott Murchie. "My hopes were that the film would makes its way from the heart of the city out to the surrounding communities, inspiring those people who can really make a difference. Instead, what we are seeing is overly defensive resettlement agencies thinking the film is about them. It's not."
Claire Essley, an AmeriCorps/Houghten College summer Jump Start coordinator at school 45, believes the censorship may be due to the agencies preference to look ahead, not backward. She thinks the resettlement agencies didn't want to be "showing issues that had been resolved... and addressed." According to Claire she sees the agencies working together more diligently these days, and their funding has doubled. "Since I started working with refugees in 2007," Claire stated, "I have seen significant improvement in the refugee resettlement world here in Buffalo. There is more awareness, more collaboration, and more hope."
I paid a visit to school 45 (which could definitely use some air conditioning) on a very hot Monday morning to get a first hand look at young refugees beginning their education in America. Claire, a bubbly young woman, wise well beyond her years, gave me a tour of the school. Over the summer, children participate in Jump Start, which is designed to give non-native English speaking kids a boost before they start regimented classes in the Fall. Jump Start is comprised of a combination of refugees and immigrants who have been in the county for eight months or less. The program aims to develop English speaking skills in hopes of helping the children grow socially and emotionally. Jump Start also includes field trips to local educational attractions such as the zoo and aquarium.
After the Jump Start program ended on August 1st, many children took part in "recreation week". During this week AmeriCorps volunteers oversaw social skill building activities such as games and crafts. During the school year, children who attended Jump Start, also attend schools close to their homes. That is a big benefit to any child and family.
Before we met in person, I asked Claire a few general questions about the young refugees. Were they are happy in their new environment? How well did they get along with other children born in Buffalo, and how well they were assimilating into American culture?
"The main difference for the refugee families is that they do not already know the unwritten rules, the language or the cultural nuances of the local status quo," said Claire, "which can put them at more risk. For example, many refugee families have spent much of their lives living in the jungle or in refugee camps where children are allowed to be fairly independent. Kids need closer supervision to be kept safe in the inner city than in a forest mountain village."
I asked her how quickly the refugee/immigrant children tend to pick up English. Claire said it varies depending on the child's native language, and literacy skills. "Children who are literate in their native language also have a much easier time learning to read and write in English. Imagine you have never learned to read or write in your own language. Now you are asked to make connections between arbitrary lines and markings to sounds... all the while the end goal of creating meaning seems futile because you are trying to do it in a language you don't understand in the first place."
Claire explained that it takes about one and a half to three years to develop basic communicative skills, or "playground language", and about five to seven years of being fully immersed in a language to develop language skills crucial for success in an academic setting.
Claire works with the Multilingual Education Department of the Buffalo Public schools. She says the department is made up of "some of the most dedicated, hardworking, and caring people that I have ever had the privilege of working with, and they are excellent at what they do."
When we spoke at School 45, I asked her what she thought of the film Nickel City Smiler. She said she liked the film, and passed it along to many other teachers. It turns out that she works with the films featured refugee, Smiler Greely, quite often. She showed me a huge pile of donated clothing in the Multilingual Education office, and said she was expecting Smiler to come pick it all up to take it home. "If we take it to Smiler's house, people will come get it," she said with a laugh.
Next, Claire took me through the school, showing me classrooms and walls covered in artwork. I immediately noticed a dry erase board with a list of 28 different languages spoken by refugee and immigrant children attending Jump Start. Some of the languages included are Swahili, Turkish, Creole, and Burmese.
School 45 houses about 240 to 270 kids on any given day during the Jump Start program. AmeriCorps volunteers, Houghton college students, and some UB students spend their summer at Jump Start helping refugee and immigrant children get used to life in American schools. In the mornings, children are given academic lessons by Buffalo School teachers, and in the afternoon volunteers take over.
Life is certainly not always easy for newly arrived refugees and immigrants. Claire said sometimes she deals with refugee children and parents suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, brought on by their previous living conditions and new environment. Sometimes young people between the ages of 17 and 21 come to America without ever having been in school. Fortunately the Buffalo Public School System attempts to make the transition a little smoother, by providing the ability to get together through 'group learning' opportunities that are made available to these young adults and for older women. There is also an adult education program provided by the Buffalo Public schools. "All adult refugees in Buffalo qualify for free English classes through Buffalo Public School's Adult Education," a Buffalo schoolteacher wishing to remain anonymous told me. "There are morning, afternoon and evening classes at all skill levels all over the city. We have helped refugees move into GED programs, and many have entered college."
The teacher, who contacted me after reading my previous two articles in Buffalo Rising, wished to remain anonymous because she also had some criticisms about the resettlement process. "Basically my experience with adult students is that their resettlement agency starts off with a bang (placement in apartments, getting clothes, etc.) but then fizzles out," she said. "Some of my students have been reduced to tears after their caseworker didn't return phone calls or was rude to them." The teacher told me that although getting by in Buffalo is often a harrowing task for many of her students, none of them have complained about housing quality. According to her, anything is a step up from huts in the jungle.
"As far as the publicity and debate surrounding resettlement, the temptation is to operate in extremes," Claire told me. "Some think we need to focus on the problems in order to push for reform, while others find it more constructive to focus on the positive and celebrate the small victories... a good dose of honesty and humility would do the resettlement community a lot of good. Why can't we not both own up to the challenges and celebrate the successes?"
One resettlement agency cannot give refugee families everything they need to live healthily and happily in Buffalo. Claire believes that for refugee children to succeed in Buffalo it takes resettlement agencies, educators, community organizations, translators, and the families themselves.
At the beginning of this summer I had no idea how amazing of an experience I would have immersing myself in a culture different than my own. I have met many amazing refugees, (including Smiler Greely and Moe Joe, who I will never forget), amazing filmmakers with a passion for social justice, and I have learned more than a few valuable lessons. As far as improving the lives of refugee families in Buffalo goes, there many extremely dedicated and ambitious people working very hard to do just that.
"The only way to move forward in reaching goals and improving the lives of the families we serve," said Claire, "is to put aside our own personal and institutional egos and focus in the needs of the families."
Congrats to this journalist for immersing herself into this issue/cause. I, for one, had very little insight into the plight of refugees prior to this series and the documentary.
In regards to the settlement agencies not wanting to air (past) dirty laundry and "only look ahead", I have to question this; if they really have progressed in their processes, they shouldn't be defensive and should have no issue with the candor of this film. Their defensiveness, however, leads me to believe that there still are skeletons which they are not willing to expose.