From every carving and dislodged mass, there is memory left in void. As refugees, the Rohingya resettling in the United States have been displaced out of time and place. This project proposal aims to reconnect persons to place and community. Surrounded on all sides by remnant chestnut oak forest, the "rock oak" of the Appalachian, this establishment of subsidized multi-family resettlement housing, a mosque, and a Rohingya cultural center serves as the rock foundation from which to stabilize the chaos of the unknown. While memory embraces cultural identity, growth embraces new connections - defining a platform of past and future. Roof farms and open circulation plans visualize the seasons. The cropped grass field opens between the three buildings on the complex. They face each other across a green field - conversing in rows of tall oaks and stone brick colonnades in a gradient of public to private space. Children race the setting sunlight down steps and a communal dinner is served. For these wanderers, this is the threshold of refuge. / Master of Architecture / Exported by violence, thousands of Rohingya refugees are adrift in temporality. In camps or on the run, there is detachment from place and corrosion of community and opportunity. Resettling in a new country, refugees face many challenges hand in hand with their new freedoms. In Alexandria, there is a site embedded into the slope of a remnant forest. It extends from the hill of the Northern Virginia Community College, a beacon of affordable education and equal opportunity. On this site, the newly resettled will find their footing and work towards new goals through rest in residence, spiritual healing in a prayer hall, and active learning in a Rohingyan cultural center. By carving a community, this designed establishment, a stronghold of Rohingya culture and identity can embed new stories and re-establish roots.

<p>As of June 2020, there were nearly 71 million displaced persons worldwide fleeing their homes due to conflict and war (“Figures at a Glance,” UNHCR, 2020). One of the critical needs following displacement and subsequent resettlement is to address the immense psychological turmoil refugees may have endured. Despite the need for care, refugees often face barriers to accessing mental health care after resettlement, including inadequate translation services, poor provider cultural competence, and difficulty navigating services (Asgary & Segar, 2011). An important aspect in meeting the mental health needs of resettled refugees in the U.S. are the refugee resettlement agencies that help refugees rebuild their lives post-resettlement. Thus, this study focused on the mental health providers working with resettled refugees within refugee resettlement agencies. <a>Through the use of mixed methods, this study collected quantitative and qualitative data across three phases to 1) obtain a greater understanding of the available mental health services within refugee resettlement agencies, 2) examine cultural competence in mental health providers working within these agencies, and 3) identify the culturally competent strategies mental health providers use to improve access to mental health services in this context</a>. The results of this study, including an integration of the data across phases, and a discussion complete with 12 suggestions for mental health providers working with resettled refugees are presented. We hope the results and implications of this study will contribute to our understanding of, and subsequently address, the issues related to mental health service accessibility experienced by resettled refugees.</p>

The resettlement of refugees and asylum seekers in Germany since reunification in 1990 has been challenged by two peaks in asylum seeker applications in 1992 and again in 2016. From the 1992 peak, which was fueled by asylum seekers fleeing the former Yugoslavia, extensive research has already been conducted over the past thirty years. These studies have demonstrated the actual outcomes of these primarily Yugoslavian asylum seekers and refugees with these findings indicating legal and economic uncertainty having a detrimental effect even years after resettlement. Using Germany as a case study, this analysis aims to survey the available information in the more recent example of asylum seekers arriving in Germany from 2014 onwards primarily from the Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Ultimately, successful resettlement equates to successful integration measures. The issues of policy legacy and learning as well as elements of the available support network for asylum seekers in housing, Integrationskurse (integration courses), and advice centers are examined to understand how each relates to successful integration and security for asylum seekers. The findings indicate that Germany has achieved successful resettlement and integration of asylum seekers through policy learning from the early 1990s onwards and a strong support network available for those seeking asylum, yet the exclusion of certain groups from integration measures unfairly leaves some behind. A continuous evaluation of these integration measures is necessary to ensure the successful resettlement of refugees and asylum seekers in Germany in anticipated future peaks in asylum seeker applications.

Meeting the psychological needs of the culturally and linguistically different has always posed challenges to mental health providers. The Haitian community in South Florida has been one such group for whom mental health services have been less than readily available. Some reasons include a lack of trust from the community, a pejorative cultural framework of mental health services, as well as, a lack of competent Haitian Creole speaking therapists armed with culturally congruent therapeutic skills. These present as challenges for community based-agencies attempting to meet the mental health needs of this population. It is even more problematic for humanitarian voluntary agencies (VOLAG) that sponsor refugees and support them throughout their resettlement efforts. Additionally, the 2010 earthquake has given rise to gender based violence disproportionally impacting women and girls (Amnesty International, 2011) who are now seeking safe haven in the U.S. and particularly South Florida. Tasked with assisting in the resettlement of Haitian refugees/asylees/parolees, many psychologically affected by pre and post migration traumas, these agencies must find unique solutions to help their clients toward the ultimate goal of resettlement, self-sufficiency (Stenning, 1996). This Applied Clinical Project (ACP) showcases a community-university partnership with a VOLAG. Participatory Action Research (PAR) protocol was used as an explorative tool to learn from stakeholders about the efficacy of incorporating Solution-Focused Group Therapy (SFBT) in a resettlement integrative program for Haitians. Results will also contribute to the future development of a toolkit to support family therapists in adapting their western trainings to provide culturally and linguistically competent mental health services.

No description available.

Since the 1951 United Nations Convention, nations have dealt with refugee issues in various ways. In the United States, since the Vietnam War, there has been great debate and a significant amount of research on issues of refugee resettlement, with these discourses inherently involving issues of power and ideology. English language training and the promotion of economic self-sufficiency have been interventions used to integrate and assimilate refugees into American culture and society. These two interventions were the subject of the current investigation. The purpose of this study was to look into the way federal refugee resettlement policy mandated by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) construes the notion of self-sufficiency in policy documents; and whether or not that constructed version of self-sufficiency is reflected or reinforced in the local attendant English language training, provided by the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization's (IRCO) Pre-Employment Training's English language training courses. Through a combination of Critical Discourse Analysis and analytic techniques influenced by Corpus Linguistics, this study was able to investigate the construal of self-sufficiency in ORR refugee resettlement policy and its reflection in IRCO PET ELT. The ORR policy Title 45: Public Welfare, Part 400: Refugee Settlement Program and the lesson plans and materials of IRCO's PET's SPL levels 2 and 3 were analyzed with a textual analysis, process analysis, and social analysis. The ORR policy also underwent a collocation comparison analysis that employed the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA). The results of this qualitative study indicate that the federal resettlement policy exploits a common connotation of self-sufficiency to mask its underlying subjugating policies that position resettled refugees into early employment positions with little opportunities for higher education or occupational advancement. The ELT provided by IRCO's PET program reflects and reinforces the ORR's construed notion of self-sufficiency as well as its underlying hegemonic agenda. These findings this relate to broader discourses of immigration, neoliberalism, and education in the United States. Conclusions drawn from this investigation have pedagogical implications and applications that are discussed.