Looking for Summer Resources for your East Bay Students?

Attend the Oakland Unified School District Refugee Student Summer Resource Fair

Tuesday, April 21st 5:00-7:00 pm
2111 International Blvd (at 21st Ave), Oakland

 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates that more than four million Iraqis have been displaced by the war in Iraq and its aftermath. Of these, about two million people have found asylum in neighboring countries, where many eke out a marginal living in poor, inner-city neighborhoods, often by working illegally for low wages as laborers, drivers, and restaurant workers.

Most Iraqi asylees are living in Syria and Jordan, but Iraqis have also sought asylum in Egypt, Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey. Because most Iraqis are unable to return to Iraq safely or to settle permanently in the countries to which they have fled, Western nations, including the United States, have begun to resettle those refugees who are considered by the UNHCR to be at greatest risk.

The new Iraqi arrivals will be joining previous groups of Iraqi refugees resettled in the United States. After the 1991 Gulf War, an estimated 12,000 Iraqis were admitted to the United States, and in 1996, about 6,500 Iraqis who had links to a U.S.-sponsored coup attempt against the regime in Iraq were granted asylum...

This Enhanced Refugee Backgrounder provides basic information about the history, cultures, and background experiences of the new Iraqi arrivals. It also looks at the experiences of refugees in the countries of first asylum and potential resettlement issues.

USCIS Citizenship Test Questions Have Been Updated Use the new USCIS question flashcards to quiz your clients studying for the citizenship exams.

Published: March 14, 2009

WOODBRIDGE, Va. - Walking the halls of Cecil D. Hylton High School outside Washington, it is hard to detect any trace of the divisions that once seemed fixtures in American society.

Two girls, a Muslim in a headscarf and a strawberry blonde in tight jeans, stroll arm in arm. A Hispanic boy wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt gives a high-five to a black student with glasses and an Afro. The lanky homecoming queen, part Filipino and part Honduran, runs past on her way to band practice. The student body president, a son of Laotian refugees, hangs fliers about a bake sale.

But as old divisions vanish, waves of immigration have fueled new ones between those who speak English and those who are learning how.

Walk with immigrant students, and the rest of Hylton feels a world apart. By design, they attend classes almost exclusively with one another. They take separate field trips. And they organize separate clubs.

"I am thankful to my teachers because the little bit of English I am able to speak, I speak because of them," Amalia Raymundo, from Guatemala, said during a break between classes. But, she added, "I feel they hold me back by isolating me."

East of Mount Everest and bordered by India and Tibet, Bhutan is a remote kingdom, considered by many as "The Last Shangri-La." A sovereign nation that has maintained its cultural, artistic, and religious traditions intact, it is one of the few countries in Asia never colonized by its neighbors or Western powers.

This exhibit at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco is the first of its kind.  The Dragon's Gift provides an exceptionally rare opportunity to view some of the most sacred and beloved Buddhist arts in Bhutan.

Many of the 150 objects - intricate paintings, sculptures, textiles, and more - are still used in temple and monastery rituals and never have been accessible to a Western audience. Also documented through video footage are the colorful ancient dance forms that are integral to Bhutanese Buddhist practice.