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Reading Comprehension

Task I

Faith G. Nibbs - Belonging: The Resettlement Experiences of Hmong Refugees in Germany and Texas

1
The process of integrating immigrant newcomers, particularly refugees, is
2
complex and involves many possible approaches. Integration, as
3
perceived and driven by national agendas, may not be felt or experienced
4
in the same way by refugees. The concept of belonging offers a way to
5
think about how those who are displaced understand being "in the right
6
place", "members", or "fitting in" to new social spaces as well as their
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interactions with new, diverse groups of people. From this lens we can
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consider if refugee belonging is more successful in a major city where
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resettlement agencies and refugees themselves have access to more
10
resources and opportunities or in a village where face-to-face relationships
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predominate. Is integration more effective in contexts that offer more
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hands-on assistance or in those that are more laissez-faire? A case study
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of two little-known resettled Hmong populations in Dallas-Fort Worth and
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Gammertingen that originated from the same refugee group 30 years ago
15
offers insight into these questions.
16
The resettlement process in both Dallas-Fort Worth and Gammertingen
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relied on a system of private sponsors to welcome and guide the Hmong
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newcomers. In Texas, the sponsor could be an individual, group, or church
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congregation, whereas in Gammertingen the sponsors were all individuals.
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It was the sponsor's responsibility in both locations to introduce the
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newcomer to the community, provide cultural orientation and informal
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language learning opportunities, to be a primary resource/contact, and to
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provide a source of comfort, encouragement and support.
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In Dallas-Fort Worth, the Hmong arrived immediately before or during the
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1981 national recession and were placed into a region that, although it had
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better-than-average employment rates, held a particular view of why this
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was the case: Texan's selfreliance. The ideology that every "good" citizen
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displays the classic Texan virtues of hard work and "pulling themselves up
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their bootstraps" inspired the Hmong sponsors. As such, many sponsors
30
prioritized finding jobs almost immediately for their refugee families.
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One particular sponsor, with an air of pride, relayed finding a job for a
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Hmong man before he had even arrived in the United States. "We let him
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sleep a little to get over jet lag, but had him working full-time within three
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days and the family in their own apartment within two weeks!" she
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recounted.
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Americans' general distaste for public assistance has increasingly tied
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welfare to immorality, unworthiness, and being out of work. The employed
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taxpayer was welcome in Texas while the welfare-dependent would never
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be accepted or thought to belong. Making the refugee into a “good”
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member of the local community meant getting them to work, off of public
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aid, and acting in the same manner as the locals.
42
By contrast in Gammertingen, sponsors were not tasked with helping the
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Hmong find employment. In fact, for the first year no one was. The mayor
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decided that since special federal funding was given to support the town’s
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first-year resettlement efforts, the Hmong would be more successful job
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candidates if they had a full year of language and cultural education.
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Without language skills, for example, it would have been exceedingly
48
difficult for a refugee to get the craftsman certification required for most
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workers in Germany.
50
Not living in the homes of the sponsors allowed the Hmong a more
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horizontal relationship with their German sponsors, whereas living in
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sponsors’ homes in Texas set up a more vertical one. For most of the
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Dallas-Fort Worth Hmong, moving out of the sponsor’s house
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unintentionally resulted in social separation from their American contacts.
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Most reported that they had not seen nor had any contact with their
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sponsors after the first weeks of resettlement back in 1979, asserting that
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this was not a deliberate separation. This speaks to the more mobile
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nature of Americans and the anonymity of city life in comparison to a
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village where most live sedentary lives and run into the same people on a
60
daily basis. The scale of the village resettlement offers one explanation for
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why almost all of the Hmong families in Gammertingen kept active ties with
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their original sponsors, most becoming lifelong friends.
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While the mayor thought he was setting the Hmong up for successful
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integration, the Hmong were simultaneously orchestrating their own forms
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of social capital and utilizing their traditional forms of kinship and
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reciprocity to negotiate a space where they could belong, both in terms of
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Hmong tradition and Gammertingen values. Thus, state integration
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programs looking for desired outcomes may do well to take into account
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the refugees’ feelings of fitting in, and what integration might look like for
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the newcomer. In this way, integration becomes a combination of structure
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(state programming) and agency (refugee ingenuity) that, for the Hmong,
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ultimately facilitated a space where they could fit in.
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The Dallas-Fort Worth Hmong drew on a similar framework in developing a
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sense of belonging. While some Texans have claimed that Hmong
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economic success is a result of a state forcing them to “sink or swim”, it
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was equally a matter of refugees taking advantage of their environment,
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both economically and in terms of housing neighborhoods, job stability, and
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benefits offered.
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A refugee’s agency in the process of reception is often overlooked and lost
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in top-down approaches aimed at getting them to meet desired outcomes.
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For this season, ethnographic analysis of the localized forces shaping
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integration policy and refugee responses provides a more thorough
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understanding of why the managed style of integration shown in
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Gammertingen ultimately realized the same results in terms of perceptions
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of belonging and community acceptance as the laissez-faire approach in
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Dallas-Fort Worth.
Aus: Faith G. Nibbs: "Belonging: The Resettlement Experiences of Hmong Refugees in Germany and Texas". https://migrationpolicy.org/article/belonging-resettlement-experiences-hmong-refugees-texas-and-germany (abridged), September 30, 2014, accessed May 22, 2021
Instructions:
  • Tick the correct statement or statements as indicated.
  • Provide a quotation from the text to support each correct statement:
    the line number(s) plus the first three and the last three words of the quotation.
  • If the quotation is six words or shorter, write it down in full.
0
Example: Tick the correct answer.
For the integration of refugees various options are feasible. true false
lines: 1-2 The process of ... many possible approaches.
1
Tick the correct answer.
The author of the study is interested in finding out which method of integration works best. true false
line(s):...
(1P)
2
Tick the correct statement.
In Texas, sponsors were mostly
driven by their own work ethic.
worried about the economic crisis.
intent on reuniting Hmong families.
busy securing government assistance.
line(s):...
(1P)
3
Complete the sentence in your words.
According to the text, a person who accepts financial aid in Texas is considerd.
(1P)
4
Tick the correct statement.
When the Hmong were resettled in Gammertingen, the town
appealed to local tradesmen to hire refugees.
received support from higher-level authorities.
looked for sponsors to provide financial backing.
made efforts to have their qualifications recognized.
line(s):
(1P)
5
Complete the table. You may quote from the text or use your own words.
How did the relationship between the sponsors and the refugees develop over time?
Dallas-Fort Worth Gammertingen
(2P)
6
Tick the correct statement.
The Hmong "negotiate[d] a space where they could belong" (l. 66) by
using their social skills.
giving up their traditions.
asking the mayor for help.
having successful careers.
line(s):
(1P)
7
Complete the sentence in your own words.
Ultimately, the different approaches to integration in the US and Germany led to
(1P)
8
Explain in your own words.
"A refugee's agency in the process of reception is often overlooked" (l. 79)
(1P)
9
Complete the sentence. Look at the text as a whole. You may quote from the text or use your own words.
The "managed style" (l. 83) means ...
(1P)
(10 BE)