Burlington Refugee Population

Jackie Stickley
Apr.26.2010

To an outsider looking in, the diverse array of refugees that arrive in Burlington are finally able to leave all of their old troubles behind in their home country and embark on a new life of hope and opportunity. While this is certainly true in many respects, refugees new to the area face an entirely new set of challenges.

Refugees from all over the world have been starting life anew in Vermont for years. Chittenden County hosts the vast majority of the new arrivals with Burlington seeing the heaviest influx of refugees from various nations such as Bhutan, Myanmar, Somalia, and Congo. A very large chunk of these refugees come from African nations. The Association of Africans Living in Vermont (AALV), located in the North End of Burlington, provides services especially to the African community through various programs including case management, home visits to new arrivals, men's and women's groups, and interpreter services.

It is easy to see how the refugee population enriches the cultural diversity of Burlington by simply walking around the city's streets. The North End in particular is dotted with various ethnic grocery stores and restaurants, as well as African women dressed in their traditional, colorful dress. Dozens of unique languages can be overheard at the bus stops, in restaurants, on Church Street, at the waterfront. To say these ethnic influences stand out in the drastically white city of Burlington is an understatement, and one that makes it particularly difficult for new Vermonters from half way around the world to fit into their new surroundings.

The combination of language barriers and extreme culture differences that new refugees face in comparison to the locals creates an invisible wall to belonging that is difficult to surmount without assistance. Finding themselves unable to communicate or relate with the population of white Vermonters, refugees often only communicate within their own cultural circles and fail to assimilate fully into society.
On top of many refugees' inability to read, write, and understand English, many of them lack the basic skills needed for most jobs. This is often due to any number of hardships they may have experienced in their native lands that prevented them from learning any job skills necessary for life in the Western world. In today's poor economy, the refugee community has been hit the hardest, currently at an over 80% unemployment rate. The cultural barrier on top of the constant stress of having little money and having to hunt for jobs in this economy puts extreme strain on local refugee families.

Luckily, there are a couple of local organizations with the mission to help assist new refugees in settling. The Vermont Resettlement Program (VRRP), based in Colchester, works with refugees to "defend human rights, promote self-sufficiency and education, and forge community partnerships through a full range of services and programs." Heavily volunteer-driven, VRRP focuses on helping refugees-- Bhutanese, Burmese, Iraqi and Somali people primarily-- reach self-sufficiency within eight months and learn English and find jobs for up to five years.

The O'Brien Community Center in Winooski is another great resource for refugees. Although the Center's services are for anyone in the community to use as needed, the area's refugees make up a large part of the make up of the Center's visitors. The O'Brien Center also offers English-language classes and community meetings and potluck suppers to help facilitate the refugees' sense of belonging within the community.

"There's a wide spectrum of people who come in here. At the beginning of the day, there's the English language learning course," Melody McKnight, Events and Facilities Coordinator for O'Brien said. She mentioned refugees from Nepal, India, Tanzania, and Somalia that use the Center and also noted the diversity of the kids that participate in their Teen Night and After School programs. "I just found out that one-in-six Winooski kids come and the majority of them that do come-- two-thirds of them I would estimate-- are immigrants or refugees."

New Americans can particularly benefit from the nutrition class offered at the O'Brien Center. The climate in Vermont could not be more opposite of the climates most of the refugees hail from. Their traditional, native food is not necessarily available here. It is important for new refugees to learn how to fix nutritious meals with unfamiliar foods.

The Refugee Health Program, an offshoot of the Vermont Department of Health, also offers nutrition education as well as an array of services to "promote the physical and mental well being of refugees living in Vermont." Many of the refugees that arrive in Vermont come to flee from the violence in there home countries. The nightmares do not necessarily end once they reach safety, however. Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome and physical disease and injury is very common to newcomers. The Refugee Health Program does its best to assist these refugees in the best way possible, but not all asylum seekers reach out for the help they need. In some cases, women go untreated due to cultural rules that forbid male doctors to touch them.

Once refugees reach the safety of Vermont, the old challenges they faced in their old countries are replaced by new challenges. Organizations like AALV, VRRP, the O'Brien Center, and the Refugee Health Program go a long way in alleviating some of these challenges, but more groups like this are necessary to help the growing refugee population feel truly at home and happy in Vermont.
Hal Colston, Community Service professor at Champlain College and founder of the non profit Good News Garage, meets refugees on a regular basis through the Neighborkeepers meetings at the O'Brien Center. Colston created Neighborkeepers with the goal build meaningful relationships between people within the community and to help them achieve adequate resources to survive. Colston feels that these new Americans are not receiving as much assistance as they need.

"They'll get some [government assistance] when they first get here, but it's only eight months and that's it and they're on their own." Eight months is rarely enough time to learn English, find a job, and truly become part of a foreign community.

On a positive note, however, Colston spoke on the advantage these refugees bring with them-- a strong sense of family and togetherness, as well as closeness to nature that is part of their culture. "My sense is that people that live close to the earth, where they grow their food and [have a] visceral, hands-on approach to living, seem to do much, much better with getting on their feet, getting goals, accomplishing them, and making connections," he explained. "They may be lacking resources like financial resources, or maybe even emotional or physical [resources], but they have this sense of pulling in other support from their community."

Hal Colston, Community Service professor at Champlain College and founder of the non profit Good News Garage, meets refugees on a regular basis through the Neighborkeepers meetings at the O'Brien Center. Colston created Neighborkeepers with the goal build meaningful relationships between people within the community and to help them achieve adequate resources to survive. Colston feels that these new Americans are not receiving as much assistance as they need.

"They'll get some [government assistance] when they first get here, but it's only eight months and that's it and they're on their own." Eight months is rarely enough time to learn English, find a job, and truly become part of a foreign community.

On a positive note, however, Colston spoke on the advantage these refugees bring with them-- a strong sense of family and togetherness, as well as closeness to nature that is part of their culture. "My sense is that people that live close to the earth, where they grow their food and [have a] visceral, hands-on approach to living, seem to do much, much better with getting on their feet, getting goals, accomplishing them, and making connections," he explained. "They may be lacking resources like financial resources, or maybe even emotional or physical [resources], but they have this sense of pulling in other support from their community."