Helping Immigrants & Refugees Thrive
Photo by Jhon David, Unsplash, Columbian mother and child
We’ve all been in situations where we simply don’t understand what is going on around us. We can take an educated guess certainly, but even that is based on our own worldviews. This takes place in subcultures within our own larger culture (those who live outside, veterans, rave-goers, the ultra wealthy, Christian church-goers, or those based on where you work, favorite musical influences, sexual subcultures, etc.) as well as those who originate in other global cultures with a different playbook entirely.
Immigrant and refugee families are faced with trying to understand the subcultures they find themselves interacting with as well as the differences of a culture at large around them. Those who start in one place, for example in Texas, who then move to another state, will often mistakenly use some of those subcultural elements they thought was “American” and find things not workin in a new place within the same country. But we’re a big country, with lots of differences. Even those who grew up here for generations can struggle with such differences.
The children of immigrants and refugees can be called Third Culture Kids. They aren’t completely a part of their parents culture, though they may speak one or several languages apart from the one they are learning at school or hearing in the neighborhood. They may also feel like they aren’t completely a part of their new adopted culture either. They often feel the most at home with people who grew up, like them, in between worlds.
Having local friends who come from the culture, willing to help explain and share their life experiences, are a big key to integration. That’s where an adult mentor can make a massive difference. Many of our mentors were specifically interested in being matched with children from immigrant or refugee families, having a heart for foreigners or having lived themselves in other cultures that gave them a special understanding to those unique struggles faced by ‘outsiders’.
We are grateful to our community partners like Catholic Charities who are on the lookout for children eager to find a mentor. Yet we know we need to reach out to more community partners in 2023 if we want to do a better job of identifying and matching children from these backgrounds. Local non-profits like Refugee Care Collective, Pamoja House, IRCO, Lutheran Community Services of the NW and others are doing a great job of trying to help. Many Christians from around the city are volunteering in these orgs.
CultureBound is another local non-profit specializing in training Christians to work more effectively in cross-cultural situations, whether in their own back yard or across the world. Recognizing the fact that the nations now live among us, they are in the process of creating trainings that will equip us right here at home to know how best to work with those from other cultures.
If you want to be matched with a child from an immigrant or refugee family, let us know!
In 2023 we want to add more mentors who speak languages other than English (especially Spanish). If that’s you, get in touch! We’re working to add further resources in Spanish and we seek to grow in this area.
