The current political debate raging over the fate of refugees seeking asylum in the United States expresses significant xenophobia, racism, and religious intolerance. Refugees are seen on cable T.V. and talk radio as a scourge on the nation; a serious threat to national security. The partisans in this debate seem to be confusing refugees with illegal immigrants or at least bundling them all together into one threatening pile.
WHAT SOCIAL WORKERS ARE SAYING
Social Workers from across the country are speaking out to correct the narrative, quell the fear, and set the record straight. “The tenor of the conversation in the United States now is incredibly distressing and has negative impacts on refugees’ mental health,” says Beth Farmer, LICSW, who directs a trauma and torture treatment center at Lutheran Community Services Northwest that works with refugees and asylum seekers in the Pacific Northwest. “For people who have been expelled from their homes and have already lost one country, there’s tremendous fear and a sense of deep injustice.”
“By virtue of meeting the humanitarian criteria that give them refugee status, these immigrants can’t return to their countries without facing grave harm,” adds a colleague from Chicago. “They are fleeing murder, genocide, kidnapping, rape, torture, enslavement, forced labor, political and social instability, and religious and ethnic persecution.”
These dedicated Social Workers are speaking to the need for understanding the mental, physical, and emotional destitution of people classified as refugees. These aren’t immigrants who have come to America to get an education or find a better job. “They’ve all experienced the loss of their country, roles, jobs, home; their social fabric has been ripped and they’re having to build a new life in the United States,” Farmer adds.
“All refugees by definition have been victimized by human rights violations,” says Miriam Potocky, MSW, PhD, a professor in the School of Social Work at Florida International University in Miami. “Whether those have involved the multitude of horrors of war, torture, political imprisonment, or violence or discrimination based on religion, ethnicity, political belief, or membership in a particular social group, the ultimate challenge is finding new meaning in life in the face of humanity’s evil.” (Potocky is an internationally recognized expert on refugee resettlement and author of Best Practices for Social Work With Refugees and Immigrants.)
According to Hillary Weaver, “Experiencing hostility once they are in the United States is a major issue of concern that has significant psychological consequences for people who have already experienced significant trauma.”
Potocky adds, “Hundreds of studies of refugees from all over the world across many decades now have repeatedly found that posttraumatic disorder, depression, anxiety, panic attack, adjustment disorder, and somatization are prevalent among these populations.”
“This new hostile political climate,” Weaver says, “is a major setback to the good programs and services we are working to provide.”
Please share your opinion. Thanks for reading.
