Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya
Ghedini: There are hundreds. We work very closely with a lot of partners, including UN agencies such as UNICEF and the World Food program. There are also hundreds of implementing partners or NGOs, including lots of American organizations, like the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Save the Children. A number of international groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other international NGOs like Doctors Without Borders.
POV: What is the goal for people in camps — return, resettlement, emigration? How do different goals change the work done?
Ghedini: The primary goal, our ideal "durable solution," is repatriation. If and when people can go back to their own home countries, that's usually best for the refugees themselves, and it's usually what they want more than anything else. It's often best for the country of origin, because they can help rebuild. When that's not possible, we do look at other possibilities, like local integration, arranging for refugees to stay in the country hosting them. The third option, which applies to the smallest group, those cases with no other options, is resettlement. Resettlement is not an option for a huge portion of refugees. It's kind of like winning the lottery: the odds are against you. Resettlement is an option for those with no other options, and it's difficult emotionally, physically, and logistically.
POV: After seeing a film like Lost Boys of Sudan viewers often want to know two things: What current crises are going on right now, and how can they help?
Ghedini: There is a looming humanitarian catastrophe right now. The largest on the horizon is the situation in Darfur in western Sudan. Up to two million people have been displaced within that region. There are about 200,000 refugees in Chad, in very dire conditions. It's almost impossible to access these areas because of the geography, the climate, and the logistics. We've been pleased to see some steps taken by the United States, such as Secretary Powell declaring that genocide has taken place. But whatever the title is for it, the stories we're hearing from the refugees are horrific, the situation is quite desperate, and our assistance is limited. Our funds are really running out as quickly as we try to boost them. For people who want to help, education is the first step — getting informed and then getting involved, whether by writing to policymakers or contributing funds. We offer a number of ideas for community groups, for individuals, or for classrooms, on our website — unrefugees.org. There are also updates of what's happening, and what can be done here in the United States.
Lost Boy Santino Majok Chuor preparing a meal at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States.
Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya
Madina Ali Yunye eating dinner with her American host family in Massachusetts, from Rain in a Dry Land
Montgomery: It's a long, complicated, and boring process. The U.S. government decides who comes and who doesn't come. For those who do come, the government contracts with ten volunteer agencies, or resettlement agencies. Half of them are faith-based. There's a formula used among the ten national resettlement agencies to decide where refugees will be dispersed — based on cultural capacities and language abilities in the different areas of the country. They also consider housing costs; a variety of factors are part of this formula. So when those approvals come to the U.S., all the agencies meet and divide the cases up.
Refugees don't usually have a big part in this process, because most of them have few connections in the United States. Somebody who has previously been in the United States — say a student who has a connection to one part of the country, or someone with a particular job skill that is useful in a certain part of the country — we would factor in those things. If there are existing communities within the United States, that's a factor. Back when we were assisting a lot of Vietnamese refugees, a lot of them had been to the United States before for military training, or had come here for education, so there were more connections than there were for the Lost Boys.
Reuben Koroma, a member of Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars, makes a cymbal in his refugee camp, from Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars
POV: Do refugees frequently return to their countries of origin? Do many prefer to remain in the United States? Is either of those a goal of the program?
Montgomery: Not a lot of refugees return to their home countries permanently. If conditions are right, they might make a visit to see family or friends. An exception was the case of Kosovar refugees in 1999. That was a short program. There were about 12,000 refugees, and about a third went back quickly after the war was over. The United States assisted people who wanted to go back. But people get caught up in their new lives in the United States. Our efforts are to work towards citizenship, to help refugees become productive members of communities. After people get their education, and get working, some may feel like they want to go back. But America has a way of co-opting people; and sometimes it's just not possible or practical for them to go back. Many of the Vietnamese refugees I mentioned regularly go back to Vietnam for short periods, but few of them return permanently.
POV: In the film, several of the Lost Boys are sending money back to their relatives or friends in the Kakuma camp. Is this common among refugees? Does the money play an important role in maintaining the camps?
Montgomery: We call those remittances. Most refugees do that. It's almost a cultural imperative. When you have somebody that's been left behind, the refugees want to do whatever they can to make things better for their relatives and friends. It's an issue we have to deal with here, helping them balance their financial responsibilities here with responsibilities for family or friends back in a refugee camp. But the financial responsibilities can be great for refugees who are trying to go to school, or having to buy cars. It can be a real challenge.
The camps are supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They bring great resources to it, but they're providing basic services — food, water, and security — so if families can send back a little more, it makes a big difference. The remittances don't support the actual infrastructure of the camps.
POV: How many refugees enter the United States each year? How is that decided?
Montgomery: The president, in consultation with the Congress, sets a ceiling every year for the number of refugees. It's currently around 70,000; but keep in mind that rarely do we bring in the number of refugees that we could. This year we'll probably bring in about 50,000. There are always numbers that go unused, opportunities that are lost. 9/11 obviously was a huge crossroads for refugee arrival. The year 2001 wasn't adversely affected, because the fiscal year was already over [when the attacks happened]. In that year we brought in about 68,000 refugees. The next year, we only brought in 27,000 refugees, although we could have brought in 70,000. The year after that we brought in 28,000. This year, things are starting to return to normal. After 9/11, they overhauled the whole security system overseas on how refugees are processed, and how assurances are made that refugee programs won't bring in terrorists or potential terrorists. We support efforts to ensure security, but we felt there was a little overkill. We're currently satisfied that there is a good system in place, and that we only admit those we want to come in. We didn't like the fact that there was a huge drop in arrivals, but in the end we're pleased that we have a system that has integrity.
POV: What are the special concerns in working with refugee children or orphans, like some of the Lost Boys?
Montgomery: Refugees who are under 18, including those without parents — we call them unaccompanied minors — go through specialized programs. Those are run by the Catholic Charities and the Lutheran World Relief services. Unaccompanied minors are placed into foster care situations, because they have to have parental care. The IRC is not involved in those situations. The majority of the Lost Boys were 18 or older; so even though they were single, they weren't unaccompanied minors. When you don't come with a family, you have to make a family, so we would group them together, in threes or fours in apartments. And the services were pretty standard. Some came with close friends or cousins or distant relatives.
POV: Some of the film's subjects express surprise at how difficult it is to succeed in the United States. How do their high expectations affect refugees like the Lost Boys?
Montgomery: The film really focuses on the difficulties of coming to this country. Especially for people who are leaving a horrible situation and struggling for years to come here, there's a feeling that they can come to the United States and all their prayers will be answered. But it's actually the beginning of a new process that's quite difficult.
POV: Do you keep track of the refugees who have been helped through your office in San Diego? What's happened to the Lost Boys you worked with?
Montgomery: About half of the refugees are involved in secondary education, and probably working at the same time. Almost all of them are working and doing well. The Lost Boys have been here three or four years now, and they're quite successful as a group, and also individually. Several of them have gone on to four-year institutions, or community colleges, some of them have won scholarships.
Our initial services are for a 90-day period, and we offer various kinds of assistance for as long as eight months. After a year refugees can become permanent residents, and we have programs to assist with legal services, and ultimately attaining citizenship. We see less and less of them as time goes by. We love them and want to see them, and we don't ever really close a case, but we're trying to make them independent, not dependent.
POV: What was education in the Kakuma camp like?
Chanoff: They had some caretakers and adults assisting them in camps along the way, and some of them learned to draw letters and numbers with a stick in the dirt. When the Lost Boys arrived in Kenya in '91 and '92, when the Kakuma camp was established for them, the camp had a school system similar to the Kenyan school system. Some of the brightest were high school graduates by the time we resettled them; others were not quite at that level.
POV: One of the film's subjects expresses surprise at the difficulty of succeeding in America, because, as he puts it, they're all alone, whereas they drew on more communal resources in the Sudan and in the Kakuma camp. Is this common for other Lost Boys, or other refugees?
Chanoff: That's one of the most significant aspects of this resettlement. In the orientation classes at the camp, we'd ask them to write down their fears and worries. And over a few years, in every single class one person would write down, "I'm afraid of being alone." There were about 80,000 refugees in Kakuma, so the 3,600 or 3,800 people who were chosen for resettlement were used to living communally, sleeping four or five to a hut, clustered in villages. They grew up together, and being alone is a scary prospect when you're accustomed to a group support process. I spent a lot of time in the camp getting to know how they lived there. On Sundays, they would have huge gatherings, with 500 to 1,000 young men and women, with drummers and people dancing in massive circles. I asked what kind of significance this held, and they said that living in the camp, with so many worries, these were the days when everyone could get together and relieve the worry. There was a real communal element to their lifestyle there that is impossible to duplicate in the United States.
POV: Why is it that we hear so little about Lost Girls? Were girls and young women part of the group at the camp?
Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya
Chanoff: Women were certainly part of this group, and many unaccompanied women had the same experiences as the Lost Boys. In Sudanese culture, women cannot live alone: in the camp, there would be four or five boys to a hut, with one adult loosely supervising. Unaccompanied girls were immediately fostered into families. Women serve very specific purposes in Sudanese culture, and they often have less access to education. When they get older, they're often sold off for a dowry. When selections were made for resettlement, girls did not have access to that program. Eighty-nine girls did get resettled, mostly sisters or cousins of the young men who were chosen. The UNHCR has recently been taking steps to identify and assist more young women; a number have been relocated to Australia. But the fact is that there are other young women who are in Kakuma who are at risk, who may have arrived in 1991 and may have already been sold off to marriage by relatives or caretakers, often with no say in whom they marry.
POV: America is founded upon an ideal of immigration that sets up certain expectations-- hard work and sacrifice will be rewarded. Is that a useful expectation for refugees to have, or is it an extra burden?
Chanoff: That's one of the values we talked about in cultural expectation classes. In Sudan, the community is most important, while in America, the individual is emphasized. It's an extremely important value to understand, and these guys have taken this to heart: many of them have one or two fulltime jobs, in addition to pursuing further education. For refugees in America it's an important value to have, and they caught on extremely quickly. Most of the Lost Boys have family and extended family obligations far beyond what most Americans would know. They know how desperate it can get in the camps, going without food for four or five days, being sick without money, and so they send money back to their friends and relatives. That burden somewhat impedes their moving forward, because they're not saving much money: they're sending it all back.
POV: The Lost Boys in the film confront many obstacles in building new lives for themselves — getting birth certificates, balancing part-time work and high school — but some of the most confounding are things like dealing with the DMV or paying the rent with a money order. How does an aid agency help prepare people to deal with adjustments that are both major and minor?
Chanoff: There are both small-scale and larger-scale issues in terms of adjusting to life here. We spent a lot of time on budgeting and money management, in addition to American laws, work, transportation, and things like the DMV. The idea was to plant seeds that the resettlement agencies could pick up on when they arrived here. The Lost Boys arrived in Ethiopia as young children, and then lived in Kakuma camp in northern Kenya, a very desolate place. Some of them did not have much exposure to western living. Some had been to Nairobi or western Kenya, but most of them had no idea of the way the U.S. system works. So we focused on paperwork and money, paying your bills, and online banking. These are new things to them, and they've adjusted very well, but it does take time and is daunting.
POV: What is your philosophy about humanitarian assistance? Do you think it's better for the Lost Boys to be in America? Is rescuing refugees the best way to go about helping them?
Chanoff: There are millions of refugees throughout the world, and only about one percent access resettlement. There are 15 countries that do resettlement, and the United States has a larger program than all the others combined. Resettlement is not an answer to the problems that are creating refugees: poverty, war, or famine. But for certain people, resettlement is the durable solution. For this group, this was an extremely positive resettlement. They've been able to get jobs and move forward with their lives. But there are still about 80,000 people in the Kakuma camp, including 60,000 Sudanese, 5000 Somalians, and Ethiopians and Congolese. Integration is not an option, because Kenyan law requires refugees to remain in camps. There are no good solutions for them at this time, and it's devastating.
Long shot of Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya from Lost Boys of SudanThe Refugee Situation Today
Sasha Chanoff
Former Kakuma Camp Relief Worker and Founder of Mapendo International
"Resettlement is not an answer to the problems that are creating refugees -- poverty, war, or famine. But for certain people, resettlement is the durable solution." | Read more »
U.S. State Department
"Security enhancements have both lengthened processing time and increased the cost of the refugee admissions program, but in today's world, we must know who everyone is who comes into our country and there must be adequate safety for U.S. personnel." | Read more »
Former Public Information Officer, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
"The primary goal, our ideal "durable solution," is repatriation. If and when people can go back to their own home countries, that's usually best for the refugees themselves, and it's usually what they want more than anything else." | Read
more »
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
"In 2006, around 1.4 million people in Africa returned home as a result of the gradual consolidation of peace processes in countries such as Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and southern Sudan." | Read more »
"What I think is resonant about these refugees is the tremendous strength they show. They make great Americans, because they have shown they have the toughness, grit, and the inspiration to make it here." | Read more »
"We are a country founded to be the beacon of freedom, an inspiration to the world; and as the leader of the free world, we have a moral responsibility to reach out to those who are miserable and suffering, and to assist them." | Read more »
Director, San Diego office of the International Rescue Committee
"For people who are leaving a horrible situation and struggling for years to come here, there's a feeling that they can come to the United States and all their prayers will be answered. But it's actually the beginning of a new process that's quite difficult." | Read more »
Joung-Ah Ghedini, UNHCR
August 2004
For an update on the work that the United Nations High Commisioner on Refugees (UNHCR) is doing around the world in 2007, please read our interview with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, António Guterres.
POV: What kind of work does the UNHCR do besides running refugee camps like the Kakuma camp in Kenya, where the Lost Boys were?
POV: How many refugee camps are operating around the world right now?
Ghedini: The number changes on a day-to-day basis. Even in a place like Kakuma, there are several camps within that area. So it's virtually impossible to say exactly how many there are. It's definitely in the thousands.
POV: What are the areas of concern in running the camps -- security, supplies, finding destinations for refugees?
Ghedini: The primary goal is to make sure we have enough resources to assist those in need. The UNHCR is generally underfunded, because we're one of the only agencies that doesn't get funding from the General Assembly. Only two percent of our funding comes from the UN. The other 98 percent comes from private and voluntary funding, which means going around to every government, every year. We also do fundraising among the general public. There is a dollar figure to assisting people, even for taking lifesaving measures.
The second goal is ensuring that we have full access to monitor human and refugee rights, and also full access to areas where people are fleeing from or returning home to. Another is security. More than ever, in many places, it's become increasingly difficult to work on the ground, because of violent political or military incidents that jeopardize our workers.
POV: How does the UNHCR maintain security in refugee camps?
Ghedini: For the most part we rely upon the fact that because we are an apolitical aid organization -- we help anyone in need, regardless of race or religion or politics. Generally we have been allowed access to most areas. That's changed in the last 20 years, because so many conflicts have become political, and aid workers are used as pawns in a much bigger struggle. We try to do a lot in terms of preparedness, training with field staff, how best to deal with things in emergency situations, limit our own activities, don't put ourselves in harm's way. We also rely on forces on the ground, mostly local police or local military forces.
POV: How do you train people to work in the camps? What kind of work does UNHCR staff do?
Ghedini: We have specialized positions, so everybody that enters into UNHCR is usually applying for a specific job. We have water engineers, and specialists in sanitation, health, and hygiene. We have positions for community services specialists, people who have typically worked in education, or as health officials or counselors. There are also general field officers and protection staff -- usually with a background as lawyers or human rights investigators.
POV: What kind of international orgs or NGOs work in camps like Kakuma?
Ghedini: There are hundreds. We work very closely with a lot of partners, including UN agencies such as UNICEF and the World Food program. There are also hundreds of implementing partners or NGOs, including lots of American organizations, like the International Rescue Committee, CARE, Save the Children. A number of international groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross, and other international NGOs like Doctors Without Borders.
POV: What is the goal for people in camps -- return, resettlement, emigration? How do different goals change the work done?
Ghedini: The primary goal, our ideal "durable solution," is repatriation. If and when people can go back to their own home countries, that's usually best for the refugees themselves, and it's usually what they want more than anything else. It's often best for the country of origin, because they can help rebuild. When that's not possible, we do look at other possibilities, like local integration, arranging for refugees to stay in the country hosting them. The third option, which applies to the smallest group, those cases with no other options, is resettlement. Resettlement is not an option for a huge portion of refugees. It's kind of like winning the lottery: the odds are against you. Resettlement is an option for those with no other options, and it's difficult emotionally, physically, and logistically.
POV: After seeing a film like Lost Boys of Sudan viewers often want to know two things: What current crises are going on right now, and how can they help?
Ghedini: There is a looming humanitarian catastrophe right now. The largest on the horizon is the situation in Darfur in western Sudan. Up to two million people have been displaced within that region. There are about 200,000 refugees in Chad, in very dire conditions. It's almost impossible to access these areas because of the geography, the climate, and the logistics. We've been pleased to see some steps taken by the United States, such as Secretary Powell declaring that genocide has taken place. But whatever the title is for it, the stories we're hearing from the refugees are horrific, the situation is quite desperate, and our assistance is limited. Our funds are really running out as quickly as we try to boost them. For people who want to help, education is the first step -- getting informed and then getting involved, whether by writing to policymakers or contributing funds. We offer a number of ideas for community groups, for individuals, or for classrooms, on our website -- unrefugees.org. There are also updates of what's happening, and what can be done here in the United States.
Joung-Ah Ghedini was formerly a senior public information officer at the Washington, D.C. office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The UN General Assembly established the office in 1950 to deal with refugees and displaced people in the aftermath of World War II. The office of the UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes for its work with refugees around the world. Currently operating in 115 countries with a professional staff of 6000, the UNHCR has provided assistance to over 50 million refugees in its history.
2007 UPDATE: Hear from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres »
Arthur Dewey, U.S. State Department
August 2004
POV: What is the current U.S. policy towards refugees? How has policy been affected since 9/11/2001 -- have there been funding changes, criteria changes?
Since September 11, 2001, additional security requirements have been incorporated in the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, including more stringent name checks for refugees and improved physical security forU.S. government officials who travel overseas to interview refugees. These security enhancements have both lengthened processing time and increased the cost of the refugee admissions program, but in today's world, we must know who everyone is who comes into our country and there must be adequate safety for U.S. personnel.
POV: Who are the typical subcontractors hired to support refugees in the United States? What are the requirements for them?
Dewey: The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program is designed to function as a public-private partnership between federal and state agencies and non-governmental organizations to provide effective and coordinated services to refugees. Currently, there are ten voluntary agencies (nine national agencies and one state government entity) who have signed cooperative agreements with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) to provide reception and placement services to newly arrived refugees.
With the DOS-provided per capita payment and privately-raised funds, the voluntary agencies are required to provide basic services such as airport reception, housing for at least one month, essential furnishings, household goods and clothing, assistance with applications for medical and cash assistance, referrals to English language courses and job placement services, and school enrollment for children.
Each voluntary agency must have at least three years experience operating as a non-profit organization providing social services. The voluntary agency must also demonstrate an ability to raise private resources to contribute to the refugee reception and placement program.
The ten voluntary agencies with which we partner are:
- Church World Service;
- Episcopal Migration Ministries;
- Ethiopian Community Development Council;
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society;
- Immigration and Refugee Services of America;
- International Rescue Committee;
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services;
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops;
- World Relief Refugee Services; and
- The State of Iowa
Lost Boy Santino Majok Chuor preparing a meal at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya before coming to the United States.
POV: How many refugees enter the United States each year? How are the numbers from different parts of the world determined?
Dewey: Since 1975, the United States has admitted over 2.5 million refugees. Annual refugee admissions to the United States have ranged from a high of 207,000 in 1980 (due to the continued large number of Vietnamese we were admitting after the fall of Saigon) to a low of 27,000 in 2002, following the terrorist attacks of September 11. For fiscal year 2004 (October 1, 2003 to September 30, 2004) we expect to admit more than 52,000 refugees to the United States, a nearly 80 percent increase over the number of refugees admitted in fiscal year 2003. This has been made possible by the extraordinary efforts of the staff of PRM, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, and our partners who have successfully implemented and streamlined the enhanced security requirements imposed in the wake of September 11, 2001.
Each year, there is an extensive consultative process during which representatives of the Administration and Congress, state and local governments, and private voluntary organizations focus on refugee resettlement needs worldwide and the domestic and international implications of U.S. refugee policy. The President, after congressional consultations, establishes refugee admissions ceilings and regional allocations for the coming fiscal year. Worldwide and regional admissions ceilings are based on availability of funding, number of refugees in need of resettlement, and the ability of the U.S. government to process the individuals in need.
The President's FY 2005 proposed ceiling of refugee admissions includes 50,000 allocated regionally and an additional 20,000 unallocated numbers that can beU.S.ed in the event that numbers allocated to a particular region are insufficient and resources to fund them are identified early in the fiscal year.
POV: Once admitted to the U.S., some of the Lost Boys in the film were assisted by faith-based resettlement agencies, and some by secular NGOs. How does the United States currently approach the use of faith-based and secular resettlement contractors? How does funding for faith-based and secular agencies compare?
Dewey: The United States partners with both faith-based and secular resettlement agencies. Requirements expected of and funding provided to faith-based and secular resettlement agencies are the same. In addition to funding the reception and placement activities of these agencies' headquarters costs (e.g., sponsorship identification), PRM provides $800 per refugee for use by the local resettlement affiliate assigned to assist the refugee at their final destination. Of this amount, at least $400 must be spent on the material needs of the refugee with the balance available for service provision (caseworker salaries, office space, etc.). Of the ten resettlement agencies with which we've partnered to provide reception and placement services to recently arrived refugees, six are faith-based and four are secular.
POV: The Lost Boys in the film are just a few of the refugees from the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya -- they arrived in 2001. Who are some of the other recent groups that have been admitted to America from Africa as refugees?
Dewey: Recently, some 5,500 at-risk Liberians have been resettled from Cote D'Ivoire. We anticipate resettling approximately 13,000 Somali Bantu from Kakuma camp in Kenya. Approximately 8,000 have been admitted to date; the remainder will arrive between now and spring 2005.
Arthur E. "Gene" Dewey has been the assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration since 2002. He is responsible for overseeing United States government policies regarding population, refugee and international migration issues, and managing over $700 million in allocations for refugee protection, resettlement and humanitarian assistance programs. He spent 25 years in the U.S. Army, rising to be chief of the Political-Military Division. Mr. Dewey also served for five years in the State Department as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau for Refugee Programs. Subsequently, he was named a United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and served four years in Geneva as UN Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees.
Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
August 2004
Note: Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren continues to represent California's 16th district in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2007, we asked U.S. Representative Tom Lantos from California's 12th district to update us on the state of American refugee policy.
POV: What does the Bipartisan Congressional Refugee Caucus do?
Congressman Zoe Lofgren: It's an interesting experience because the members of the Refugee Caucus are very different politically -- Representative Chris Smith [a Republican co-chair of the Refugee Caucus] and I work together on these issues. The Refugee Caucus is an informal caucus that doesn't operate permanently. We work on an as-needed basis, primarily through our staffers. We recently had the "Lost Boys" film shown on Capitol Hill, and as a consequence the information level was exponentially raised. Recently we've been pretty active trying to get the United States to take effective action relative to the situation in Sudan. The House recently passed a resolution calling it genocide. And we want to work with the administration to have them do the same thing. We recently met with Secretary Powell for our annual refugee consultation, and raised the issue of Darfur. He deserves some credit [for calling the situation in Darfur genocide].
POV: What do you see as the purpose of American refugee policy?
Lofgren: Its purpose is twofold: we are a country founded to be the beacon of freedom, an inspiration to the world; and as the leader of the free world, we have a moral responsibility to reach out to those who are miserable and suffering, and to assist them. It's important to promulgate freedom throughout the world, by doing the right thing so that refugees can stand up to oppression, and can have a chance of salvation through our refugee programs.
POV: In the two years after 9/11, the United States admitted far fewer refugees than it would normally accept, due to additional security measures. What changes have been made in policy, or what changes should be made?
Lofgren: The Refugee Caucus has raised that repeatedly with the administration. Last year, there were 50,000 allocated, and Secretary Powell says that number will be met. Next year, we believe we will get back on track.
POV: Some of the refugees in the film are surprised by how difficult it is for them to succeed in the United States, because they're largely working on their own, while they're used to drawing on more communal resources. They are supported by local agencies, contracted by the government. Are there changes you'd like to see in this process
Lofgren: That is something that we're looking at. It's been discussed, but there has been no request for funding. There are ideas like a Refugee Corps to try and help assist refugees. There's been some discussion of refugees, and whether the resources provided by the federal government to NGOs are making it out of the headquarters and into the field. The truth is that if you are a refugee from a country where there's no real modern amenities, where you may have been tortured, it's a tremendous challenge to begin living in an urban area in the United States. Before I was elected to the House, I first served in county government, and we made a large effort in Santa Clara county, through an office we funded locally to help refugees relocate. What I think is resonant about these refugees is the tremendous strength they show. They make great Americans, because they have shown they have the toughness, grit, and the inspiration to make it here.
Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren has represented California's 16th District since 1994. Prior to being elected to the House of Representatives, she taught immigration law at the University of Santa Clara School of Law. She serves on the House Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims, and is co-chair of the Bipartisan Congressional Refugee Caucus.
2007 UPDATE:
Congressman Tom Lantos answers updated questions about U.S. refugee policy »
Bob Montgomery, Int'l Rescue Committee
August 2004 | June 2007
POV: Describe the work the International Rescue Committee does.
POV: How do you recruit Americans to help in resettlement? Who is involved-- religious groups, others?
Montgomery: First of all, we have a paid staff, many of whom are bilingual or bicultural. However, we do rely heavily on volunteers. We regularly speak to student groups and civic groups, like the Rotary Club, or groups of former Peace Corps workers. We also occasionally speak to churches. Often if there's an article in the paper, or in the media, it sparks interest and we get telephone calls [from people who want to help]. To be a volunteer or mentor we do have training. There are certain requirements, and most [volunteers] are very helpful in the process. We also use mentors, to match up individual American families with refugees.
POV: What choices do refugees have regarding their placements?
Montgomery: It's a long, complicated, and boring process. The U.S. government decides who comes and who doesn't come. For those who do come, the government contracts with ten volunteer agencies, or resettlement agencies. Half of them are faith-based. There's a formula used among the ten national resettlement agencies to decide where refugees will be dispersed -- based on cultural capacities and language abilities in the different areas of the country. They also consider housing costs; a variety of factors are part of this formula. So when those approvals come to the U.S., all the agencies meet and divide the cases up.
Refugees don't usually have a big part in this process, because most of them have few connections in the United States. Somebody who has previously been in the United States -- say a student who has a connection to one part of the country, or someone with a particular job skill that is useful in a certain part of the country -- we would factor in those things. If there are existing communities within the United States, that's a factor. Back when we were assisting a lot of Vietnamese refugees, a lot of them had been to the United States before for military training, or had come here for education, so there were more connections than there were for the Lost Boys.
POV: Do refugees frequently return to their countries of origin? Do many prefer to remain in the United States? Is either of those a goal of the program?
Montgomery: Not a lot of refugees return to their home countries permanently. If conditions are right, they might make a visit to see family or friends. An exception was the case of Kosovar refugees in 1999. That was a short program. There were about 12,000 refugees, and about a third went back quickly after the war was over. The United States assisted people who wanted to go back. But people get caught up in their new lives in the United States. Our efforts are to work towards citizenship, to help refugees become productive members of communities. After people get their education, and get working, some may feel like they want to go back. But America has a way of co-opting people; and sometimes it's just not possible or practical for them to go back. Many of the Vietnamese refugees I mentioned regularly go back to Vietnam for short periods, but few of them return permanently.
POV: In the film, several of the Lost Boys are sending money back to their relatives or friends in the Kakuma camp. Is this common among refugees? Does the money play an important role in maintaining the camps?
Montgomery: We call those remittances. Most refugees do that. It's almost a cultural imperative. When you have somebody that's been left behind, the refugees want to do whatever they can to make things better for their relatives and friends. It's an issue we have to deal with here, helping them balance their financial responsibilities here with responsibilities for family or friends back in a refugee camp. But the financial responsibilities can be great for refugees who are trying to go to school, or having to buy cars. It can be a real challenge.
The camps are supported by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). They bring great resources to it, but they're providing basic services -- food, water, and security -- so if families can send back a little more, it makes a big difference. The remittances don't support the actual infrastructure of the camps.
POV: How many refugees enter the United States each year? How is that decided?
Montgomery: The president, in consultation with the Congress, sets a ceiling every year for the number of refugees. It's currently around 70,000; but keep in mind that rarely do we bring in the number of refugees that we could. This year we'll probably bring in about 50,000. There are always numbers that go unused, opportunities that are lost. 9/11 obviously was a huge crossroads for refugee arrival. The year 2001 wasn't adversely affected, because the fiscal year was already over [when the attacks happened]. In that year we brought in about 68,000 refugees. The next year, we only brought in 27,000 refugees, although we could have brought in 70,000. The year after that we brought in 28,000. This year, things are starting to return to normal. After 9/11, they overhauled the whole security system overseas on how refugees are processed, and how assurances are made that refugee programs won't bring in terrorists or potential terrorists. We support efforts to ensure security, but we felt there was a little overkill. We're currently satisfied that there is a good system in place, and that we only admit those we want to come in. We didn't like the fact that there was a huge drop in arrivals, but in the end we're pleased that we have a system that has integrity.
POV: What are the special concerns in working with refugee children or orphans, like some of the Lost Boys?
Montgomery: Refugees who are under 18, including those without parents -- we call them unaccompanied minors -- go through specialized programs. Those are run by the Catholic Charities and the Lutheran World Relief services. Unaccompanied minors are placed into foster care situations, because they have to have parental care. The IRC is not involved in those situations. The majority of the Lost Boys were 18 or older; so even though they were single, they weren't unaccompanied minors. When you don't come with a family, you have to make a family, so we would group them together, in threes or fours in apartments. And the services were pretty standard. Some came with close friends or cousins or distant relatives.
POV: Some of the film's subjects express surprise at how difficult it is to succeed in the United States. How do their high expectations affect refugees like the Lost Boys?
Montgomery: The film really focuses on the difficulties of coming to this country. Especially for people who are leaving a horrible situation and struggling for years to come here, there's a feeling that they can come to the United States and all their prayers will be answered. But it's actually the beginning of a new process that's quite difficult.
POV: Do you keep track of the refugees who have been helped through your office in San Diego? What's happened to the Lost Boys you worked with?
Montgomery: About half of the refugees are involved in secondary education, and probably working at the same time. Almost all of them are working and doing well. The Lost Boys have been here three or four years now, and they're quite successful as a group, and also individually. Several of them have gone on to four-year institutions, or community colleges, some of them have won scholarships.
Our initial services are for a 90-day period, and we offer various kinds of assistance for as long as eight months. After a year refugees can become permanent residents, and we have programs to assist with legal services, and ultimately attaining citizenship. We see less and less of them as time goes by. We love them and want to see them, and we don't ever really close a case, but we're trying to make them independent, not dependent.
June 2007
POV: How has the situation changed for refugees coming to America since 2004, if at all? Are there any new factors or approaches to refugee resettlement that relate to refugees from Sudan, Sierra Leone and Somalia?
Bob Montgomery: In recent years the resettlement process has focused on the entire family and looks to provide programming for all members of the family, including children, women, teens and the elderly. In addition, financial literacy services have taken a more important role in resettlement programming. More emphasis is placed on providing refugees the financial tools to manage the money they earn through employment.
POV: What are some of the challenges involved in refugee resettlement in terms of managing refugee expectations of their lives in the U.S. -- and the hope that they will become self-sufficient in 8-12 months -- as compared with their experiences in the camps, where their every need is provided for? One article in the Indianapolis Star from 2005 pointed out this challenge with Somali Bantu refugees in Indiana. In it, Joyceann Overton, director of the Indianapolis Catholic Social Services refugee program, said "many Bantu coming to Indiana had the impression that they would be cared for in the U.S... With most of the Bantu families living in Indianapolis about a year, the assistance has stopped, but most still don't have jobs. Their unemployment rate is 75 percent to 80 percent."
Montgomery: It is true that the longer refugees languish unproductive in camps, the more obstacles they face to become economically self-sufficient in their new homeland. Expectations for all refugee groups need to be tempered, but for the most part, refugees are motivated to become productive again as quickly as possible. Thus the resettlement agencies have incorporated services to assist in removing any barriers to self-sufficiency like the financial literacy programming mentioned above. In San Diego the employment placement rate for the Bantu has been good. This was made possible by the holistic family approach mention above, which includes a mother-of-preschoolers program that assists refugee moms in learning English and preparing to contribute to the family's income. Also, providing programming for children, teens and seniors allows the wage earners to concentrate on earning a living for their families.
POV: In your experience with Somali Bantu refugees, what are the particular challenges that the Bantu population faced that were different from other Somali refugees? What should people know about this population that makes them unique in terms of their resettlement?
Montgomery: Although all refugees have similar challenges of language and transferable job skills, this was especially true for the Bantu. Only about five percent of Bantu refugees had any English ability, and many were preliterate in their own language. As agrarians, many Bantu did not possess readily transferable job skills. However, all the Bantu refugees were motivated to learn and to become productive. Having the proper programming in place helped facilitate their movement towards self-sufficiency in spite of the barriers they faced.
POV: What are the issues involved for the resettlement of adults and families that make their resettlement different from the younger Lost Boys? Do they face difficulties with language, work and cultural issues, that are different from tose of younger refugees, particularly in terms of culture and entering the work force?
Montgomery: The biggest contrast is the family size and age. Most of the Lost Boys were single and able to group together in their living situations, saving money and thus becoming self-sufficient more quickly. Furthermore, their age and the fact that they did not have as many family responsibilities in the U.S. allowed them to pursue advanced education and vocational training, which also facilitated their move toward durable self-sufficiency. The larger-family-size Bantu refugees had to address child-care needs, higher housing expenses and more difficulty in attending classes to improve their English and employability skills.
POV: What about the issues of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Several refugees in "Rain in a Dry Land" succumb to depression when they are relocated to the U.S. How do aid groups in the U.S. deal with the mental health of immigrants? Is this a common problem?
Montgomery: Long stays in refugee camps, the rigorous overseas processing and the oft-times daunting resettlement experience can cause some refugees to suffer emotionally. Organizations such as Survivors of Torture International (SOTI) along with other mainstream mental-health agencies offer services to assist refugees who manifest PTSD and/or who exhibit other emotional-health issues. More resources are needed in this area to ensure that refugees have the support they require to address the emotional challenges of resettlement.
POV: How can PBS viewers help African refugees or other refugees in their communities? Are there particular organizations that you would recommend people get involved with, either through volunteering or contributing funds in order to help refugees in the U.S.?
Montgomery: Globally, viewers can advocate that the U.S. accept more eligible refugees, thereby reducing protracted camp stays. Advocacy for additional resources overseas will help to ensure that those refugees allowed to resettle in the U.S. will be healthy and will have the basic English and vocational skills to succeed in the U.S. Locally, viewers can donate their time to a resettlement agency as a volunteer or be a mentor to a newly arrived refugee family. They can also provide financial support to local organizations working with refugees so that these agencies have the necessary programs to assist refugees to move quickly into the mainstream and enjoy a successful resettlement experience.
Bob Montgomery is the regional resettlement director of the San Diego regional office of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). He is in his 30th year with IRC. He began in 1976 as a resettlement caseworker. Subsequently he was promoted to deputy director. In November 2000 Montgomery was promoted to resettlement director and in 2001 he was promoted again to his current position. Montgomery has a master's degree in social work (MSW) from Temple University in Philadelphia and is an accredited representative with the Bureau of Citizenship and Naturalization Services. Montgomery co-authored: "Avenues: A Caseworker's Guide to Immigration for Refugees and Asylees" and has been a presenter on resettlement and immigration issues at numerous conferences and workshops.
António Guterres, UNHCR
June 2007
POV: Are there other countries, in addition to Sierra Leone, where large numbers of refugees are returning home?
António Guterres: Afghanistan continues to represent our single largest return operation. Since the fall of the Taliban, more than 4.5 million Afghans have returned home, and that movement continues, though in much-reduced numbers. In Liberia, which neighbors Sierra Leone, returns have passed the 100,000 mark. In 2006, around 1.4 million people in Africa returned home as a result of the gradual consolidation of peace processes in countries such as Angola, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Southern Sudan.
POV: What are the United Nations High Commissioner of Refugee's (UNHCR) areas of concern at the moment?
Guterres: In Sri Lanka, where the peace process has again broken down, some 200,000 people have been forced to flee their homes. UNHCR has been involved with assisting and protecting internally displaced people in the northern part of the country since 1990. Given the office's extensive experience with internal displacement in Sri Lanka, it is now leading a broad-based response by a range of international agencies.
History has also shown signs of repeating itself thousands of miles away in Somalia, where a 15-year-old conflict re-ignited during the course of 2006. Thousands of Somalis spilled across the border into Kenya, where some 160,000 Somali refugees have been living in camps since the beginning of the 1990s. We're also seeing a worrying increase in the number of people, mostly Somalis and Ethiopians, who are making the perilous journey from the Horn of Africa across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen. In 2006, at least 330 people died and another 300 were reported missing, often at the hands of ruthless smugglers. So far this year, more than 5,600 people have landed on the Yemeni coast, and at least 200 people have died.
POV: After viewing films like "Lost Boys of Sudan," "Rain in a Dry Land" and "Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars" viewers often want to know what they can do to help.
Guterres: UNHCR is almost entirely funded by donations. Most of these come from governments, but we are increasingly relying on individual and corporate donations. For instance, in January of this year we had to issue an emergency appeal to fund our operations to assist Iraqi refugees. For those who want to contribute financially, I would ask them to visit unhcr.org/give or call 1-800-770-1100. But there are also other ways people can help. By becoming better informed on refugee issues an individual can then get involved in refugee causes, by writing to policy makers for instance. Information on all of UNHCR's program can be found at our website at www.unhcr.org.
António Guterres is the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees. The UN General Assembly established the UNHCR in 1950 to deal with refugees and displaced people in the aftermath of World War II. The office of the UNHCR has won two Nobel Peace Prizes for its work with refugees around the world. Currently operating in 115 countries with a professional staff of 6000, the UNHCR has provided assistance to over 50 million refugees in its history.
Representative Tom Lantos (D-CA)
June 2007
POV: How has the situation changed for refugees coming to the United States since September 11th? Are there any new factors or approaches to refugee resettlement that relate to refugees from Sudan, Sierra Leone and Somalia specifically -- or Africa generally?
To fix these matters, Congress passed major pieces of legislation, such as the Patriot Act, that had wide and, to a degree, unforeseen consequences for refugees. Some of the most detrimental provisions in this package of new laws are referred to as the "material support provisions." These provisions were designed to ensure that people who participated in or supported terrorist activities could not enter or immigrate to the United States. However, the overbroad scope and rigidity of these measures excluded many worthy individuals from being resettled in the United States -- most notably, tens of thousands of refugees. This happened because individual circumstances are not considered in the adjudication of these cases, and all too many people are lumped into the category of "terrorist supporters," even if their alleged material support is based on extortion, kidnapping or other forms of coercion they suffered from paramilitary or rebel groups. The U.S. Congress will hopefully be able to permanently change these hastily drafted provisions to continue the proud role the United States has played throughout its history in providing protection and a safe haven for some of the world's most vulnerable populations, refugees and asylum-seekers.
In addition, the administration has toughened its security screening processes on almost all immigration and visa admissions and conducted an extensive fraud review of the refugee program, eliminating or reconciling applications with evidence of fraud and enacting new anti-fraud measures to prevent fraud in future applications. Most notably, the administration instituted the NSEERS screening process which required boys and men between the ages of 15 and 55 who were from certain identified countries to undergo an additional, more extensive security screen than that required for other applicants. Sudan and Somalia remain on that list; however, Sierra Leone is not one of the countries from which applicants must undergo this additional examination.
POV: As the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, a Holocaust survivor originally from Hungary and a representative from the Bay Area, what is your particular interest in refugee issues?
Lantos: World War II made refugees of many with whom I was close -- including the girl who would later become my wife -- and this early experience left an indelible impression on me. I was fortunate to come to the United States on a scholarship in the early days of the post-war Soviet occupation of my country. Ever since then, I have been involved in helping victims of state repression, and it has been gratifying to be able to do so from my position in Congress -- both with legislation and by shining a light on the plight of refugees through the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and my work on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Today the world's refugees have one central commonality -- they are fleeing persecution. Either they have a well-founded fear of persecution at home on account of their race, religion, political opinion, nationality or membership in a social group, or they are survivors fleeing actual events of persecution on account of one of these factors. They are the most vulnerable of the millions of vulnerable people in the world. They seek refugee status because they have no choice but to seek that designation so that they and their families may survive.
POV: What do you see as the goal of American refugee policy? Are there specific changes that you would like to see implemented to improve American policy on this issue?
Lantos: Historically speaking, America was always a safe haven for people who had to leave their countries behind for various reasons. I am proud that the United States accepts about half of the world's refugees who resettle through the UN system. Our first goal should be to fulfill the promise contained in the immortal words of Emma Lazarus, engraved in the pedestal of America's most famous monument, the Statute of Liberty: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" These words should be our guidance, and we need to implement them through a flexible, intelligent refugee policy which takes into account constantly shifting humanitarian needs around the world to make them a reality. This would include a permanent change of the provisions relating to material support and should be an urgent priority for us in Congress.
Furthermore, we need to increase our numbers of refugee admissions from around the world. There are approximately 12 million refugees in the world right now, and millions more internally displaced people. The U.S. has agreed to accept about 70,000 refugees for resettlement each year in the post-9/11 environment, yet every year we fail to fill all of these openings. Tens of thousands remain in refugee camps around the world because we fail to process them for admission here. The administration needs to recommit to resettling the full number of refugees the president determines we can admit each year. We especially need to give heightened and immediate attention to providing assistance to and resettlement of refugees from North Korea, Sudan and, given that we have a special obligation to them, Iraq.
I have a lifelong commitment to helping refugees and will continue to work on their behalf to keep the door open for the opportunity to start a new life, and to ensure that the U.S. refugee program is as strong as it can be.
POV: You are the founding co-chairman of the Human Rights Caucus. What does this group do? Can you tell us about the work that you and the Caucus have been involved with, particularly in regard to issues and conflicts in Africa?
Lantos: Under the dedicated guidance of my wife, Annette, and with my wholehearted support, the caucus has involved itself in a great variety of issues concerning people all over the globe. We struggle for the rights of Christians to practice their faith in Saudi Arabia and Sudan; we fight for Tibetans to be able to retain their culture and religion in Tibet; we advocate for the rootless, often-despised Roma of Europe. Our activities on African issues have been wide-ranging, but they all seem to have a common root -- clashes between diverse armed groups and their effect on the civilian population. Of late, we have focused on the persecution of the people in the Darfur region of Sudan and the use of child soldiers by the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. But we have also focused on incremental developments toward a more peaceful and stable Africa, where there have been free and fair elections and successful development programs.
POV: You were arrested last year in a protest on the part of the people of Darfur in front of the embassy of Sudan. Do you think the United States is doing enough to stop the massacre in Darfur? Are you satisfied with the current U.S. policy in Sudan or are there changes to U.S. policy that you advocate?
Lantos: Ever since the Holocaust, many in our society have routinely pledged "never again." But here we are, in a different time, in a different place, but with motives and brutality no less sinister. Time and again, recalling my own experience as a genocide survivor, I have called on the U.S. government and the United Nations to intervene. There is still much more to be done to stop the Darfur genocide.
Those of us who have been in the forefront of this issue worry that the Sudanese government simply wants to complete the horrific job of eliminating the minority there. An unpublished UN report alleges the Sudanese government is delivering arms and military equipment to its murderous minions in Darfur. Just as disturbing is the claim that they are painting their own military airplanes white to disguise them as UN or African Union aircraft. There is proof that at least one plane had the letters "U.N." painted on it to complete the deception. All of these insidious actions are in direct violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The Sudanese should and will be held to account. I propose a no-fly zone that would prohibit any Sudanese military planes from taking to the air. If they violate this provision, we need to destroy their air force.
Recently the Sudanese government agreed to let a 3,000-person United Nations peacekeeping force join the African Union troops who are already there. It made the decision under pressure and only after months of unnecessary backtracking and delay. But the brutal Sudanese government has resisted the efforts of the United Nations to send some 20,000 peacekeepers to Darfur. I have no doubt that they will continue to procrastinate. Let me be clear: The difference between a small force and a substantial deployment is not merely a sticking point. It is absolutely essential.
It is essential to stopping the Arab militias from continuing to carry out the government's dirty deeds. It is essential to clearing the path for crucial food and water and health supplies to reach the desperate refugee camps. And it is essential because injustice is only really addressed when it is obliterated, not when it is slowed to a painful trickle of displacement, harassment and disrupted lives. We must have that bigger UN force in Sudan without any additional delay.
And finally, the United States needs to tighten its sanctions law so that Sudan's top leaders get the message and are deprived of the means to continue the genocide. I am a co-sponsor of the Darfur Accountability and Divestment Act (H.R. 180). This legislation requires the Securities and Exchange Commission to identify companies that conduct business operations in Sudan and prohibits United States government contracts with such companies. By passing this legislation, Congress will make a clear statement on behalf of the American people that we no longer will tolerate profit-making from genocide -- not in our names or with our dollars.
POV: Taking Action: How can PBS viewers help African refugees (or other refugees) in their communities? Are there particular organizations that you would recommend people get involved with (either through volunteering or contributing funds) in order to help refugees in the United States?
Lantos: African refugees are like other refugees who come from traumatizing humanitarian situations. They often need assistance with resettlement, cultural and social counseling, employment, training and access to local support services. In many communities, churches and mosques are available to assist with social and economic resettlement issues.
Also, many refugees from previous crises have established communities in cities across the United States and serve as a tremendous resource for new refugees. Notably, Ethiopian, Liberian, Sierra Leonean, Nigerian, Sudanese, Somali and other groups have well established social networks in cities like Atlanta, Houston, Baltimore, San Francisco and many others.
If a viewer wants to assist with African refugee resettlement, there are seven primary organizations that do the complicated work to resettle and support newly arrived refugees as they begin their new lives in the U.S. They are: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Ethiopian Community Development Center, International Rescue Committee and World Relief.
These organizations use and seek local volunteers to help prepare refugees for employment, cultural orientation, mentoring and other support services for families and individuals. I strongly encourage our citizens to volunteer with any of these organizations to assist the good work they are doing.
In addition, while the United States provides assistance to provide protection, food, shelter and other goods and services to refugees around the world, refugees in camps continue to live in desperately poor conditions in most places, especially Darfurian refugees in Chad and internally displaced people in Darfur. There are many UN agencies, American nonprofit humanitarian organizations and other international organizations that form a patchwork of relief that keeps refugees alive in South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia. If you would like to help refugees, consider making donations to organizations such as these that provide the clothes on their backs, the rice in their bellies and the medicines that keep children alive in desperate conditions: the International Rescue Committee, Doctors Without Borders, the International Red Cross, UNHCR -- the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, UNICEF and Catholic Relief Services.
Congressman Tom Lantos has represented California's 12th District since 1981; he is currently serving his 14th term in the House of Representatives. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley and was an economics professor prior to his service in Congress. Congressman Lantos is the co-founder of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and is the only holocaust survivor ever to have served in Congress.
Other 2007 Updates:
Learn more about the International Rescue Committee in our interview with Bob Montgomery, who coordinates activity in their San Diego office.
Find out what António Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, has to say about their current priorities.
2004:
Hear from Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren on American refugee policy
»
Sasha Chanoff, Mapendo International
August 2004 | June 2007
POV: The subjects of "Lost Boys of Sudan" express some high expectations of life in the United States. Is that typical of other Sudanese refugees, or other refugees in general?
Chanoff: It depends on the background they're coming from. The United States brings in about 70,000 refugees from across the world each year. Some have high expectations. The cultural orientation classes are geared to help refugees attain a correct expectation -- that this is a difficult, overwhelming, discombobulating experience. They'll need time to adjust. There is often a honeymoon period, when refugees finally get shelter and safe housing: they're happy to have these things. But it's extremely difficult, especially if there are language issues. For the Sudanese in particular, many of them were orphaned or had been separated from their families, and they saw education as the way of moving forward and growing into adults. In their traditional culture, adulthood means marrying, and to marry you need a dowry. They had no family to provide them with a dowry, and they saw their only means was education, and work, to get money for a dowry. In a way, education was seen like a mother and father, a way to adulthood and a successful life. So they had high expectations for continuing their educations. But whereas we have a wonderful refugee program, the United States indicates that refugees need to become self-sufficient and support themselves. It's difficult to work one or two jobs and continue an education.
Chanoff: They had some caretakers and adults assisting them in camps along the way, and some of them learned to draw letters and numbers with a stick in the dirt. When the Lost Boys arrived in Kenya in '91 and '92, when the Kakuma camp was established for them, the camp had a school system similar to the Kenyan school system. Some of the brightest were high school graduates by the time we resettled them; others were not quite at that level.
POV: One of the film's subjects expresses surprise at the difficulty of succeeding in America, because, as he puts it, they're all alone, whereas they drew on more communal resources in the Sudan and in the Kakuma camp. Is this common for other Lost Boys, or other refugees?
Chanoff: That's one of the most significant aspects of this resettlement. In the orientation classes at the camp, we'd ask them to write down their fears and worries. And over a few years, in every single class one person would write down, "I'm afraid of being alone." There were about 80,000 refugees in Kakuma, so the 3,600 or 3,800 people who were chosen for resettlement were used to living communally, sleeping four or five to a hut, clustered in villages. They grew up together, and being alone is a scary prospect when you're accustomed to a group support process. I spent a lot of time in the camp getting to know how they lived there. On Sundays, they would have huge gatherings, with 500 to 1,000 young men and women, with drummers and people dancing in massive circles. I asked what kind of significance this held, and they said that living in the camp, with so many worries, these were the days when everyone could get together and relieve the worry. There was a real communal element to their lifestyle there that is impossible to duplicate in the United States.
POV: Why is it that we hear so little about Lost Girls? Were girls and young women part of the group at the camp?
Chanoff: Women were certainly part of this group, and many unaccompanied women had the same experiences as the Lost Boys. In Sudanese culture, women cannot live alone: in the camp, there would be four or five boys to a hut, with one adult loosely supervising. Unaccompanied girls were immediately fostered into families. Women serve very specific purposes in Sudanese culture, and they often have less access to education. When they get older, they're often sold off for a dowry. When selections were made for resettlement, girls did not have access to that program. Eighty-nine girls did get resettled, mostly sisters or cousins of the young men who were chosen. The UNHCR has recently been taking steps to identify and assist more young women; a number have been relocated to Australia. But the fact is that there are other young women who are in Kakuma who are at risk, who may have arrived in 1991 and may have already been sold off to marriage by relatives or caretakers, often with no say in whom they marry.
POV: America is founded upon an ideal of immigration that sets up certain expectations-- hard work and sacrifice will be rewarded. Is that a useful expectation for refugees to have, or is it an extra burden?
Chanoff: That's one of the values we talked about in cultural expectation classes. In Sudan, the community is most important, while in America, the individual is emphasized. It's an extremely important value to understand, and these guys have taken this to heart: many of them have one or two fulltime jobs, in addition to pursuing further education. For refugees in America it's an important value to have, and they caught on extremely quickly. Most of the Lost Boys have family and extended family obligations far beyond what most Americans would know. They know how desperate it can get in the camps, going without food for four or five days, being sick without money, and so they send money back to their friends and relatives. That burden somewhat impedes their moving forward, because they're not saving much money: they're sending it all back.
POV: The Lost Boys in the film confront many obstacles in building new lives for themselves -- getting birth certificates, balancing part-time work and high school -- but some of the most confounding are things like dealing with the DMV or paying the rent with a money order. How does an aid agency help prepare people to deal with adjustments that are both major and minor?
Chanoff: There are both small-scale and larger-scale issues in terms of adjusting to life here. We spent a lot of time on budgeting and money management, in addition to American laws, work, transportation, and things like the DMV. The idea was to plant seeds that the resettlement agencies could pick up on when they arrived here. The Lost Boys arrived in Ethiopia as young children, and then lived in Kakuma camp in northern Kenya, a very desolate place. Some of them did not have much exposure to western living. Some had been to Nairobi or western Kenya, but most of them had no idea of the way the U.S. system works. So we focused on paperwork and money, paying your bills, and online banking. These are new things to them, and they've adjusted very well, but it does take time and is daunting.
POV: What is your philosophy about humanitarian assistance? Do you think it's better for the Lost Boys to be in America? Is rescuing refugees the best way to go about helping them?
Chanoff: There are millions of refugees throughout the world, and only about one percent access resettlement. There are 15 countries that do resettlement, and the United States has a larger program than all the others combined. Resettlement is not an answer to the problems that are creating refugees: poverty, war, or famine. But for certain people, resettlement is the durable solution. For this group, this was an extremely positive resettlement. They've been able to get jobs and move forward with their lives. But there are still about 80,000 people in the Kakuma camp, including 60,000 Sudanese, 5000 Somalians, and Ethiopians and Congolese. Integration is not an option, because Kenyan law requires refugees to remain in camps. There are no good solutions for them at this time, and it's devastating.
June 2007 UPDATE: Sasha Chanoff founded Mapendo International, an organization that helps at-risk and forgotten refugee groups in Africa, in 2006.
Hear more about Mapendo and about the special challenges faced by Somali Bantu's in his 2007 update below.
POV: Tell us about Mapendo International and the work that Mapendo is doing in Africa.
Chanoff: Mapendo International is an organization I founded with Dr. John Wagacha Burton in 2006. We seek to help at-risk and forgotten refugee groups in Africa. Oftentimes, ethnic minorities, girls and widows are not safe in the refugee camps. Rape is fairly common, so a lot of women and their families flee the camps out of fear and end up homeless in urban centers with no access to services. Mapendo seeks to find these refugees and help them get the protection and services they need. The organization is named after Rose Mapendo, a Tutsi woman who spent 16 months in a Rwandan death camp with her husband and seven children, and whose experience we wanted to honor. Rose lost her husband in the camps but now lives in Arizona with her children. Mapendo is a Swahili word that means "great love." [Watch a short film about Rose Mapendo narrated by Sasha Chanoff.]
Long shot of Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya from Lost Boys of Sudan
POV:What rescue operations has Mapendo International recently been involved in
Chanoff: We just evacuated two Sudanese girls from the Kakuma camp. They were 15-year-old and 13-year-old girls in danger of being sold into slavery by some other refugees in the camp. We removed the girls from the camp and delivered them to a protection center where they would be safe.
We're in the process of assisting a large group of Burundian refugees in Tanzania during the next few weeks. Until our organization was established, no one was really looking comprehensively at groups of refugees that exist and prioritizing resettlement for those groups based on medical needs, discrimination and other factors threatening their welfare. We identify and prioritize refugees that we feel are the most at-risk and then we work with the U.S. government, the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees], the International Rescue Committee and other non-governmental organizations to come up with the best ways to help these people.
POV: "Rain in a Dry Land" focuses on a group of Somali Bantu refugees who are resettled in Massachusetts and Georgia. We learn in the film that the Bantu were marginalized in Somalia, because they were brought there as slaves from the coasts of Mozambique and Tanzania -- and continued to be treated as second-class citizens in the refugee camps. When you were a volunteer in the Kakuma Camp, did you witness this discrimination? Have those conditions been duplicated in the U.S. within the Somalian community?
Chanoff: When I was at Kakuma, the decision was made to remove the Bantu population from the Dadaab camp to the Kakuma camp because they were undergoing a lot of discrimination and jealousy due to the fact that they were chosen for resettlement in Dadaab. But that doesn't mean that they didn't experience similar discrimination in Kakuma.
Approximately 13,000 Somali Bantus have arrived in the U.S. since 2002 and I hear stories of Somalis opening up their homes and welcoming new arrivals, helping them to learn how to survive in America. At the same time, I think that we learned from that piece in the New Yorker ("Letter from Maine," December 11, 2006) magazine that some Bantu are continuing to experience discrimination here in the United States, so I think it's fair to say that it varies.
POV: What organizations that are working with refugees would you recommend people volunteer or donate to?
Chanoff: I would recommend that people who want to take action go to the Refugee Council USA website. They are an umbrella group of nongovernmental organizations focused on refugee protection and aid in the United States. People can find information there about local community-based organizations involved with aiding refugee groups in America. If you're interested in learning more about work being done overseas, I would recommend our website, Mapendo International and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). Both groups are active in rescuing displaced people -- in Africa, in our case, and from all over the world, in the case of the HIAS.
Sasha Chanoff is the co-founder and director of Mapendo International, an organization that works to fill the critical and unmet needs of people affected by war and conflict who have fallen through the net of humanitarian assistance. He has worked for over a decade in refugee rescue, relief and resettlement operations in Africa and the U.S. Before launching Mapendo he consulted with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Kenya and worked with the International Organization for Migration throughout Africa, identifying refugees in danger, undertaking rescue missions and working on refugee protection issues with the US, Canadian, Australian and other governments. He designed the cultural-orientation curriculum at the Kakuma camp in Kenya to prepare refugees for arrival in America.