What happens in the case of immigrant groups who have had such pre-migration experiences as to require specialized assistance in the adaptation process, and yet whose population is not substantial enough to convince governmental sources of funding their demands? The wave of Burmese refugees fleeing the 1988 crackdown in their country is one such example. Drawing from perspectives of Participatory Action Research (PAR), this study has several objectives. First, it explores the current settlement needs of the Burmese population by way of relating it to the pre-migration context. By identifying those characteristics which influence the ability of this group to effectively compete for resources among organized ethno-cultural groups in Canada, this study hopes to highlight barriers to full participation. Second, a related objective is the documentation of the settlement and integration issues faced by the Burmese population, namely through an exploratory study of experiences of Burmese communities in Winnipeg and Toronto. Third, it seeks to explore the question of social capital within the Burmese population and its possible implications for resettlement and integration process. Fourth, it will attempt to contribute to the testing of Participatory Action Research as a methodological tool in improving our understanding of refugee resettlement. And fifth, it seeks to generate recommendations that will improve the settlement and integration of this target population within Canadian society. Broadly, it is hoped that this study might demonstrate how the particular needs of immigrant groups, in this case statistically small ethno-cultural groups arriving with traumatic refugee experiences, require careful consideration in seeking to facilitate integration through enhanced social capital and self-help.

This thesis explores the history of one German family during World War II, using the inspiration and background knowledge gained from historic scholarship and literature to create narrative closely following actual experiences and memories to help understand the peculiarities of war narrative and war memory. The sources are interviews with relatives, existing literature on the subject matter, and the writer’s imagination.

Background: Historically, most refugees have originated from countries with high rates of infectious diseases. However, non-communicable diseases are becoming increasingly more common in refugee populations resettling in the United States. Purpose: Examine the prevalence of selected chronic conditions among newly arriving adult Cuban refugees and compare the results to the prevalence of the same chronic conditions among the other top five incoming refugee populations: Burmese, Bhutanese, Iranians, Iraqis, and Somalis Methods: Data used in this study were derived from the Department of State’s Medical History and Physical Examination Worksheet and included all adult (≥20 years) Cuban, Burmese, Bhutanese, Iranian, Iraqi, and Somali refugees identified through the Center’s for Disease Control and Prevention Electronic Disease Notification Center, and who entered the United States during October 2008-September 2011. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 19.0. Descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, and logistic regressions were performed to assess the prevalence of chronic conditions, check for associations between country of origin and outcome of interest, and to estimate the relative risk for Cubans compared to the remaining top five incoming refugee populations. Results: A total of 99,920 adults were included in the study. The largest population was Iraqi (27.6%), followed by Bhutanese (26.2%), Burmese (24.4%), Iranian (8.6%), Cuban (7.9%), and Somali (5.3%). All outcomes of interest were significantly associated with country of origin. Cubans were at a greater risk for asthma but were not the greatest at-risk population for the remaining outcomes of interest. Conclusion: The prevalence of non-communicable diseases was higher among the incoming refuges than has been traditionally assumed. These findings point to the need for a better understanding of the health status of refugee populations and the development of culturally appropriate health programs that include education on prevention and treatment of chronic conditions.

Global warming is a current topic on the international agenda. The rise of temperature in the atmosphere threatens populations living on island, deltas and coastal areas, and people living nearby the Arctic and areas covered by permafrost are threatened. In turn this leads to the people in these areas being projected to be homeless or displaced due to climate change and the rising numbers of natural disasters. Those people are what you can label as climate refugees. According to IOM and Brown (2001) climate refugees are persons who for compelling reasons of change in the environment which change their living conditions have to escape their homes, either within their country or abroad.The United Nations Refugee Convention is the binding legislation followed by 147 (in 2008) of the UN member states. Either the UN Refugee Convention or any other international law recognizes climate refugees, and those people are due to that not granted any legal status. Who will protect these people when they have to escape their homes? This paper aims to explore what distinguish climate refugees from the refugees embraced by the UN Refugee Convention by a comparative literature review, for in this way be able to recognize the assumptions that make the United Nations to not classify climate refugees with refugee status. Both groups of refugees has in common that they live under the pressured decision they have to make as they flee their native homes to ensure their own and their families survival according to Grove (2006).In the long run both climate refugees and the UN Refugee Convention embraced refugees face the same traumatic experiences escaping their homes and have due to that the similar right to get the same mental help and be protected under international law. But populations facing the effects of global warming do not want to leave their land and believe it is an issue of human rights.

What happens in the case of immigrant groups who have had such pre-migration experiences as to require specialized assistance in the adaptation process, and yet whose population is not substantial enough to convince governmental sources of funding their demands? The wave of Burmese refugees fleeing the 1988 crackdown in their country is one such example. Drawing from perspectives of Participatory Action Research (PAR), this study has several objectives. First, it explores the current settlement needs of the Burmese population by way of relating it to the pre-migration context. By identifying those characteristics which influence the ability of this group to effectively compete for resources among organized ethno-cultural groups in Canada, this study hopes to highlight barriers to full participation. Second, a related objective is the documentation of the settlement and integration issues faced by the Burmese population, namely through an exploratory study of experiences of Burmese communities in Winnipeg and Toronto. Third, it seeks to explore the question of social capital within the Burmese population and its possible implications for resettlement and integration process. Fourth, it will attempt to contribute to the testing of Participatory Action Research as a methodological tool in improving our understanding of refugee resettlement. And fifth, it seeks to generate recommendations that will improve the settlement and integration of this target population within Canadian society. Broadly, it is hoped that this study might demonstrate how the particular needs of immigrant groups, in this case statistically small ethno-cultural groups arriving with traumatic refugee experiences, require careful consideration in seeking to facilitate integration through enhanced social capital and self-help.

As the mosaic of our classrooms becomes more diverse, teachers need to be able to celebrate the multilingual, multicultural students and provide the academic and social opportunities for their students. As well, teachers need to use culturally relevant pedagogy and diverse instructional strategies within the curriculum that will allow all students to develop meaningful language experiences. Through narrative inquiry and through qualitative research, I have examined my teaching practices and methodologies in relation to the observations and critical conversations with EAL teachers directly involved in the instruction and English language development as support for linguistically and culturally challenged students in the elementary school setting. I have taught a community of diverse learners with rich heritages and backgrounds in a multilingual classroom, and I have learned, from these four specialist teachers, to be more knowledgeable in teaching strategies and more adaptable in implementing culturally relevant content. For a brief time, I was able to enter four different classrooms of students, who had come from many different countries and had been removed from their regular classrooms to receive EAL support. Through observations of these students, and interviews and dialogues with specialist EAL teachers, I have been able to critically reflect upon and analyze my results, expanding my repertoire of instructional practices as a multilingual classroom teacher. By allowing me into their professional spaces, and by sharing their teaching practices as English language specialist teachers helping students, I have been both inspired and enlightened.<p> EAL students in our communities and classrooms will bring their personal experiences and rich cultural backgrounds, created from their multigenerational histories. As teachers create welcoming classrooms, all students will receive the language support that they need, without losing their cultural beliefs and values. School families and communities can become the threads that will eventually create a fabric, rich in design and texture. In representing the Canadian mosaic of individuals, this journey metaphorically takes our students, from individual fabrics to quilts of many hues and patterns.

The number of hidden refugees in Sweden is estimated to be at least 15,000. The law, which only allows this group a very limited access to health care, can be considered to clash with the human rights and the ethical codes related to the health care professionals. The aim of the study was to examine how the personnel in public health care may experience treating hidden refugees and which ethical conflicts that may be connected to this. The study, which is of a qualitative descriptive design, is based on eight semi-structured interviews. The interviewees were trained nurses and mid-wives in an emergency room, a maternity ward and a health care centre for asylum seekers. The experience of treating hidden refugees amongst the informants was limited. The study proved that the knowledge of laws and guidelines regarding hidden refugees amongst the interviewed health care personnel was poor. The interviewees presumed that it would be mentally trying if the law impeded them from giving a patient the care needed. The lack of knowledge of laws and guidelines that appeared from the interviews, may lead to an insecurity for the patient, as well as for the personnel. An increasing knowledge and accurate guidelines at the work place would improve the treatment of hidden refugees. / I Sverige uppskattas att det finns minst 15000 gömda flyktingar. Lagstiftningen, som endast tillåter en begränsad vård för den gruppen, kan anses stå i konflikt med de mänskliga rättigheterna och sjukvårdspersonalens yrkesetiska koder. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur sjukvårdspersonal som arbetar inom landstinget kan uppleva vård av gömda flyktingar och vilka etiska konflikter som kan vara kopplade till detta. Studien, som är en intervjustudie med kvalitativ deskriptiv design, baseras på åtta semistrukturerade intervjuer. Informanterna utgjordes av sjuksköterskor och barnmorskor på akutmottagning, BB-avdelning och en vårdcentral för flyktingar. Informanternas erfarenhet av att vårda gömda flyktingar var begränsad. Det framkom av studien att kunskapen om lagar och riktlinjer gällande vård av gömda flyktingar hos den intervjuade sjukvårdspersonalen var bristfällig. Informanterna förutsatte att det skulle vara psykiskt påfrestande om lagen hindrade dem att ge vård till en patient. Den brist på kunskap om lagar och riktlinjer som framkom av intervjuerna, leder till en osäkerhet för både patienten och personalen. Ökad kunskap om lagar och ordentliga riktlinjer på arbetsplatsen skulle underlätta vården av gömda flyktingar.

<p>The persistent presence of refugees challenges political theorists to rethink our approaches to citizenship and national sovereignty. I look to philosopher Simone Weil (1909-1943), who brings to the Western tradition her insight as a refugee who attended to other refugees. Deploying the tropes of Threshold, Refuge, and Attention (which I garner and elaborate from her writings) I read Weil as an eminently political theorist whose practice of befriending political strangers maintains the urgent, interrogative insight of the refugee while tempering certain "temptations of exile." On my reading, Weil's body of theory travels physically and conceptually among plural, intersecting, and conflicting bodies politic, finding in each a source of limited, imperfect, and precious Refuge.</p><p>I then put Weil into conversation with several contemporary scholars - Michael Walzer, Martha Nussbaum, and Kwame Anthony Appiah - each of whom takes up a problematic between duties to existing political community and the call to engagements with political strangers. Bringing Weilian theory to bear on this conversation, I argue that polity depends deeply on those who heed the call to assume variously particular, vocational, and unenforceable duties across received borders. </p><p>Finally, by way of furthering Weil's incomplete experiments in Attention to the other, I look to "accompaniment" and related strategies adopted by human rights activists in recent decades in the Americas. These projects, I suggest, display many traits in common with Weil's political sensibility, but they also demonstrate possibilities beyond those imagined by Weil herself. As such, they provide practical guidance to those of us confronting political failures and refugee flows in the Western hemisphere today. I conclude that politico-humanitarian movements' own bodies of theory and practice point the way to sustained, cross-border, political relations.</p> / Dissertation

Following the end of World War II, the Allied forces faced an immediate large- scale refugee crisis in Europe. Efforts focused on returning the millions of refugees to their homes as quickly as possible. Though the majority did return home, nearly a million refugees from Soviet-controlled Eastern Europe refused to do so. Reclassified as Displaced Persons (DPs) and placed in holding camps by the Occupational Authorities, these refugees demanded that Allied leaders give them the chance to immigrate and resettle elsewhere. Immigration historians of this period have focused mainly on the experiences of the Jewish refugees during the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel. Other studies depict the chaos in Germany immediately following the war, describing the DPs as an unstable factor in an already unstable situation. While important, these works tend to overlook the fate of non-Jewish refugees who would not return to their homes. Additionally, these works overlook the many immigration and resettlement schemes put in place to solve the DP situation and stabilize Europe, focusing instead on economic forces and growing Cold War tensions. This thesis looks at the experiences of the Baltic DPs, those from Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. Beginning with a brief history of the three countries and their people’s experiences during the war, this study also looks at their lives in the DP camps and explores their reasons for not returning home. It also recounts the Allies’ decision to promote resettlement rather than repatriation as the solution to the refugee problem by focusing on the immigration programs of the four main recipient countries, Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia. This thesis argues that the majority of the Baltic DPs came from educated, middle class backgrounds and as such, they were widely sought after by the recipient countries as the most suitable for immigration. A final argument is that disagreements over their fate between the United States, England, and the Soviet Union, fueled the Cold War.

The vast number of refugees in the world represents a very real, quantifiable, and troublesome "problem" for mainstream scholars of International Relations (IR). Mainstream IR is not able to address the problem of the refugee because of its emphasis on the state as a central actor and its inattention to justice in an international system. This thesis argues that the approaches of the English School and normative theory might come together to create a "via media" or middle ground which better addresses the problem of the refugee in international relations than mainstream IR has to date. While both approaches have limitations, the concept of international society and order versus justice debate of the English School compliments the attention given by normative theory to state responsibility and justice concerns of normative theory. The English School and normative theory can work in tandem to provide a middle ground which can directly address the problem of the refugee. The two approaches together provide a better way to start the conversation concerning the refugee.