The United States immigration law defines refugees as, “people who are outside of their home country and cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinions, or membership in a particular social group” (“Bridging Refugee Youth and Children 's Services”, 795). In 2011, The United States Department of Homeland Security recorded that a total of 56,384 refugee arrived in the United States with majority of the population being children according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) (McBrien, 329). Taking a look at the characteristic of the demographic of the refugee children, one can noticed a high percentage of refugee children were Unaccompanied Refugee…
Being an immigrant to the new world was never a simple task. Adversity, opportunity, and adaptability lurked around every corner as these foreign families sought a new and better life. Struggling with standing out as a “new immigrant”, overcoming poor work conditions, pay, and unstable jobs, and seeking out new opportunities while adapting to necessary survival strategies are some of the many trials a new immigrant would face while coming to a new land. Having lived through it all, Kracha and Dubik from Thomas Bell’s Out of This Furnace saw every aspect of becoming an American.…
Having the opportunity to feel as though you’ve truly made a positive impact on the lives of others is undoubtedly a rewarding experience, and this was exactly what I was seeking when I signed up for an eight day community service trip to Puerto Rico. What I ended up receiving, however, was far more enriching, humbling, and life-altering than I had originally expected. Our main task was to make batches of cement for houses a day in the community of Villa del Rillo. Lots of Puerto Rican houses, mostly in the poorer areas, still haven’t recovered from the effects of Hurricane Hugo, which hit the island almost three decades ago. Difficult manual labor directly under the oppressive heat for hours every day left us sore, dirty, and tired, but gratified.…
Cultural Competence History and Background Mark and Louise Zwick founded Casa Juan Diego in 1980. Casa Juan Diego, located in Houston, Texas, provides a safe home for undocumented families that come from all over the world, seeking asylum. Many of these families are escaping from gang, political, and domestic violence and come to Casa Juan Diego in hopes of starting a new life here in the United States. This community filled with undocumented families who are attempting to start over, searching for jobs and a better life here.…
Did you know that Europe had a huge influx of refugees since the second World War? Why are there so many misconceptions about refugees? Due to the Civil War, refugees face through many problems. In Syria, they were led by Al-Assad family since 1971 and the where Quasi-Dictator. The Arab countries forced the dictator to step down, but the Syrian dictator refused to step down and caused the civil war in march 15 2011.…
Cuba is in North America, Cuba is an island. It is the largest island in the Caribbean Sea, and Spanish is the main language spoken. Cuba is known for its cultural diversity, built from Spanish, African, French and Asian influences. The culture of Cuba is known for its music. Music is an important part of Cuban society, and the traditional musical styles are still popular and influential to this day.…
The Unfair Treatment of Haitian Refugees compared to their Cuban Counterparts. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are more refugees today than ever before—and more than half of them are believed to be children. Most of these people have left their homes in search of better living conditions and economic opportunities. This is especially true for Cuban and Haitian refugees.…
The Cuban-American community has been successful in the United States for a great number of reasons; based on both their efforts and the efforts of the United States. For starters when Cubans migrated to The United States between the years of 1959-1979 a large number of them were highly educated, wealthy and had some political power. Alongside of all that they also had knowledge of the English language so communicating would not be an issue once in the U.S. They were also “white” looking Cubans that first migrated, which would have made life in the United States at the time a whole lot easier. The Cuban-American people began arriving to Miami at a time when the city was on the verge of expanding and growing.…
Being a student at one of the most prestigious schools in the United States, you are given amazing classes which teach us various topics which eventually bring us back to our major or main topic of our undergraduate. Being a Mexican student, my knowledge is primarily about the struggles and stories from my own country. Coming to this school and meeting other minorities from other countries and taking classes that teach us about those countries as well, my knowledge about other problems and stories that happen to other students, families, and youth throughout the countries makes us realize that we are all the same and not alone when it comes to tragedies and inequalities like the ones many of us encounter in the US already. Attending "El Pais Que Viene” a Non-Profit Event & Book Launch, allowed me to connect the various topic and stories I learned in my Chicano studies class called “Central Americans” where we discussed the important events and inequalities that are happening throughout these central American countries and looking at stories through literature and media. Living in the Untied States as a minority, we tend to not tell our stories from our countries or even identify ourselves from those countries due to the negative image that the US has towards the people who come from these different countries.…
Being born in a Cuban family is a privilege for me. A common phrase in Cuba is “el que no tiene de congo tiene de carabali” and that phrase comes from the fact that every Cuban is a derivation of different cultures. Back in time, Cuba was only populated by native Indians, but later on, Europeans took over the country. After make the natives slaves and take them to almost extermination, they brought slaves from Africa. As a result, we became a mix of different cultures.…
Discrimination by race is officially illegal in Cuba. Cuban citizens are categorized into three ethnic groups; Black, Mixed, or White (which usually means Hispanic, of Spanish descent). Blacks are the most who have felt oppressed, some say they’re invisible in Cuba, they’re seen, but not necessarily heard. With the Gender issue in Cuba there is actually equality; ranked third in the world, while the United States is ranked seventy…
The second wave of Haitian immigrants took place during a large part of the 1970’s; whole families legally entered the US and were skilled professionals who still had enough resources to cope with being a marginalized group in American society (Desrosiers & St. Fleurose, 2002; Prou, 2005).…
In South Florida, refugees are being pushed away from South Florida due to a hurricane which is destroying their homes and are being pulled toward Georgia because they have the resources, shelter, and safety they need. On August 30,2017- September 15,2017 there was a category 4 hurricane that was 80 miles wide and had 155 miles per hour winds that hit South Florida. There was major flooding, homes were being destroyed as well as their land, and people were even dieing. This is causing the people living in South Florida to migrate to other cities, towns and countries outside of South Florida. One source wrote “Mandatory evacuation orders are in place for parts of Miami-Dade County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, Brevard County, and Monroe County.…
I have always loved the magnificent country that we live in, but after researching about Cuban’s desiring to migrate to this great land, I have realized how much I have taken for granted all that the Lord has blessed us with. Unfortunately, not all people groups are blessed in such a way, and this fact had been made clear to me when I looked into what Cubans need to live through, and do for their families in order to survive. Based off the few articles that I had looked into, it was clear that there are different types of people living in Cuban; people who feel hopeless to the point that they would build their own raft to float across the ocean, and others who feel like Cuba is their homeland, and they know it is where they want to stay (Silva).…
Volunteering at the homeless shelter is one of my favorite things to do. A few weeks ago, on a serene Saturday morning, my family and I volunteered at Loaves and Fishes. It was special to see just the sheer amount of people who had come out to volunteer on that Saturday. If you think about, they could’ve been doing anything on that Saturday morning. Yet, they decided to help give back to their community.…