I got my Rotary region's endorsement so my application will move on to the state, then national, then international committee. I hope I can get it.
I've got about 65 single-spaced pages written on my policy analysis for the NZ refugee resettlement policy. We leave for Australia next week and it is followed by the NZ National Resettlement Forum where I have a keynote, so I want to get the analysis draft completed this week.
I've got about 20 taped interviews to transcribe and one more interview to do, plus a bunch of more resources to look at after today's interview. Typical of research -- it is always ongoing. But at some point it has to stop to meet deadlines. I do feel I'm getting near saturation, as I am hearing the same things over and over now, none especially surprising to me. I can only hope that government will listen to grass roots, but I know that is so seldom a reality. It pretty much never happens in the US. Though in NZ you will actually see policymakers and NGO staff sitting t the same table, there is still a gulf between the two.
I admit, other things have my mind greatly preoccupied just now, and I am not feeling especially optimistic. My disgust at my country's lack of social services and care for its people are really troubling me just now. This is causing me to reflect more, though, on my own public voice. For so long, I have spoken out against ways in which poverty affects minorities, immigrants, refugees, people of color in the US. Now I need to speak out against the affects of poverty on the young former middle class. Now, it is hitting home. How, if at all, does that change my public voice? How can I make my students aware of longstanding discrimination while also recognizing more recent events that push them and their families into poverty while not losing sight of those who have been there for so long?
More questions than answers right now, as this is new for me, and it is painful and leaves me wondering what I can/should do. I am at once filled with anger and frustration and despair. I watch my beloved children fall into social categories below what they were raised in, and I don't know how to help them.
Does that sound elitist? I don't mean it to. I just want to see them flourish and be able to live happy, independent lives and have some hope to achieve their dreams. I guess everybody does. I think I have often been able to do that, if through nothing other than brute strength and determination. But I am wondering if that kind of strength is even enough for my children, and the children of this generation. I see them care and struggle and falter and grow despondent. It breaks my heart, because I don't know how to help.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
17 June - Great interviews!
Before I discuss the interview, I should backtrack to say more about the weekend events (besides the Rotary interview). On Thursday, Dick and I went to the NZSO (New Zealand Symphony Orchestra) to hear Beethoven's 1, 2, and 3rd symphonies. I enjoyed them so much that I went online and bought tickets for the 6th and 7th on Saturday. They were wonderful. On Friday, we had our friends Suzanne and Mark over for dinner. Other than that, we tried to take it easy, as Dick has come down with a cold and I am trying to avoid it.
On Monday I traveled to the Lower Hutt to interview Abdi Bihi, the Refugee Education Coordinator for this region. That afternoon I interviewed Steve, senior MBIE manager for migration. Today (Tuesday) I tweaked my report based on their information, and tonight I got to Skype with a dynamic young Kurdish woman I met in Christchurch. Zhiyan arrived in New Zealand when she was eleven, and she is quite a powerhouse not only in her own success (finishing an MA in psychology), but also for refugee youth. She reminds me so much of my dear friend Kaleh, whom I met in Clarkston when she was yet a senior in high school 12 years ago. Both young women are talented, accomplished, and were able to overcome challenges of resettlement to create promising new lives in resettlement. Both are Muslim women, so they have had the additional burden of overcoming stereotypes about their religion. I heard my own philosophy in Zhiyan's words, that policymakers need to listen to the people they are working for, and not just impose programmes on them. They need to hear what the people know would be useful programmes for themselves. Basically, this is my advice in the policy analysis I am writing.
I am awaiting news from Rotary. Still hopeful!
On Monday I traveled to the Lower Hutt to interview Abdi Bihi, the Refugee Education Coordinator for this region. That afternoon I interviewed Steve, senior MBIE manager for migration. Today (Tuesday) I tweaked my report based on their information, and tonight I got to Skype with a dynamic young Kurdish woman I met in Christchurch. Zhiyan arrived in New Zealand when she was eleven, and she is quite a powerhouse not only in her own success (finishing an MA in psychology), but also for refugee youth. She reminds me so much of my dear friend Kaleh, whom I met in Clarkston when she was yet a senior in high school 12 years ago. Both young women are talented, accomplished, and were able to overcome challenges of resettlement to create promising new lives in resettlement. Both are Muslim women, so they have had the additional burden of overcoming stereotypes about their religion. I heard my own philosophy in Zhiyan's words, that policymakers need to listen to the people they are working for, and not just impose programmes on them. They need to hear what the people know would be useful programmes for themselves. Basically, this is my advice in the policy analysis I am writing.
I am awaiting news from Rotary. Still hopeful!
Sunday, June 15, 2014
15 June
I have been hard at work on my policy analysis and have about 60 pages written. Of course, I will be open to making changes, as I still have several interviews to do. But I am feeling good about being near completion, as I have little time to go until I need to submit my final draft.
Today at 3:30am I had an interview for a Rotary International Peace Fellowship. I think I was coherent! :) I have a concern that they think I don't really need this award. But I really do, in order to teach courses in peace education and conflict resolution. We shall see.
I am still looking for a well-known person to write the foreword for our book about the women and girls in Lira, Uganda. That is all that is left before it goes into production. Amazing this should be so hard.
I had not painted for several weeks, but today I finished my fourth, and I think it is my favorite. I am so enjoying painting again!
Today at 3:30am I had an interview for a Rotary International Peace Fellowship. I think I was coherent! :) I have a concern that they think I don't really need this award. But I really do, in order to teach courses in peace education and conflict resolution. We shall see.
I am still looking for a well-known person to write the foreword for our book about the women and girls in Lira, Uganda. That is all that is left before it goes into production. Amazing this should be so hard.
I had not painted for several weeks, but today I finished my fourth, and I think it is my favorite. I am so enjoying painting again!
Thursday, June 5, 2014
The Joy of Research
As I sit here at my window
desk, basking in the sunshine of a cold Wellington morning during tea break, I
am taking a moment to reflect on how much pleasure I am getting from my work in
this New Zealand sabbatical. I have so far had four months simply to find and
read research, conduct research, analyse policies, compare policies,
brainstorm, search for information, and write. Some weeks I was struggling to
find the specific details of US refugee resettlement policies. Other times I
was uncovering the history of migration and the history of prejudicial acts and
laws in NZ and the US. I have gotten to read about the connections between
health, employment, and education. I have gotten to examine policies and
procedures for teaching English in the US and NZ. Last week I attended an
all-day workshop on critical discourse analysis. Currently I am reading
expert advice on attending to refugees' immediate needs post conflict and
comparing that to NZ's immediate goals for resettlement. I get to talk to
policymakers and to those for whom the policies are written to determine if
they make sense. I get to learn, and learn, and learn some more. In my
learning, I constantly need to revise my own perceptions as new evidence
contradicts what I formerly believed. Maybe "fun" isn't quite the
word for it, but great satisfaction would be, along with gratitude for this
opportunity.
I contrast it with the daily discourse of my US connections to conversation and opinion, in which belief and behaviour are more frequently based on no research or both right and left biased media stories. And I think, no wonder there is such little progress in the world towards positive development and peace. The amount of ignorance prancing around as truth is stunning. The other day, Dick placed a post on his FaceBook page about cognitive dissonance, the struggle we face when our belief is brought into question by new evidence. We can go on to explore the contrasting beliefs, and perhaps change our own belief. Or we can insist that our opinion is correct, even when faced with evidence to the contrary. Therein lies the joy of research, and it needn't be the kind of in-depth academic research I do; simple fact-checking would be nice. But surprisingly huge proportions of people believe what they read or hear or get in a chain email, without ever taking the time to check it out. The baseless stories get perpetuated, sent on to countless email addresses, and spewed on hundreds of FB pages to feed the endless appetites craving whatever will support their own biases. Without minds open to new knowledge and possibilities, people grow more defensive and angry. You see it from individual disagreements through local-international politics and policies and so much more. What can we do to overcome it?
This evening I attended a discussion on working with refugee and migrant populations. Not surprisingly, attendance was sparse, but I got to meet a researcher and the new general manager for Changemakers, a refugee advocacy in Wellington. To my disappointment, there was not a single staff member from Immigration New Zealand in attendance. There were, however, three employees from other ministries who stated that they did not have direct work with refugee and migrant populations but they wanted to learn more about them. In our discussions, I told them that this is exactly what is needed. Too many policymakers - typically middle to upper middle class White people with little to no direct daily experience working with refugees and migrants - create policies for them without giving sufficient respect to the experts in the field and to the refugees and migrants themselves. It is actually better here than in the US. At least I attend some meetings in which government workers and refugee advocates are in the same room together.
Based on overwhelming research evidence, I will be suggesting that the NZ government reprioritise its goals for resettlement. Currently it has moved in the direction of the longstanding and unfortunate US policy - to get a job, any job, as soon as possible. For so many reasons, this policy is wrong-minded and borders on breaking its agreement to follow the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol. Resettling refugees is a choice nations make, and it is based on humanitarian, not economical agreements. If people had a whisper of knowledge of the multiple horrific traumas refugees experience, sometimes for years - violent physical beatings and attacks, rapes, torture, murder of loved ones, lack of basic survival needs, and more and more - how could they possibly say to them, You are expected to get a job in this country where you don't know the language or the culture in three months - six months at the outset? Never mind your grief, illnesses, and trauma - employment is your priority, no matter if you were a doctor or lawyer or teacher and now have to clean fish for a low wage. Even though research indicates prejudice on the part of employers to hire you, we will blame you for not having a job. Even though there are waiting queues for English language classes or you cannot afford to take the classes, we will blame you for not learning English. Even though you are a gentle, law-abiding Muslim, we will blame you for Al-Qaeda. Even though your girls are stolen, we will blame you for believing in Islam. We will hate you for taking our jobs, even though the only jobs you can get are ones no one in this country wants. These biased mass media/social media suggestions contribute to the ignorance and bias towards refugees and migrants, and somehow evidence to the contrary must find its way to the general public.
In my 12 years working with refugees in the US, this has been my experience through news, some websites, and social media, in spite of the many wonderful, generous Americans who work overtime to support refugees in the US. Not all Americans have such negative, uninformed opinions of refugees and those of particular ethnicities or religions. However, public opinion is shaded by fear of the Other, particularly in conservative agendas. In New Zealand, ignorance around refugee populations has resulted more in annoyance that new cultures are gaining in numbers than in loathing and hate. New Zealand has the advantage of being a bicultural/bilingual country, in that it has chosen to give Maori language and culture equal standing with that of European immigration, at least in terms of recognising that Maori people have equal rights. Formal speeches (including my own) begin with a Maori mihi. I believe that this has tempered Pakeha (European White) opinion towards multiculturalism. Just imagine that kind of recognition for American Indian language and culture!
I do wonder if the difference in attitudes and support between the two countries results from the longstanding concepts of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism in the US. These dogmas come with the corollaries that the US is the gatekeeper of international morality, whereas one would never confront this concept in New Zealand. The largest budget item of the US government is for weaponry and the military; in New Zealand, it is for social services, health, and education.
I don't have answers, only observations of these problems, and lots of sadness. I see my own tendency to be angry at my whole country when there are millions of wonderful, kind-hearted, and welcoming Americans. But Republicans and Democrats alike must stop funding policies solely for the reason that they may benefit the US economically and politically - policies that, for instance, sold military helicopters to Egypt after its despotic government just sentenced and killed 800 civilians. We need to be led by an ethical and humanitarian, and not a capitalist centre that can label needless civilian death as "collateral damage."
I feel so helpless to make a difference. I often think that nothing short of a revolution will bring needed change. And then I look at attempted revolutions like the Wall Street movement and the fast food workers walk-outs, and I wonder if revolution is possible. I grew up in the 60s when revolution was not only possible, but it brought about major social and political change. Have we allowed corporate and political institutions to become so strong that citizens cannot only be manipulated, but also always oppressed? What a frightening thought.
I contrast it with the daily discourse of my US connections to conversation and opinion, in which belief and behaviour are more frequently based on no research or both right and left biased media stories. And I think, no wonder there is such little progress in the world towards positive development and peace. The amount of ignorance prancing around as truth is stunning. The other day, Dick placed a post on his FaceBook page about cognitive dissonance, the struggle we face when our belief is brought into question by new evidence. We can go on to explore the contrasting beliefs, and perhaps change our own belief. Or we can insist that our opinion is correct, even when faced with evidence to the contrary. Therein lies the joy of research, and it needn't be the kind of in-depth academic research I do; simple fact-checking would be nice. But surprisingly huge proportions of people believe what they read or hear or get in a chain email, without ever taking the time to check it out. The baseless stories get perpetuated, sent on to countless email addresses, and spewed on hundreds of FB pages to feed the endless appetites craving whatever will support their own biases. Without minds open to new knowledge and possibilities, people grow more defensive and angry. You see it from individual disagreements through local-international politics and policies and so much more. What can we do to overcome it?
This evening I attended a discussion on working with refugee and migrant populations. Not surprisingly, attendance was sparse, but I got to meet a researcher and the new general manager for Changemakers, a refugee advocacy in Wellington. To my disappointment, there was not a single staff member from Immigration New Zealand in attendance. There were, however, three employees from other ministries who stated that they did not have direct work with refugee and migrant populations but they wanted to learn more about them. In our discussions, I told them that this is exactly what is needed. Too many policymakers - typically middle to upper middle class White people with little to no direct daily experience working with refugees and migrants - create policies for them without giving sufficient respect to the experts in the field and to the refugees and migrants themselves. It is actually better here than in the US. At least I attend some meetings in which government workers and refugee advocates are in the same room together.
Based on overwhelming research evidence, I will be suggesting that the NZ government reprioritise its goals for resettlement. Currently it has moved in the direction of the longstanding and unfortunate US policy - to get a job, any job, as soon as possible. For so many reasons, this policy is wrong-minded and borders on breaking its agreement to follow the 1951 Convention relating to the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol. Resettling refugees is a choice nations make, and it is based on humanitarian, not economical agreements. If people had a whisper of knowledge of the multiple horrific traumas refugees experience, sometimes for years - violent physical beatings and attacks, rapes, torture, murder of loved ones, lack of basic survival needs, and more and more - how could they possibly say to them, You are expected to get a job in this country where you don't know the language or the culture in three months - six months at the outset? Never mind your grief, illnesses, and trauma - employment is your priority, no matter if you were a doctor or lawyer or teacher and now have to clean fish for a low wage. Even though research indicates prejudice on the part of employers to hire you, we will blame you for not having a job. Even though there are waiting queues for English language classes or you cannot afford to take the classes, we will blame you for not learning English. Even though you are a gentle, law-abiding Muslim, we will blame you for Al-Qaeda. Even though your girls are stolen, we will blame you for believing in Islam. We will hate you for taking our jobs, even though the only jobs you can get are ones no one in this country wants. These biased mass media/social media suggestions contribute to the ignorance and bias towards refugees and migrants, and somehow evidence to the contrary must find its way to the general public.
In my 12 years working with refugees in the US, this has been my experience through news, some websites, and social media, in spite of the many wonderful, generous Americans who work overtime to support refugees in the US. Not all Americans have such negative, uninformed opinions of refugees and those of particular ethnicities or religions. However, public opinion is shaded by fear of the Other, particularly in conservative agendas. In New Zealand, ignorance around refugee populations has resulted more in annoyance that new cultures are gaining in numbers than in loathing and hate. New Zealand has the advantage of being a bicultural/bilingual country, in that it has chosen to give Maori language and culture equal standing with that of European immigration, at least in terms of recognising that Maori people have equal rights. Formal speeches (including my own) begin with a Maori mihi. I believe that this has tempered Pakeha (European White) opinion towards multiculturalism. Just imagine that kind of recognition for American Indian language and culture!
I do wonder if the difference in attitudes and support between the two countries results from the longstanding concepts of manifest destiny and American exceptionalism in the US. These dogmas come with the corollaries that the US is the gatekeeper of international morality, whereas one would never confront this concept in New Zealand. The largest budget item of the US government is for weaponry and the military; in New Zealand, it is for social services, health, and education.
I don't have answers, only observations of these problems, and lots of sadness. I see my own tendency to be angry at my whole country when there are millions of wonderful, kind-hearted, and welcoming Americans. But Republicans and Democrats alike must stop funding policies solely for the reason that they may benefit the US economically and politically - policies that, for instance, sold military helicopters to Egypt after its despotic government just sentenced and killed 800 civilians. We need to be led by an ethical and humanitarian, and not a capitalist centre that can label needless civilian death as "collateral damage."
I feel so helpless to make a difference. I often think that nothing short of a revolution will bring needed change. And then I look at attempted revolutions like the Wall Street movement and the fast food workers walk-outs, and I wonder if revolution is possible. I grew up in the 60s when revolution was not only possible, but it brought about major social and political change. Have we allowed corporate and political institutions to become so strong that citizens cannot only be manipulated, but also always oppressed? What a frightening thought.
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