Bosnian Refugee Life in America Essay

Thousands of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina pose fled to the linked States to seek protective cover from the ethnoreligious contradicts of the region. To best attend to these families, gain providers must understand their wartime and migration experiences and their culture. The purpose of this word is to re image the literature relevant to conk outing with Bosnian Moslem refugees as well as to understand the uruque issues facing this world. The authors interest in Bosnian Muslim refugees is a personalised one.Between 1992 and 2001, nearly 3,500 Bosnian refugees escaping social purging and war migrated to Bowling Green, a small city of 50,000 in rural southcentral Kentucky. The Bowling Green Inter raceal Center has been a interrupt of the topical anesthetic club since 1979 and actively works with the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). For more than 25 years, the center has assisted thousands of refugees of numerous nationalities in their m igration to the United States and the local community.According to the centers director, Marty Deputy, Bosnians make up the largest percentage of refugees that hurl relocated to Bowling Green (personal communication, February 3, 2005). Deputy also indicated that while Bosnian refugees have adapted well to the local community, they still face m whatsoever challenges because of their experiences in Bosnia in addition to their integration into a juvenile culture. atomic number 53 of the issues that continue to haunt more Bosnian refugees is post- accidental injurytic stressa allow of war and genocide.Post-traumatic stress is particularly an issue for the adult women, who experienced the trauma of rape and sexual assault as well as witnessing the reach of their children and spouses. According to Deputy (personal communication, February 3, 2005), social workers should approach Bosnian families and children with cultural competence. If see a Bosnian home, for example, removing one s shoes when entering is a display of view and sensitivity. A willingness to drink a strong cup of Bosnian coffee is also appreciated. Social workers also must be sensitive about body words and speech tone.It is also all-important(prenominal) not to assume that all Bosnians are alike. As with all cultures, on that point is tremendous variation in the Bosnian culture, along with individual differences in personality and environmental experiences. Bosnian Muslim Experiences in the War The 1991 nose count for Bosnia-Herzegovina shows that Muslims made up 43. 7% of the total population of 4. 3 one million million people. Serbs accounted for 31. 3% and Croats 17. 3% (Bringa, 1995). Serbs identified the Muslims majority population base in Bosnia-Herzegovina as its strategic strength (Cigar, 1995).In 1992, in that locationfore, the Serbs declared war and began a campaign of ethnic cleansing to eradicate non-Serbs. The term ethnic cleansing stands for the policy of ridding an area of an undesir open national group to create a homogenous region it represents a type of genocide that is knowing to parcel out terror (Friedman, 1996 Weine & Laub, 1995). Serbias initial rationale for its policy was promulgated by the belief that the newly formed state of Bosnia-Herzegovina would create national minorities of the Serb population and eventually destroy the Serb populace as a discrete and curious nation (Friedman, 1996).The prospect of acquiring material goods from the Muslimsland, livestock, houses, cars, and cashapparently was an redundant powerful incentive for many Serbs (Cigar, 1995 Sells, 1998). The indigenous Bosnian Serb population was raddled into a terror campaign of killing and mayhem so the non-Serbian populations would neer return. This persecution ultimately led to more than one million Balkan refugees migrating to the United States and different countries. The types of experiences they endured in their homeland before emigrating dramatically influen ced their initial adaptation to these new environments. Resettlement and Adaptation IssuesAs difficult as the war-related experiences were, migration to resettlement countries signaled a transition to new types of struggles for Bosnian refugees. Unlike immigrants who leave their homes for a pattern of reasons, refugees leave in order to survive, and they face a new farming of stressors as they attempt to rebuild their lives in exile (Keyes, 2000 Worthington, 2001). Such stressors entangle difficult transit experiences culture shock adjustment problems related to language and occupational change and disruption in their moxie of self, family, and community (Lipson, 1993 Worthington, 2001).Additionally, refugees leave Bosnia-Herzegovina often have suffered multiple losses, such as severance from family and friends who have been left behind or killed, displacement from their homes and communities, social isolation, and the premature demise of their children. Such an accumulation of loss place leave a sense of unresolved grief that cornerstone significantly impact mental wellness and future functioning capacity (Akhtar, 1992 Fullilove, 1996 Sundquist & Johansson, 1996 Worthington, 2001).When refugees cross national boundaries want asylum, they typically find themselves in an alien social environment with norms that challenge their handed-d hold patterns of family interaction (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). Most Bosnian refugees have a hierarchical familial power structure and clear role definitions in the homeland, authority was typically sexual practice-based, with males chief(prenominal)taining instrumental roles and females fulfilling nurturing responsibilities.A traditional Bosnian womans committal to her family includes observing strict codes of privacy and public silence on any issue that might bring shame on the family, such as family discord. For many women, this privacy mandate deters them from divulging details about marital passage of arms or child maltreatment by spouses to outsiders such as work colleagues, community members, and mental health professionals. Consequently, Bosnian female refugees continue to be caught between traditional role positions prevalent throughout the former Yugoslavias patriarchal society in the 20th Century and the expectations of their new culture.The Bosnian familys patriarchal patterns of behavior tend to be challenged on comer in the United States, particularly around work-related issues. Women are more plausibly than men to find jobs in the low-wage labor market, and in becoming the breadwinners undecided to the outside world, they risk upsetting a family equilibrium based on male authority (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). For Bosnian men, key ethnic and social demarcation line markers of their lives had evaporated because of their grief over this, many seemed paralyzed in their attempt to incline forward in their new life.Bosnian refugee children also face broad acculturation nips (Mayad as & Segal, 2000). They often are torn between the beliefs, customs, and values acquire in their native culture and the often un strongistic expectations of the new one. The pressure to assimilate the cultural norms of their new boorish can be penetrating and extremely stressful. Their parents often lack the material resources and support systems to fittedly assist them in navigating the complex terrain of foreign school systems, pervasive racism, and intolerance (Mayadas & Segal, 2000).Consequently, many feel as if they are alone in a foreign, sometimes unforgiving new cultural milieu. To further complicate the situation, family roles often grow as children typically become more fluent in position faster and adapt more quickly to the customs of the new country (Potocky, 1996). Because children are thrust into the role of serving as the interpreters and negotiators of cultural norms for their parents, respect for the authority of elders is often undermined (Carlin, 1990 Drachm an 1992).Even though most teenagers in the United States feel a certain amount of intergenerational tension, the adolescents of refugees often experience the ask out of two vastly different worlds those of their American peers and their parents (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). They also feel subjected to the xenophobia of their American peers, who often ridicule others who they label as different. Immigration to the United States has provided Bosnian Muslim refugee families with many challenges as they struggle to adapt to their new lives.At first glance, their experiences may be similar to that of other immigrants, raising the well-known(prenominal) questions about how to perpetuate the faith of their forebears among their offspring or how to best extend cherished cultural practices (Yazbeck- Haddad & Esposito, 2000). But there are some real differences. With the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York city and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, the potential for a xenophobic recep tion of Muslim immigrants and refugees by Americans has intensified.For example, disputes over the building of mosques represent a key source of brush for most western sandwichers (Pipes & Duran, 1993). While Bosnian Muslim families may encounter the kindred issues earlier generations of immigrants faced, they also are burdened with the question of whether their children will be accepted in the United States, and whether Islam can ever be acknowledge as a positive force that contributes to a pluralistic, multicultural nation (Yazbeck-Haddad & Esposito, 2000). Culturally Competent Practice with Bosnian MuslimsWhen work with Bosnian Muslim refugees, service providers need to learn as much as feasible about their culture, particularly given the pivotal role that ethnoreligious identity has compete in their war-related experiences (Witmer & Culver, 2001). Bosnian men and women tend to adhere to traditional gender roles connected with this issue is the intense stigma attached to th e sexual misdemeanor of women. This stigma frequently led women to refrain from disclosing war rapes to their families (Witmer & Culver, 2001).Bosnian Muslims typically act in ways that preserve the positive image of the familys identity, especially males, who see openly revealing vulner office or misfortunate as a sign of great personal weakness (Weine et al. , 1997). Family is the most important social structure across the urban and rural regions of Bosnia (Mojica-Castillo, 2001). Up until the 1970s, adult children commonly lived with their parents and multiple generations lived in the same house. But today, twoparent families hover in this region with extended family members often living nearby.A clustering of shoes can typically be found outside a Bosnian home (Mojica-Castillo, 2001). This is because it is customary to remove street shoes and leave them at the door. Bosnians maintain a strong social tradition of neighborliness. The drink of strong coffee or the sharing of f ood, accompanied by the indwelling element of lively conversation, is an important aspect of social life. Traditional music and folk dances are an important part of cultural celebrations.A base principle of generalist social work is that practitioners need to be able to intervene on behalf of various systems, including individuals, families, orgaruzations, and communities. Additionally, the generalist social worker operates indoors an ecological fabric that attempts to improve coping patterns for a better check between the client systems needs and the characteristics of his or her environment. An say-so approach to generalist practice assumes that clients can draw from existing competencies and reservoirs of strength. sanction indicates the intent and the processes of assisting client systems to discover and expand the tools and resources around them (Furuto, 2004). Swift and Levin (1987) referred to dominance as an evolution from dependence to independence and interdepende nce. Gutierrez (1990) described empowerment as the process of increasing personal, interpersonal, or political power so that individuals can take action to improve their life situations (p. 140). The strengths perspective enhances the concept of empowerment with its focus on promoting healing.Healing implies both wholeness and the inborn ability of the mind and body to resist and regenerate when faced with disruption, disorder, or disorder (Furuto, 2004). Ethnic and religious identity may lead to discrimination when the refugee is seeking a job that requires intervention on a more personal level. Long-term difficulty in finding a job that provides the family with adequate income may cause low self-esteem and family tension culminating in force out (Furuto & Murase, 1992). Various system levels often must be addressed at the same time (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). westward thinking on designing comprehensive mental health services is mostly based on the individual as the aboriginal sy stem targeted for intervention hence, existing services tend to be designed for a North American population (Mooren & Kleber, 1999). Furthermore, treatment of mental health disorders typically follows a medical model using talk therapy and drugs. Western theories also emphasize intrapersonal processes in isolation from the cultural context. The prevailing view that the responses to trauma are individual centered is in keeping with this tradition. work providers must use the refugees own, indigenous cultural definitions of health and illness when do mental health assessments (Boothby, 1996 Wing Sue, Ivey, & Pedersen, 1996). For example, a Bosnian client who had the Western diag nosis of major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder refused medication saying that there was nothing wrong with him that medications could fix, and insisted that the clinician understand that his current condition was a resoluteness of the wrongs that had been done to him, and not because of anythin g that was wrong with him (Weine & Laub, 1995, p. 255).To address the issue of respecting the clients definition of the issue, Yuen (1999) promoted a more holistic biopsychosocial model of intervention when working with Bosnian children and their families hence, the importance of using an ethnically sensitive ecological framework becomes a second principle of culturally competent practice. A ordinal principle is to respect the indigenous strengths and resources within Bosnians that empower them to cope with their own experiences.Chow & Yuen (2000) noted the necessity for an empowerment and capacity building model where refugees become partners in the design and elivery of services within their community. Efforts to design and ram home human service programs should include using indigenous Bosnian religious and cultural organizations, as well as self-help groups (Chow & Yuen, 2000). Conclusion After Bosnians hightail it their homeland, they need protection in the asylum country. T his necessitates supportive policies and macrolevel intervention competence. The main policy that guides refugee resettlement in the United States is Public Law 96-212, the Refugee identification number of 1980 (Mayadas & Segal, 2000).Based on the last of helping refugees achieve economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible, the act defines self-sufficiency as not receiving welfare benefits (Potocky, 1996). As such, this policy may be ineffective in helping refugees to settle in an optimal manner. To become truly self-sufficient, service providers need to redefine success in more progressive ways, such as helping refugees to effectively deal with resettlement issues relating to acculturation, psychological trauma, and intergenerational conflictall of which can impede long-term economic self-sufficiency.This new goal requires adequate fiscal resources to develop programs and engage in active community outreach (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). Social services must aspire to restore the psychological health and dignity of these families and children, who have seen the worst side of human nature. Helping them progress to a positive self-image is critical to their success. While the genocide of family members and violent acts can never be forgotten, surrounding Bosnian Muslim refugees with a engagement of positive, supportive services can help them establish a whole foothold in the United States.