The Middle of Everywhere: Helping Refugees Enter the American Community

A book review by our lovely winter intern, Courtenay Houk :) 

The Middle of Everywhere is a personal account by psychologist Mary Pipher of her experiences working with refugees in Lincoln, Nebraska. Throughout much of the book, Pipher addresses major themes of identity and how perception of identity ultimately influences a refugee's resilience and ability to succeed in America. 

Refugees may already know several languages before they learn English, but in addition to picking up a new language, they must also learn to be bicultural. Many refugees experience culture-shock during their first weeks in America and it is not uncommon for them to feel overwhelmed by the availability of choice. Through the accounts of her own interactions with refugee youth and adults, Pipher demonstrates that choice can be both helpful and detrimental to the development of an American identity. She concludes that the most successful refugees have access to cultural brokers (Americans who are willing and able to "show them the ropes", so to speak), strong family ties and/or ties to people from their own country, and the ability to pick and choose which American values to adopt and which of their cultural values to hold on to. 

As a short-term RT intern, I feel that this book gave me an excellent insight into what Refugee Transitions is about. Every one of our volunteers, staff, and student leaders are a cultural-broker who are doing a world of good for newly-arrived refugees. The time and patience these individuals generously offer to others, ensures their success at building a new life in America. I also feel I have a better understanding of the students I tutor at SFIHS.

When I'm at the office, I can't help but imagine what stories are contained in every single file I organize and label. Every story is unique and contains hardships that many people in the U.S. will never experience personally.  I highly recommend this book to anyone who is considering tobe or is already a volunteer for RT. This book is a pleasure to read, highly informative, and the Appendix at the back lists tips on how to work with ESL learners...I found this to be especially helpful!

What We're Reading - The Snakehead

Source: www.patrickraddenkeefe.com

“There are roughly 200 million migrants in the world today, some 30-40 million of whom are undocumented. This transnational global underclass with a population larger than Canada’s is on the move…Seventy-five percent of all the world’s migrants end up in only 12 percent of the countries.” – Patrick Radden Keefe, The Snakehead

It's been awhile since I've read a book in just a couple sittings - but after picking up The Snakehead at a bookstore this past Sunday I just couldn't put it down!

In this non-fiction work, author Patrick Radden Keefe chronicles the business of human smuggling in the United States - focusing on one such multi-million dollar operation run during the 1980s and 1990s in New York's Chinatown by a small middle-aged woman known as Sister Ping.

This true account of Sister Ping's business and the underground human smuggling economy as a whole reads like a suspenseful crime novel, but there's a lot more to the book than an intricate plot filled with shady characters, piles of cash, and intrigue. Keefe expertly weaves in the significance of the changes in immigration and asylum policy that have occurred  in the United States throughout the past few decades, and he highlights the effects these policies have had upon the lives of individuals seeking to start new lives in new countries.

Most of all, Keefe paints a vivid portrait of the lengths to which so many people have gone in order to start their lives anew, and he brings to light the very real issues that exist within systems of immigration in this country and around the world.

If you’re looking for some light (well, maybe not light, more like entertaining yet educational) holiday reading, you might want to check out the book!

Sandy, PR and Development Associate/AmeriCorps VISTA