Bhutanese refugees, who had been forcefully evicted by Bhutan and after languishing in the UNHCR-supported seven camps in Eastern Nepal, are beginning to see light at the end of the tunnel as they are being settled by the core group of countries comprising of the USA, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. It is highly admirable that donors have responded to their needs with a right-based approach to providing services. The refugees are tremendously thankful to the UNHCR that took the lead in resettling them and the core group countries that worked together to host them in their respective countries. The bulk of the responsibility and initiative has been taken by the USA, which settled over 28,000 people already by the end of June 2010. Over 32,000 people have already been resettled in the West and a large section of the refugees are expected to get resettled in the near future.
In this piece, I have tried to discuss some of the settlement issues and the ways they could be handled. Families have to work together and communicate with each other as the needs of settlement are different for young people as compared to the old ones, males and female needs are also different and it changes with the change in time. I would like us to believe that we need to make use of various assets that we have by working together and analyzing who can do what within the families and the communities. Many are already doing it but we need to be creative and explore what is available and what we can do.
Housing amenities
The settlement agencies in different countries have measures to look after the housing needs of new arrivals. The arriving families have to cooperate with the agencies and discuss amicable solution that is convenient to the new occupants and housing providers. Sometimes the arriving families put up conditions that do not work in the situation and it is best to ask what is available and what is possible and being realistic within available budget. The renting market in the Western countries are governed by legal provisions and it is important to seek information about what are the occupancy conditions, expectancy of tenants, the demands of the landlord and the neighborhood where the families are settling. Even if it is alright for the families, neighbors have restrictions and physical and psychological boundaries within which we are expected to live and function. As new tenants and new arrivals in these countries, we are expected to respect those laws and there are penalties if we do not abide by what is allowed in the communities. Small things like walking into neighborhoods and others property is not allowed as the privacy laws, conventions and requirements are well established.
Health and hygiene concerns
The way apartments are constructed prevent air flow easily and how you maintain health and hygiene inside the apartments affects health situations of the residents. Things like regular vacuuming rooms and walk-ways, cleaning toilets regularly and keeping them hygienic is part of the western living. The way new arrivals from developing countries cook their food is not always suitable in the way houses are built in the west. They trap air and often you will find houses with strong odor of spices and oily, fried food items. It leaves strong smell on our dress and we need to adapt our cooking style by reducing fried items and limiting the amount of spices we use in our food. Often opening windows and doors and letting in fresh air helps to drive away the smell. But in countries like Canada, it is snow-covered outside for over six months of the year and it is not possible to open windows and doors often. We need to use air-freshener and bake bread sometimes, which reduces other odor. We have to be creative and apply various measures to make our living hygienic and pleasant. There are also health issues that could emerge as a result of living in unhealthy and unclean apartments. Landlords would be reluctant to allow future occupancy if they become aware of our living style. When we go to the office and if our body and cloth smells, co-workers would not be very happy to work with us.
Need to support uneducated fellow Bhutanese
Within the arriving Bhutanese population in these countries, we have a varying range of people—some with high educational levels but many with limited literacy as well, especially our elder folks who had no opportunity of going to school. It is a big problem of communication in these countries as we need to communicate in English. We have a limited capacity in the older generation to pick up and be comfortable with the required level of communicable English in these countries. Some may pick up faster and some may be reluctant or even incapable of developing functional literacy. Other members of the community have to help them, especially the younger generation have a double burden of not only raising children but raising this cadre of elders is our responsibility. It would not help us blaming anybody but have to develop coping mechanism using all available resources within the community and developing all possible network of support outside the community. There are many people interested to volunteer, especially the retired would be happy and willing to help if they can. We need to develop mechanism to make use of this potential and communicate with each other. This is where our Bhutanese organizations can play a big role, not in talking only about politics.
Employment and skill development
The level and amount of support provided to the Bhutanese arrivals in various countries varies. In Canada, the federal government supports Government Sponsored Refugees (GAR) for one year and there is good time for developing job skills and employment preparation. In my understanding, Australia supports much longer and until you are prepared to take up employment. In both these countries there is additional support if you are able to find out about them and explore possibilities. In the USA, the support system ranges from three months in some states to eight months in others. The good part of it is that there is a settlement counselor who follows through and makes sure that people have long term job. People have to explore and see what they can do, what type of resume we need to develop, who can help in developing good resume, writing selling cover letter, networking skills, interview skills and many others. This is the hardest challenge of settlement not just in the beginning months and years but for continuously in the West. The West is a competitive and individualistic society where we have to be able to sell our skills as much as the efforts in selling goods. We need to develop skills, perform well in our jobs, develop professional qualities and show that we can perform. If we cannot prove our worth nobody would be willing to hire the new arrivals. As a big part of this process, we need to learn the culture of working well with people, getting along, following instructions and contributing in our expertise areas. It will take time but in the long run the right efforts will pay off.
Understanding the culture and etiquette
The laws and social conventions in different western countries vary when it comes to acceptance of new immigrants and the way we are expected to behave. The USA is considered a melting pot and the prime message and requirement of this message is that once you are in America you are supposed to behave like Americans and forget about your original culture. In Canada, multiculturalism is valued by law and conventionally where we are required to behave like other Canadians in some ways but we are encouraged to retain our inherited culture, language and religion. The legal system and the people actively promote multiculturalism. In Australia, it is similar but it is a bit insular country being geographically isolated. It has the conservative, old thinking into the system and the people but over the years there has been growth in tolerance and respect for multiculturalism. The younger generation in most of these countries is much more understanding and accepts people of all colors and background compared to the older generation and understandably so. Our expectation as new arrivals and future citizens of these countries is to learn the system, culture and the people as much as we can and adapt. We also face a huge challenge of retaining the culture and the language. There are varied models in this as some people have retained their language and the culture and others have lost it. It is easy to be part of the melting pot but hard to regain what is lost. So the challenge thrown to new arrivals is to think carefully what you would like to do and consult among the family members.
No more refugees
The concept of being refugees is so deeply ingrained that it makes us all feel we cannot think otherwise and people would like to call us refugees. You have to learn to fight with yourself and let others know that you were former refugees and do not want to be called as such any more. You have equal rights as any other individuals in these new countries and should learn to live that way. The feeling of psychological inferiority needs to be slowly unlearnt and you should feel that you are capable individuals. The countries that have brought you would like to give you equal status as any other individuals in these countries and should learn to behave and feel that way. We also have equal responsibilities as new citizens or going to be citizens in these countries and should be uphold that responsibility with full pride and dedication.
(Based in Canada, the author is a development professional. He can be reached at: [email protected])
