What Refugees Experience in The U.S. School System
I interviewed one of my English as a New Language students, F.
F is a very advanced ENL student. She is very well-spoken and has interesting thoughts on her culture and living in America.
One preconceived notion I had about F before this interview was that I figured she was not born in America and did not consider herself American. I foolishly thought this way because she is one of my ENL students who also identifies as Somali. I would be lying if I said that her beautiful cultural wardrobe didn’t influence this thought as well.
F’s family is from Somalia. They were in an immigration camp in that country while her mother was pregnant with her. Once they were approved to come to America, they lived in Texas and California. This is where F was born and spent the first four years of her life. She said the community where she lived in California was mainly immigrants. She has never been to Somalia. She doesn’t really want to go because of their current state. She said her family still has a few relatives left in the camps in Somalia to get to America.
She is not sure why her family moved to Syracuse. She said she thinks they just thought it would be easier. Her family spoke Somali to her but she was educated in America in English, so she has both languages under her belt. She said her childhood to her was “normal.” Nothing out of the ordinary, just an immigrant family making it in America. Her religion is Muslim. She wears a hijab along with beautiful vibrant dresses in school every day. Each day she prays five times. She really enjoys her religion and dedicating time to it. She said her family doesn’t go to the Mosque often and they didn’t go in Somalia either. It was too dangerous to go to places to pray because she said: “ISIS might shoot you.” Her parents learned to pray at home out of safety.
She has two sisters. She also still has her mother and her father. Her mother works in Staples and her father is a janitor and cook at Upstate Medical University. In her culture, there are arranged marriages. If you are Muslim, you are to marry a Muslim. Her sisters both had arranged marriages with Muslim men. One of her sisters did it out of respect and the other sister “just agreed.” If a man wants to marry you in their culture, he needs to pay your family thousands of dollars. If he does not have the money, then he simply cannot marry you. She said despite this being the tradition within her culture, she wants to pick the man she will marry when she grows up. When I asked her if she wants an arranged marriage she responded with: “Oh hell no!” F is very strong, confident, and unapologetically herself. I think the idea fits her that she wants to choose her husband for herself. I remember her telling me before this interview about an ex-boyfriend. So, I asked her if she was allowed to have boyfriends. She laughed and she said no. She said, “We can have boyfriends, we just can’t tell our parents.” Once she turns around 18, it will be acceptable for her to date.
Her friends in Syracuse were born in America. She doesn’t feel weird at all having friends that were born and raised in the American culture. She considers herself American because she was born in America. She also identifies as Somali, because this is how she was raised by her Somali parents. Her family practices every aspect of their Somali culture at home. Her parents speak Somali at home, which is how she acquired the language. Her parents learned English after moving to America by taking classes. She describes her family as a normal American family, that speaks another language. Her goal in life is to be a Somali business owner that helps other refugees and immigrants. For fun, she does “normal kid things” including watching YouTube, hanging out, listening to Somali music and church music, and praying.
She said school at the moment is both good and bad. Right now in their school culture, the students are bullying Africans. They have stereotypes that Africans are dirty and don’t have good hygiene. African students are picked on for this reason. The students who act this way towards the African students are black American students. I was surprised to hear this. I thought since both Africans and black Americans identify as black with their skin, I figured they may form a community and have mutual respect. She told me this isn’t the case. She said the African students from all different countries within Africa have this respect for each other. She said she doesn’t prefer or feel more comfortable with any particular group of students. She stated, “If you have respect for my culture, then I’ll feel close with you. If you talk about my culture, then I’m not going to feel close with you.” I asked if people make fun of her culture, she said yes. Students make fun of her hijab and when she informs teachers of this they tell her to ignore it. “But you can’t ignore everything,” she said. I agree with that statement. This statement says a lot about F because she is very confrontational with other students. She doesn’t mind raising her voice or getting aggressive towards someone who gives her the wrong vibe. Every so often she gets in trouble in school for the way she handles these situations.
When I asked her about the laws in America, she stated that she doesn’t think Donald Trump meant anything wrong with his immigration policies. She stated that after listening to him talk, he sounds like he just wants to keep America safe and keep the bad people away. I explained to her my opinion that his policies aren’t doing a lot of people much good, especially refugees trying to come to America. She also said “I don’t agree with the part where he said ‘Strong Borders!’ These borders are already strong enough. My family tried to go to Canada and they searched our car and stuff and were so rude. How much stronger could he want the borders to be?”
When I asked her about her opinion on police in America, she said, “There’s some bad ones.” She thinks what would help the issues is that “We need some non-American cops for once.” I thought this was actually a profound statement. It’s not very often that you come across a police officer who isn’t the usual American. I asked her if she feels safe in America. She said, “Not today.” One of the school’s ENL students was shot with a BB gun and beat up by other students on her walk home from school the day before. The school community was very upset about this. I asked her if that was the reason she didn’t feel safe. She said yes. She said other than today she feels safe outside sometimes, but not all of the time. “Syracuse is bad,” she said. I asked if she ever felt judged because of her skin. She said, “Yes, mainly because of my religion.” She told me a story of earlier that week when she got off of her school bus, a bunch of 2nd grade white kids were calling her very mean stereotypical slurs for Africans. “How do little kids even know about that stereotype?” she said. “They grew up in places like this that teaches kids that Africans are dirty. Why does it always have to be about Africans? Africans, Africans. What is wrong with Africans?” I told her that I love Africans, their culture is the most interesting and beautiful to me of them all. “We’re different. I like being different. When boys call me African to be mean I say ‘I am African. What’s wrong with being African?” In school, she feels safe because there are teachers around. She wishes that there was an African coach or teacher that she could talk to. I told her that there should be a nationality worker for her to talk to.
I asked if her family felt safe here. She said no. The other day at her mother’s job, a black American woman threw a big heavy box at her mom out of racism because she is African, stays covered up, and wears a hijab. The woman got yelled at by their boss. “You know she’s forgiven,” F said. I voiced my frustrated confusion about how black Americans don’t feel connected to African immigrants. She agreed. “Do you think your family is happier here than they would be in Somalia?” I asked. “Yes, way more happier here. I just don’t like how everyone judges everyone on their outside. You can’t do that. Everyone judged me when I first came because I was African. Now that everyone knows me, they all want to be my friend because they see that I’m not what they thought I was going to be.” She finished the interview by saying “I am proud of what I am because that’s what God made me.”
This experience helped to reiterate to me that any sort of judgment of anyone before getting to know them is not appropriate. These students need advocates and people to listen. I have faith that my generation of teachers will give them the respect and education that is just.
