CAPS #4 - Sueverkruepp

Imagine yourself in a context where you're living your normal life.  You can hang out with your friends and family, study at your favorite coffee shop, work at a part-time job, and do other daily tasks that are just simply a part of our university student culture.  Now imagine that everything you know is gone...and everything new is different.  As Sara quoted from the article Lincoln's Refugees, it is estimated that the United States emits around 70,000 refugees from six very different major geographical areas: Africa, East Asia, Europe, Central Asia, Latin America/Caribbean, and East/South Asia (NEBLINE, 2004).  

Martin and Nakayama discuss the idea of cultural adaptation as "the long-term process of adjusting to and finally feeling comfortable in a new environment".  Much of the adaptation process relies on the host environment, and how welcoming or hostile they may be. (Martin & Nakayama, 2012) While reading through the articles, the Lincoln Journal Star article on the journey of refugee Idex Kusukika stuck out to me as someone truly adjusting to their new environment.  When Kusukika came to Lincoln, his major adjustment was learning to speak English, rather than his native French language.  With time, multiple English classes, and practice, Kusukika has made English his newest tongue.  He still says though that integration is difficult for him, and "when people come, we have many problems".  (Smith, 2011) He doesn't expand more into this topic, but one can analyze how people can generally make or break the cultural adaption process.  Learning the new language has allowed Kusukika to communicate easier with those around him, helping him to feel comfortable; depending on how our host environment in Lincoln treats him in return as a new refugee ultimately will help his cultural adaptation process thrive or hinder.  

The Social Science perspective in relation to adaption of refugees focuses on the individual, and their personal and cultural characteristics. (Martin & Nakayama, 2012) To help inform the process of refugee resettlement in Lincoln, one must think about the social science perspective's strong emphasis on the idea that identity is created in part by self, and part in relation to group membership.   Refugees know who they are based on their cultural upbringing...however, their ability to connect through group membership can suffer when they cannot communicate with their new environment, and when others choose to disconnect them from their culture as well. As Lincoln residents, we should be willing to reach out to our refugees and be a resource for information, and potential growth. Who knows?  Maybe you'll get a new perspective on your own identity development along the way.  Identity development does proceed in spurts.  

Let us not forget about the king of awkward cultural adaption.  Borat, yes. 

 

References

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2012). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill. 

NEBLINE. (2004, June). Lincoln's refugees. Lincoln, NE: Yelena Mitrofanova. 

Lincoln Journal Star. (2011, December) Lincoln refugee finds empathy as strife hits Congo.  Lincoln, NE: Mitch Smith.