Schwarting-CAPS #4

When planning my own make believe trips in my head, I’ve always stayed clear of places where English is not the dominant language.  I feel like if I visited somewhere where I didn’t know how to communicate with people then I would feel vulnerable and anxious.  I can only imagine the culture shock that immigrants feel when transitioning to their new host country.    

After reading the articles, one term popped up into my head that explained these cultural struggles and solutions and that was the migrant-host relationship.  The migrant-host relationship deals with how the refugee in this case interacts with their host country.  They can assimilate, separate, integrate or do a combination of all three (Martin & Nakayama, 2012, p. 324-329). 

In the first article, Free came to the United States after being in a refugee camp in Thailand without knowing a single word of English.  His host country, the United States, helped him with the transition with finding him a job and helping him with his English (Meyers, 2011).  Free integrated into his new culture because he sought out help in transitioning into his new host country but also keeps his own self-identity in contact in helping other refugees go through what he went through.

The second article, Suu Bweh and her family also integrated into their new culture.  She is seeking out help in getting her children the proper help with their homework since she cannot assist them because she knows few things in English (Stefankiewicz, 2012).  She wants her kids to do well in their new host country but she has yet to fully adapt and assimilate because she hangs onto her Karen language instead of learning English.

The third article, Kusukika reflects back on his time in the Congo where he still has family back home.  He is using a combination of all the three migrant-host relationships or the cultural hybridity approach.  He has assimilated in the fact that he is almost fluent in English and works at ByranLGH but also still separates himself and considers himself a refugee.  He has a hard time assimilating because he is thinking about his family and life back home in Congo.  He shares these stories with other refugees at a dinner at the Lincoln Women’s Club (Smith, 2011). 

Congolese tanks displace thousands of people. (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

 An intercultural communication perspective can help inform the process of refugee resettlement in Nebraska by providing the right programs to help the refugees transition.  An intercultural communicator can provide valuable information on what a refugee feels when coming into a new culture where they don’t understand the language, can’t get a job or provide for their family.  With this information, you then can set up the right programs to help their transition as easy as possible into their new host countries. 

References:

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

Meyers, E. M. (2011, December 5). Lincoln community home to refugees from around the world.NewsNetNebraska. Retrieved from http://www.newsnetnebraska.org/news/lincoln-community-home-to-refugees-from-around-the-world/

Stefankiewicz, R. S. (2012, May 13). Lincoln's refugee students find language barriers when doing homework. Lincoln journal star. Retrieved from http://journalstar.com/lifestyles/family/lincoln-s-refugee-students-find-language-barriers-when-doing-homework/article_4fbd65f1-c12e-5702-90cd-1321dfda5257.html

Smith, M. S. (2011, December 11). Lincoln refugee finds empathy as strife hits congo. Lincoln journal star. Retrieved from http://journalstar.com/news/local/lincoln-refugee-finds-empathy-as-strife-hits-congo/article_6f011d2a-fe13-5d11-bbee-b5de6f5aba59.html