School-Based Family Counseling with Refugees and Immigrants

Brian A. Gerrard, Erwin D. Selimos, Stephaney S. Morrison, Brian A. Gerrard, Erwin D. Selimos, Stephaney S. Morrison

• Editore: Routledge
• Anno: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781000606966
• Edizione: 1
• Argomento: Psicología
• Categoria: Psicoterapia

School-Based Family Counseling with Refugees and Immigrants focuses on the practical application of School-Based Family Counseling (SBFC) with refugee and immigrant populations.

Emphasizing collaboration, mutual assistance, dialogue, and joint problem-solving, SBFC takes a systems approach that stresses the integration of school, family, and community interventions; the three most important systems that affect the lives of children. Through case studies, the book explains how to design and implement integrated SBFC interventions for refugee and immigrant populations in an explicit manner.

The book's practical, how-to approach is suitable for novice and experienced practitioners alike.

Part 1School-Based Family Counseling Overview

1The School-Based Family Counseling Approach to Empowering Refugees and Immigrants

Brian A. Gerrard, Erwin D. Selimos, Stephaney S. Morrison

DOI: 10.4324/9781003097891-2

There are increasing numbers of refugee and immigrant students present in schools worldwide. Refugee and immigrant families often experience multiple challenges in their host countries. The children and youth in those families are affected by these family, community, and school stressors in ways that can impede their learning and well-being. School-based family counseling (SBFC) is an integrative school and family approach to mental health culturally congruent with many refugees and immigrants and facilitates empowering students and families. The SBFC meta-model is presented as an organizational framework for this book.

Background

Global Increase in Refugees and Migrants

Due to wars, civil unrest, racism, and persecution, there have been an unprecedented number of persons—more than 79.5 million—displaced from home worldwide since 2018. Of this number, there are nearly 30 million refugees, and more than 15 million are under the age of 18. Over 40% of the world’s displaced persons are children. Eighty percent of displaced persons live in circumstances of malnutrition and food insecurity. The top source countries for displacement are Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. Out of 169 countries that have provided asylum for refugees under the UNHCR mandate, 27 countries have received more than 100,000 refugees (see Table 1.1) (UNHCR, 2020).

During 2019 there were 272 million international migrants out of a global population of 7.7 billion, amounting to 1 in every 30 persons or 3.5% of the world’s population (IOM UN Migration, 2020). Figure 1.1 shows the country of origin and country of destination for migrants in 2019.

The implications are that most countries globally are experiencing increases in refugees seeking asylum and increases in immigration. This means an increased presence of refugees and immigrants in schools. While completing this book the war in the Ukraine took place and at this writing there were 4 million refugees, half of them children seeking shelter in other countries and over 6 million Ukrainians displaced from their homes but seeking shelter within the Ukraine.

Table 1.1 UNHCR 2019 Statistics for Country of Asylum Receiving More Than 100,000 Refugees

Country of Asylum	No. of Refugees Under UNHCR’s Mandate
Austria	135,951
Bangladesh	854,779
Canada	101,757
China	303,379
Ecuador	104,560
Ethiopia	733,123
Democratic Republic of the Congo	523,733
France	407,915
Germany	1,146,682
Great Britain	133,083
India	195,103
Iran	979,435
Iraq	273,986
Italy	207,602
Kenya	438,899
Lebanon	916,141
Malaysia	129,107
Niger	179,997
Pakistan	1,419,596
South Sudan	289,309
Sudan	1,055,489
Sweden	253,787
Switzerland	110,162
Turkey	3,579,531
United Republic of Tanzania	242,171
United States	341,715
Yemen	268,503

Challenges Experienced by Refugees and Immigrants

Migration marks a critical disjuncture in the lives of immigrants and refugees. Moving from one place to another—sometimes to areas socially and culturally much different—produces changes in one’s social relationships and positions and, therefore, oneself. Through the settlement process, immigrants and refugees seek to draw coherence between their past and present lives and actively search for those things that produce a viable life in their new society of residence: safety and stability, a new home, a good job or livelihood, access to education and opportunities for self and family, and close and caring relationships with friends and loved ones. Immigrants seek to build attachments to various social institutions that make up community life, search for recognition, acceptance, respect, and avoid exclusion, misrecognition, and rejection.

Figure 1.1 Top 20 destinations (left) and origins (right) of international migrants in 2019 (millions) Source: UN DESA, 2019a (accessed September 18, 2019)

Research demonstrates that immigrant and refugee families face significant challenges and barriers to their settlement in new host countries. They must negotiate new cultural norms and expectations in which the degree of cultural similarity or difference between their country of origin and the receiving country may create stress that impacts their well-being (Drachman, 1992). Immigrant and refugee newcomers face barriers in finding adequate housing and accessing vital social, educational, and healthcare-related services. Many confront problems of underemployment, unemployment, poverty, and economic insecurity. Difficulty accessing social services and societal resources is often compounded by the challenges of navigating the maze of state bureaucracies—a process made more difficult when immigrants and refugees lack language proficiency or are missing necessary documentation. The challenge of building a new life is compounded by concern and worry over family members living in conflict areas and experiences of trauma. Discrimination and negative community attitudes toward newcomers further limit immigrants’ access to social participation and cause injuries to their sense of worth, dignity, and belonging (Selimos, 2017).

Immigrant settlement is also an intergenerational activity. While each family member (parent, children, grandparent) struggles differently with the challenges of settlement, how immigrant and refugee families negotiate what it means to live in a new society and who they can become is worked out to and with others, especially their co-resident family members (Taylor & Krahn, 2013). Research focusing on intergenerational relationships within immigrant families demonstrates that family migration and settlement ...