Refugee Children
What do teachers need to know about teaching refugees?
Background Information
What is a refugee?
The UN Refugee Agency states that almost half of the world's forcibly displaced people are children and many spend their entire childhood far from home. Children are at greater risk of abuse, violence, exploitation, and trafficking.
"In 2016, the UNHCR reported 15 million refugees worldwide. But ONLY 1% of this population got resettled in a third country."
(Catholic Charities Panelist, TCU, March 29, 2016)
The Journey of a Refugee
- Persecution in their home country
- Fleeing to a country of asylum
- Waiting (1 month to several years) to be processed for resettlement
- Screening to enter the country of resettlement
- Arrival to the country of resettlement
(Photo Credit: ChurchTimes.co.uk)
Refugee Resettlement
- Many refugees are transferred from an asylum country to another country that has agreed to admit them and ultimately grant them permanent resettlement.
- The United States will admit 85,000 refugees from around the world in 2016. (State.gov)
- Texas has resettled the most refugees because of various factors: network of resettlement agencies, grassroots refugee communities, and multiple job opportunities.
- Tarrant County is among the top three counties in Texas to resettle families.
- Locally, Refugee Services of Texas, Catholic Charities Fort Worth, and World Relief work with federal government and help refugees move here.
What does the law say?
- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 14), states that Everyone has the right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution in other countries.
- The 1951 UN Refugee Convention protects refugees from being returned to countries where they rick persecution.
(Retrieved from Amnesty International)
What are some educational and social services provided to refugee children?
What Protects the Well-being of Refugee Children in Schools?
- The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides funds to raise the achievement of children who attend high-poverty schools, where most refugee students are usually enrolled.
- Refugee children are protected under IDEA once they are found to have a learning disability.
- States are required to set aside up to 15% of their Title III funds under the ESEA for sub grants to English Language Acquisition Programs. Such funds can be used for activities including improving instruction, tutoring and intensified instruction, conducting community participation programs, and any activity that helps improve the educational experience of all English Language Learners (ELLs).
- The McKinney-Vento Act established educational rights and support for children and youth experiencing homelessness, including IMMEDIATE access to a free, appropriate public education, and free/reduced lunch.
- The National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition provides non-monetary assistance in research-based strategies and approaches such as academic language development, and can also share data and models for the creation of Newcomer Centers to serve recently arrived immigrant students.
Educational Experience of Refugee Children in a Country of Resettlement
Children of refugees benefit from several factors that protect their well-being:
- High employment levels of (both) refugee parents, though the poverty rate exceeds 50%.
- Family structure and family size
- Support from the refugee community, schools, and agencies
- Use of public benefits
Children of refugees also face significant risks to their well-being:
- Living in linguistically and culturally linguistic households
- Crowded houses
- Parental engagement in their schooling due to English skills
- Low household income
- Suffering from stress due to experienced trauma
- Lack of access to resources
What is the Fort Worth Community doing to support the education of refugee children?
Services for Families
- Providing parents with ways to communicate with the school.
- Helping parents understand processes and expectations of the schools including enrollment, immunizations, absences, etc.
- Resources on parenting, counseling, and schooling children in a new country.
Services for Students
- Tutoring both in the school (before or after school) and the refugees' apartment complex in certain situations.
- Group and individual counseling in and out of the school when needed.
Liaison Services
- Facilitate communication between schools, refugee families and case workers, and provide resources as needed
- Provide interpreters for families, school staff, and case workers
- Intervene when there are discipline problems or other school-related issues
Resources for Teachers
- Teacher trainings on various topics, such as cultural diversity, ESL/Literacy, the refugee resettlement process, etc.
- Free refugee materials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees for refugee education.
Tutoring Programs
- Dictionaries, books, games, flashcards, lessons, manipulative, and entire curriculum on content areas.
What are some social and health services that support the well-being of refugee children?
- Health Insurance coverage
- Mental health interventions in public and (if possible) private counseling clinics
- Nutrition assistance programs
- Cash assistance programs and supplemental security income
How can teachers support refugee children in the classroom?
Strategies to Support Refugee Children in an ESL classroom
- Learn about the students' culture and language, and invite them to share their knowledge with the whole class.
- Get to know the families by having regular meetings, and be sure to provide bilingual support.
- Look for signs of stress and work with school social workers or counselors and the family to develop a plan to help the student reduce anxiety.
- Integrate the student into weekly classroom routines.
- Increase exposure to the English language with phrases and pictures posted around the room.
- Provide appropriate resources and support activities to keep students engaged in learning even while their English skills are very limited.
- Provide students a "work buddy" that can help him/her throughout the day.
Supporting Refugee Children's Mental Health
However, just because a student is a refugee, it does not mean he or she has experienced trauma and/or will exhibit symptoms related to trauma. When a teacher has identified trauma-related symptoms, in order to support refugee youth in the classroom, teachers can:
- Consult with the school mental health professional regarding concerning behavior describing any patterns that you have noticed
- Educate other students about being sensitive about cultural differences and being respectful of other feelings
- Be sensitive when bringing up information in class that could be a trauma reminder for a child (e.g. discussing war in Social Studies class)
- Try not to use food in lessons. Children coming from refugee camps may not see food as something to "play" with.
- Learn about the models and services your school has adopted to better support their refugee students
- Establish expectations and provide support with tasks that appear difficult to their level of development.
- Be kind, caring, and loving! A smile can help heal hearts! :)
Recommendations
Addressing the Refugee Crisis in K-6 Classrooms
Some important things to keep in mind...
- Ask open questions and listen: Asking permission to talk about the issue, and letting them drive the discussion, may encourage them to talk freely in a safe environment, and allows the teacher to address misconceptions.
- Encourage activities that may help the discussion, such as drawings, appropriate videos, read-alouds, stories, etc. (Immigrant/Refugee Awareness Instructional Materials)
- Rely on children's literature to address the topic at any grade level (Children's Books about the Refugee/Immigrant Experience)
- Don't minimize or avoid students concerns, and acknowledge feelings and assure them it's natural to feel sad or scared about these things.
- Explain truthful information about what is going on in the world using age-appropriate language, and demonstrate that you are listening making on going eye contact.
- Explore the answers together if you don't know how to answer their questions.
- Show them comforting images as immigrants are warmly welcomed in other countries.
- Share stories of aid workers, community leaders and humanitarian who keep children safe and help them continue their education. It's important for children to kniw about the acts of bravery and kindness from ordinary people.
A Piece of Home
My Name is Bilal
Brothers In Hope
Significance
Why is it important to address the refugee crisis in K-6 classrooms?
iven the increasing number of refugee children being resettled in Texas, and in Tarrant
county, today's education requires ALL teachers to be familiar with the cultural diversity that immigrant refugees bring with them into the classroom. Teachers have the responsibility to make these students and their families feel welcomed in the classroom environment, and to support other children learn about a global issue that can potentially affect the way they see the world. Teachers have the responsibility to educate every child in the topic through child in classroom activities, providing accurate information, and supporting the development of this topic in an age-appropriate way. More importantly, teachers need to be able to address this topic in a way that does not have negative effects on the emotional well-being of refugee children in the classroom. Although teachers can face challenges as they address this topic due to the well-thought planing of instructional approaches in every grade level, teachers are required by law to modify instruction and provide the appropriate support in order to to meet the refugee children's academic and emotional needs as they assimilate the new American culture.
Summary
What do teachers need to know about teaching refugee children?
Sources
- Amnesty International United States. (2016). Web. http://www.amnestyusa.org
- Bridging Refugee Youth & Children's Services. (2016). Promising practices program: Refugee school impact program. Retrieved from http://www.brycs.org/promisingpractices/promising-practices-program.cfm?docnum=0082
- Capps, R., Fix, M., Hooper, K., & Zong, J. (2016) Young children of refugees in the United States: integration successes and challenges. Migration Policy Institute. Web. Retrieved from http://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/young-children-refugees-united-states-integration-successes-and-challenges
- Smith, D. A. (2015, September 30). Refugees find haven in North Texas. The Star-Telegram. Retrieved from http://www.star-telegram.com
- United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2016). Web. http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home
- U.S. Department of Education. (2014, September 19). Educational services for immigrant children and those recently arrived to the United states. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/policy/rights/guid/unaccompanied-children.html
- World Relief International. (2016). Web. http://worldrelieffortworth.org