Running head: INTEGRATION OF REFUGEES INTO AMERICAN SOCIETY

“You stuff somebody into the American dream and it becomes a prison”

Analysis of Socio-Economic Integration of Refugees into American Society.

Ivan Krauchanka

English 101

Professor ________

May 11, 2016

INTEGRATION OF REFUGEES INTO AMERICAN SOCIETY

I was only nineteen when was I forced to seek asylum in a new country. Being born and

raised in Belarus – a small Eastern European country – I had no idea that one day I would have

to become a refugee and leave my motherland forever. Perhaps, this is because I, like most

people, thought of only a certain picture in my mind when I heard that scary word: “refugee.” As

a white, Christian man, living in a fairly peaceful country, I never thought that one day I would

obtain the status of a refugee.

Let’s be honest. What do we picture when we hear the word “refugee”? War?

Concentration Camps? Crying women? Muslims? Overloaded boats with people in red life

vests? Yes, this is how we see refugees on TV. However, this is not the only image that

appropriately fits the numbers of people who seek refuge. In fact, every year thousands and

thousands of people in the world have to leave their countries as asylum seekers due to their

political views or belonging to a certain group or association that is prohibited or not supported

by their government. They may not all fit the images described above and, in fact, arguably, they

most often do not. I certainly don’t fit that image, and I never thought I’d have to leave my

country .

Belarus is the country that is known by the world as having had the last dictatorship in

Europe. In response to our position in Europe and our everyday life as not having freedom of

speech, poverty and government (that which many beleive is destroying the authentic

Belarussian culture) in the beginning of the 2000s, many young citizens began mass protests

against the harsh regime of the ruling president and his government. In 2006, I myself joined the

protestors and became a member of the political organization, Young Front. The main objectives

of this organization were to revive Belarusian schools, culture, language. We sought only to

cultivate young peoples' responsibility for their motherland's fate (mfront.net).

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Unfortunately, all of our peaceful demonstrations and protests were brutally suppressed

by the police. I was arrested, abused, and severely beaten up several times. One day, a man in a

black suit met me after classes at my university and asked me for a chat. It appeared that he was

a KGB and propaganda agent at my school. He showed me some pictures of me holding peaceful

banners and said that I had “crossed the border” and would be shortly expelled from the

university and taken to the military forces where they would “show me a better life.” I knew that

I was in a big trouble and had to leave the country immediately.

Because I had traveled to the United States throughout my college years and because the

USA is the country that was built both by immigrants and for immigrants, I could not have

thought of a better place that could give me temporary “shelter.” Moreover, I had a few friends

who won the Green Card lottery and had been living and working in the U.S. for several years.

Therefore, I traveled to the U.S. where I planned to stay for a few months only. I was certainly

not planning to obtain a refugee status and stay in the United States for the rest of my life. I was

hoping for some major changes in the political and social situation in my country so that I would

be able to go back home soon.

However, after almost a year, things had still not changed for the better in Belarus. Also,

I could not remain in the USA illegally any longer and had to obtain a legal status in order to get

a real job and continue my education. It took me over a year to make that tough decision –

whether I should obtain a refugee (political asylum) status or not. Once I finally did, it took over

two years for my application to process. During that period of time, I was holding the status of an

“asylum seeker” – “a person who has left their country of origin and formally applied for asylum

in another country but whose application has not yet been concluded” (refugeecouncil.org.uk). I

did not have a legal right to work and, what was even scarier, is that I could not leave the

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territory of the United States in order to not lose my immigration status. It was two years of a

tremendous fear. I felt like I was in jail. What if something happened to my family? I could not

go back to see them because I would more likely not be able to return back to the United States.

When I was finally granted my refugee status, I felt a little relief, knowing that, from now

on, I was protected by the U.S. Constitution; however, I still could not go back to Belarus,

because it was prohibited by U.S. law. The immigrationequality.org website states:

Asylees can travel outside the United States with refugee travel documents. It is essential

that the asylee not return to her home country until he/she has become a U.S. citizen and

can travel with a U.S. passport. If the asylee does return to her/his home country, DHS

could refuse to allow him/her to reenter the United States on the grounds that he/she

implicitly no longer fears persecution.

Asylees must only travel with a United States issued Refugee Travel Document. If an

asylee travels with the passport issued by the country from which he/she has been granted

asylum, he/she can be seen as availing him/herself of the protections of his/her

government which could lead to a finding by the U.S. government that he/she no longer

needs asylum protection.

It appeared that when the United States grants someone a refugee status they will not let that

person go back to his/her country of origin or, if he/she does so, they will cancel his/her

immigration status. My lawyer, Natasha Samus, who helped me with the whole process of

obtaining my refugee status, warned me that I would more likely not be able to travel back to

Belarus ever again. Well, it has been eight years since I left home and I still have not had an

opportunity to go back and visit my family. Though I was appreciative of feeling protected and

living in one of the greatest countries in the world, I soon learned that the freedom I obtained as a

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refugee was not really total freedom – not at all. The feeling of being stuck or “jailed” continued

to follow me just as it did at home. This had a tremendous impact on my psychological condition

and mental health.

Moreover, the first couple years for me living in New York was a total disaster. Not

speaking fluent English and not having an American college degree, I had to do very low level

jobs as a dishwasher, a home attendant and a construction worker. Apparently, this kind of work

is very common amongst refugees, those who were forced to leave their native country. Nicole

Ives (2007), who did a research on Bosnian refugees in the United States, notes:

Twenty out of twenty-four participants were employed or employed and studying. Over

half of employed participants were working in low- or no- skill jobs in the private for-

profit or nonprofit sectors. Although such jobs are the most widely available to refugees,

in economic downturns, those positions are the most vulnerable to layoffs. (p. 58)

I agree that the absolute majority of refugees have to do low level jobs because my personal

experience and the experience of my refugee friends confirms this. While most refugees and

immigrants are happy to take whatever job is available when they first enter the country, finding

a job and slowly moving up the ladder, it can still be incredibly difficult to do so (Nuñez, 2014).

I moved to the U.S. when I was only nineteen and could not get a “real” job because I did

not have a completed college degree. However, there is a great number of refugee intellectuals

who were forced to leave their native countries due to war or political regime. Sociology

professor Theo Majka states that many refugees can only find dead-end service jobs although

they have good education and skills. During her research, she found two Iraqis who had

engineering degrees and great computer skills and worked as janitors in the accepting country.

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The author notes that it is very common to meet a highly qualified refugee intellectuals doing

low level jobs in the U.S.

Personally, while working at the construction site, I met E., who came to the United

States as a refugee from Georgia in 2008 during the Russian war invasion. Back home, he was a

surgeon and worked at one of the best hospitals in Tbilisi. However, his MD diploma was not

valid in the U.S., and he had to get a construction job in order to support his family and pay for

college. I could see how mentally hard it was for him to accept the fact he would have to do

“dirty” jobs for at least another five years before he gets his college degree and become a

medical nurse.

On the contrary, there were other people working with me at the construction site who

came to the U.S. as economic migrants and were extremely happy with the job they did. Workers

from Eastern Europe, Latin America, and China moved to the United States simply to make

money. They knew that they would have to do hard, “dirty” jobs and came here anyway;

however, if something went wrong they also knew that they could always leave everything and

return back home whenever they want. According to Office of the United Nations High

Commissioner for Refugees (2015):

Migrants choose to move not because of a direct threat of persecution or death, but

mainly to improve their lives by finding work, or in some cases for education, family

reunion, or other reasons. Unlike refugees who cannot safely return home, migrants face

no such impediment to return. If they choose to return home, they will continue to receive

the protection of their government.

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Personally, I remember feeling envious of them and of the peace of mind they had in the fact that

they were “free” to go back home if something goes wrong or if they are simply tired of the job

they do.

Not only did I differ from those with whom I was working in terms of my freedom to

return home, I also often felt frustrated given that I had a fairly high level of education before

moving to the U.S. in comparison to those who moved here to do construction jobs because this

jobs are better paid in U.S. than, lets say, India or China. In the article “Refugee Intellectuals”

Lewis A. Coser (1984) states:

The refugee intellectuals differ from other immigrants in at least one significant respect.

Immigrants, with some exceptions, tend to come from low socioeconomic status

positions; refugee intellectuals usually came from positions fairly high on the same status

ladder, where they had lived in relative comfort and were accustomed to receiving a

certain deference and respect. While the immigrants, despite discrimination and

exploitation, generally experienced their position in the new country as an advance, most

refugee intellectuals suffered, at least at first, from the fact that their status in the new

country was inferior to what they had left as their due at home. (p. 61)

Coser notes that refugees who had a certain social status in their country of origin will more

likely than not obtain the same status in the accepting country due to different qualification

requirements and it is very hard for them to realize that fact. The simplest example of that was

provided to me by my friend E., who explained to me certain simple differences between

surgeons in Western and Eastern cultures. For example, surgeons in the United States wash their

hands, letting water flow from their wrists to elbows, whereas in Georgian and many other

Eastern countries it is required for the surgeons to wash their hands from elbows to wrists.

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Educated intellectual refugees have to spend years in order to retrain and get a desired

job. For that period of time, refugees have to do non-qualified jobs that can ruin their self-esteem

and have a bad impact on their mental health. In his research, Coser (1984) also maintains that:

For many refugees much frustration stemmed from their feeling that many of the skills,

talents, and achievements they had to their credit could not be displayed under the new

rules. They often found themselves in the paradoxical situation of feeling superior to the

members of the group whose approval or esteem they sought, while the members of the

new group frequently perceived them as inferior for not knowing the rules of the game.

Unfortunately for the refugee, it is usually the natives who define how the game is to be

played and determine who wins. (p. 62)

To put it differently, we all know how hard it is to get a new job, and what is even harder is to

assimilate into a new collective. Coser (1984) states that those refugees who got lucky and found

a job in their sphere of specialization may suffer a lot due to cultural differences and always have

to keep in mind that natives set up the rules of the game. For example, have you ever thought

why the majority of New York City cab drivers are Arabic, Indian or Pakistani? I always

believed that being a taxi driver is an easygoing job and those people are just lazy and hunting

for “easy money” until I had a conversation with Mohammad Haji – an Afghani refugee, who

had been working as a cab driver for over ten years. Here what he said:

I came to this country in 2003 with my younger brother, wife and two kids… I was a

physical education teacher in Sheberghan’s high schools. I got a job in New Jersey at the

gas station. That rich American kid, who owned a gas station, would yell at me every

single day… Well, I understand that it was only two years after September 2001 and

Americans were angry at all Muslims in general… But how was that my fault? Then I

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became a taxi driver… At least here I’m my own boss. I work seventy hours a week to

support my family and pay bills but I am happy. I can only rely on myself… and nobody

else.

It appears, that refugees, especially those refugee intellectuals, prefer “independent” jobs in order

not to be stigmatized by jobs they do or to be abused by their colleagues or supervisors.

Moreover, in addition to all those economic problems of finding desired jobs and good

relationships with their colleagues and supervisors, refugees, especially those from Africa and

Muslim countries, go through a tremendous cultural shock. Heather Hughes (2016) writes about

Syrian refugees in Canada:

They (refugees) were happy because they fled from the war and they had a safe place.

But then they arrive here and everything is different. They went through to the other stage

of culture shock, which is the crisis stage. They say, ‘We are depressed. We are isolated.’

It is really like those exposed to shock.

Hughes (2016) is surely right about that because my personal experience confirms her words.

When I first arrived in New York, everything seemed different and unfamiliar. Even food and

water tasted “weird”. And it is me, a white man who comes from a civilized Eastern European

society. I had traveled a lot and was familiar with peculiarities of the Western culture prior to my

arrival to the United States. Therefore, I can only imagine how hard it is for refugees from

Middle East or Africa, who have different religion, life views, and values to become a part of the

American society.

All these factors, including the language barrier, culture and religious differences, and

problems with finding a job can have a tremendous impact on refugees’ mental health and

behavior. According to Enicott et al. (2014), refugees and asylum seekers have high rates of risk

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factors for mental disorders. Victims of violence and civil conflict often flee countries of their

persecution to seek refuge in safer locales, or, in clinical terms, to reduce the likelihood of

encountering distress. However, the difficulties they meet in the accepting countries can lead to

even more serious effects. Caroline M Mann and Qulsoom Fazil (2006) state that:

Asylum seekers and refugees are in the high-risk category for suicidal intention, and

many succeed in taking their own lives. They are the most often aged between 20 and 40

years, male, frequently alone, and isolated because of language difficulties or depression

and a sense of not belonging, reinforces by experiences of racism or neglect.

Personally, I belong to that category of young men described by Mann and Fazil. Well, I had

never and I will hopefully never think about suicide. However, I found myself a few times in a

deep depression that was caused by cultural misunderstanding, social status, and problems with

finding a job. Luckily, things are getting better now. I have a decent job, I am attending college,

and I have already applied for my U.S. citizenship that will give me the freedom to travel and

rights. This is what I got after being in this country for eight years.

Hundreds of thousands refugees went through a tremendous amount of torture and fear.

Waking up in the morning and knowing that today may be the day when they might die makes

them leave their home countries and go overseas to protect their lives. Modern Americans,

Australians, Canadians, and Europeans have seen war only on TV or Netflix documentaries, and

they do not know what a real fear feels like. However, there is a great number of people who do

not support refugees. Every year politicians are debating the number of refugees they can accept.

Why not let them all come and support them by giving them jobs they deserve and freedom of

travel? I truly believe that refugees deserve more attention nowadays. We are all sharing the

same planet. Millions of years ago, dinosaurs were migrating from one continent to another due

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to climate changes and looking for food. We are not dinosaurs, we are all human beings and we

must support each other in order to have a right to maintain a high status of being a human being.

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References

Coser, N. A. (1984). Refugee intellectuals. Society. 22(1), p61-68.

Enicott, J. C., Doherty, A. R., Block, A. A., I-Hao C., Wahidi, S., Meadows, G. N. (2014). BMC

Psychiatry. 14(1), p1-22.

Hughes H. (2016). Phys.org. Retrieved April 22, 2016 from http://phys.org/news/2016-03-

culture-key-stressor- refugees.html

If you’ve won ssylum. (n.d.). Retrieved April 17 2016 from http://www.immigrationequality.org/

get-legal-help/our-legal-resources/immigration-equality-asylum-manual/asylee-status/

Ives, N. (2007). More than a "good back": looking for integration in refugee resettlement.

Refuge (0229-5113). Fall 2007, 24(2), p54-63. 10p. 1 Chart.

Mann, C., Fazil, Q. (2006). Mental illness in asylum seekers and refugees. Primary Care Mental

Health. Jan. 2006, 4(1), p57-66.

Nuñez, C. (2014, December 12). The 7 biggest challenges facing refugees and immigrants in

the US. Global Citizen. Retrieved April 16, 2016 from

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https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/the-7-biggest-challenges-facing-refugees-and-

immig/

Rasmussen, A., Crager, M., Baser, R. E., Chu, T., Gany, F. (2012). Onset of posttraumatic stress

disorder and major depression among refugees and voluntary migrants to the United

States. Journal of Traumatic Stress. Dec. 2012, 25(6), p705-712. 8p. 4 Charts.

Refugees often face greater challenges in adapting to U.S. than other immigrants. (2012)

American Sociological Association, Retrieved April 15, 2016 from

http://www.asanet.org/press/refugees_have_greater_difficulty_adjusting_to_us.cfm

UNHCR viewpoint: ‘Refugee’ or ‘migrant’ – which is right? (2015, August 27). News Stories.

Retrieved April 30, 2016 from http://www.unhcr.org/55df0e556.html

Young Front. National idea. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2016 from

http://mfront.net/maladafrontaucu/nacyyanalnaya-ideya

Who’s who. (n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2016 from

http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/policy_research/the_truth_about_asylum/the_facts_ab

out_asylum

UNHCR viewpoint: ‘Refugee’ or ‘migrant’ – which is right? (2015, August 27). News Stories.

Retrieved April 30, 2016 from http://www.unhcr.org/55df0e556.html

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