Lessons I’ve Learned from Working with Asylum Seekers
Written by: Veronica
I started working with asylum seekers in September 2021 as an intern for Catholic Charities Community Services. After a series of trainings, I was ready to talk to my first client. I was nervous but excited about the prospect of being able to connect my client with essential services. Due to the pandemic, all communication with my clients was via phone and text messaging. I found it difficult at first to build a trusting relationship with someone I had not met. At the same time, it was a great challenge to overcome and a skill I now feel more comfortable using. Seeking asylum is not an easy process— it requires an individual and oftentimes, a family, to abandon their home, their personal and professional lives, their language and cultural traditions, their possessions, and most importantly their freedom. Yet, every client that I have assisted has taught me important lessons through their willingness to thrive in a completely unfamiliar country.
When I think of my clients, several words come to mind: strength, honesty, gratitude, and fearlessness. It takes incredible courage to seek asylum knowing that the process can be filled with obstacles and years of waiting. Most of my clients are young parents with a strong desire to provide a safe environment for their children. They often talk about how difficult the transition is for them but the hope of offering their children a life free from harm keeps them going. They are fearless when it comes to learning ways to care for their families, regardless of the difficulties they face. One client, in particular, asked for assistance in locating free English language courses so that he could better navigate the asylum process and help his children with their homework. Another client was motivated to get her children an education in their new country that she enrolled them in school with minimal support from me.
One of the biggest obstacles that my clients face is the inability to work while they wait for their applications to be approved. This process can take years, leaving families with very limited access to housing, food, clothing and healthcare. Despite these difficult circumstances, my clients have shown gratitude for even the smallest acts of kindness. It would be very easy for some people to take advantage of this situation, but I find that my clients are truly sincere and appreciative of the assistance they receive from Catholic Charities and other organizations. I remember the first time I was able to obtain clothing donations from a non-profit organization for my client and her two children. My client repeatedly stated, “Que Dios la bendiga siempre por toda su ayuda.”
Being able to provide different forms of support and resources to my clients is what motivates me to continue my work and learn more about the asylum process. As a social work student, my future plan is to create more awareness regarding the asylum process and explore ways in which we can better assist before, during, and after the process has been completed.
---
Lecciones que aprendí trabajando con buscadores de asilo.
Yo, empecé a trabajar con buscadores de asilo en Septiembre del año 2021 como estudiante de practica para el programa de servicios comunitarios de Caridades Católicas. Después de una serie de entrenamientos yo estaba lista para hablar con mi primer cliente, estaba nerviosa pero entusiasmada con la perspectiva de poder conectar a mi cliente con servicios esenciales. Debido a la pandemia toda comunicación con mis clientes fue por medio del teléfono y mensajes de texto. Al principio me resulto difícil construir una relación de confianza con alguien que no conocía, pero al mismo tiempo fue un gran reto superar y una habilidad con la que ahora me siento confortable al usarla. Solicitar asilo no es un proceso fácil, requiere que un individuo y muchas veces, una familia, abandonen su hogar, su vida personal y profesional, su lenguaje, sus tradiciones culturales, sus posesiones y lo más importante su libertad. Sin embargo, cada cliente a los que he asistido me ha ensenado lecciones importantes a través de su deseo de prosperar en un país completamente desconocido.
Cuando pienso en mis clientes varias palabras vienen a mi mente: fuerza, honestidad, gratitud y audacia. Se necesita una valentía increíble para solicitar asilo sabiendo que el proceso puede estar lleno de obstáculos y años de espera. La mayoría de mis clientes son padres jóvenes con un fuerte deseo de brindar un entorno seguro para sus hijos y a menudo hablan de lo difícil que es la transición para ellos, pero la esperanza de ofrecer a sus hijos una vida libre de prejuicio los mantiene en marcha. No tienen miedo cuando se trata de aprender diferentes maneras de poder cuidar a sus familias, independientemente de las dificultades que enfrenten. Un cliente en particular me pidió ayuda para encontrar cursos gratuitos del idioma inglés para poder entender mejor el proceso de asilo y para ayudar a sus hijos con sus tareas escolares. Otra cliente estaba tan motivada para que sus hijos tuvieran una educación en su país nuevo que los inscribió en la escuela con poco apoyo de mi parte.
Uno de los grandes obstáculos que mis clientes enfrentan es la incapacidad para trabajar mientras esperan por la aprobación de sus aplicaciones. Este proceso puede durar años, dejando familias con un acceso limitado a la comida, alojamiento, ropa y cuidado de salud. A pesar de estas circunstancias difíciles, mis clientes han mostrado gratitud, incluso por los actos de bondad más pequeños. Sería muy fácil para algunas personas aprovechar de esta situación, pero encuentro que mis clientes son verdaderamente sinceros y aprecian la asistencia que reciben de Caridades Católicas y otras organizaciones. Yo recuerdo la primera vez que pude obtener donaciones de ropa de una organización sin fines de lucro para mi cliente y sus dos hijos. Mi cliente repitió varias veces, "Que Dios la bendiga siempre por toda su ayuda"
Poder brindar diferentes formas de apoyo y recursos a mis clientes es lo que me motiva a continuar con mi trabajo y aprender más acerca del proceso de asilo. Como estudiante de trabajo social mi plan futuro es crear más conciencia sobre los procesos de asilo y explorar formas en las que podamos mejorar nuestro trabajo, antes, durante y después que se haya completado el proceso.
Read More From Our Community
LGBTQ+ People and Health Inequity
Tanzilya Oren
In New York City, over 50,000 people, i.e., 4% of the 8.38 million residents, identify as non-binary and transgender people. We do not know precisely the number of immigrants among this population. Alex Trifonov, a community health representative and patient navigator at NYU Langone Health, on May 11, 2022, presented on the issue of health equity at an event at RUSA LGBTQ+. What is known is that stress caused by minority status and stigma leads to chronic stress and cardiovascular problems. Chronic stress, in turn, can cause substance use and abuse, addiction, and mental health issues.
Mr.Trifonov specifically spoke about health inequity among LGBTQ+ people regarding cancer. He talked about very low levels, lower than immigrant populations, of preventative healthcare utilization among LGBTQ+ patients due to the abovementioned minority stress and consequent avoidance of medical care. At the same time, across the United States, over 80,000 LGBTQ+ people receive a cancer diagnosis every year. Lesbians and bisexual people have a double risk of acquiring cancer diagnoses. Transgender and nonbinary patients have double the chance of getting cancers caused by infectious diseases. Gay men are diagnosed with anal and prostate cancers and cancers caused by HIV younger than other patients.
The Pain Within
Elvira Brodskaya
Being an asylum seeker means being in constant mental pain. Is there a solution?
When I came to the US, I felt l like I'd been handed a new life. Everything seemed so new and fresh, full of opportunities I never had before. And also, everything seemed so safe.
Seeking Work in One's Professional Field of Expertise: Resources for Obtaining Equivalency of Credentials in the U.S. as an Asylum Seeker or Migrant
Julia
As an immigrant to the US, one’s ability to find meaningful, dignified, and safe employment varies greatly based on one’s recognized legal status. For asylum seekers who are waiting for their asylum claim to be processed, legal job opportunities are limited and risk of human rights violations is high. Although asylum policy in the US is challenging at best, in NYC there are many community organizations working to fill some of the gaps and help provide services for asylum seekers and other migrants that are eager to find meaningful, dignified, and safe employment.
Asylum seekers and other migrants face challenges in finding meaningful work for various reasons. Difficulty obtaining recognition for studies completed in their home country, limited access to educational credentials and related paperwork due to relocation, certification differences, and language barriers are among the most pervasive. Difficulty transferring professional credentials from one’s home country to the United States is a challenge preventing many asylum seekers from finding employment in which they can apply and use their expertise.
My Internship with Unaccompanied Minors: Learning About Resilience and Hope
Sandy
A group of teenage girls sat silently at three tables in the dining room. The girls wore identical gray sweatpants and sweaters but had different hairstyles. It was shortly before 9 am. They had eaten breakfast and were waiting to walk over to their classroom. The girls were small in height, had brown skin, and didn’t look very excited to head to school. Pretty much like other typical teenage girls. As I made my way through the dining room, I said, “Buenos Dias Chicas!” A few girls responded with “Buenos Dias”, some smiled back, and others remained silent.
It took a while for the girls to become familiar with seeing me three times a week. The “clients” of this department were unaccompanied children waiting to reunite with their families. Teenagers from different countries, some spoke more than one language. For the first few weeks, I’ve only listened to their stories and learned why these adolescents chose to leave their homes, how they arrived at the U.S/Mexico border, and how they were adjusting to the program. Some departed their countries for better educational opportunities; some left to search for work to support their families, and others were looking to escape violence or abuse. Many of these child migrants, however, traveled alone. And carried their traumas, alone.
Ambiguous Loss
Sedef
It is hard to be the newcomer, the new person, or the one who is so unfamiliar with a different and foreign environment. Anyone around the world experiences anxiety stepping into a new place within a group of new people. We usually rely on our acquaintances and friends to introduce and make this transition smoother. But what happens when we are forced out of our familiar surroundings and need to leave our hometowns, homes, and states to flee from some disaster to a place that we know no one?
Stepping into to unknown is already hard. When we add the multitudes of losses we experience to the existing fear and anxiety of the unfamiliar and unknown, it is even more challenging. A migrant who had to leave their home without the guarantee of going back had to leave more than just their home behind. Sometimes, people leave behind their parents, and sometimes, they have to leave their kids, spouses, lovers, and pets. Sometimes they even need to leave behind the familiar sounds of their mother tongue. Songs of the local birds, the taste of the usual morning cup, the sounds of the local streets, the sights of their neighborhood, the aroma of the meals shared with the dear faces of loved ones, the way the sun lays its rays before it sets in their bedroom, and all those comfortably familiar details are left behind. The layers and layers of losses are there in every migrant's story.
How do you feel?
Daniel
“When the truth is finally recognized, survivors can begin their recovery”
- Judith Herman M.D.
Overview of Gender-Based Violence Against Women (GBVAW)
Chloe Sarantopoulos
Across the globe, 1 in 3 women–an estimated 736 million–are subjected to physical or sexual violence perpetrated by an intimate partner, or sexual violence from a non-partner-–a number that has remained largely unchanged over the past decade (WHO, 2021).
Unfortunately, this alarming statistic is likely to be significantly lower than the true figure, given the high levels of stigma and under-reporting of abuse. Gender-Based Violence Against Women (GBVAW) disproportionality affects low and lower-middle-income countries and regions, with twenty-two percent of women living in ‘least developed countries’ subjected to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) in the past 12 months (WHO, 2021). The intersecting and compounding nature of violence against forced migrant women prevails across temporal and geographical contexts. GBVAW is rampant around the world and an impending cause for migration, forcing countless women and children to flee abuse at home and attempt to seek safety in a new country.
