Refugee_Presentation

Introduction: Choice of subject As a refugee myself, the problems and issues that refugees bring to the counselling room have been close to my heart. After studying diversity and cultural sensitivities, it seemed necessary to conclude the subject with some information about refugees. I recognised the need to explain difference between immigrant and refugee, which seemed to have not been discussed in detail. I have my own experience as a refugee, and having worked with their issues over 10 years in Sweden gave me the confidence that I needed to be able to work on my presentation. In this essay my focus will be on the journey that I had to take to make my presentation. One of the key elements is reflecting on my journey in preparing this work and how it went. I will focuse on my feelings at different stages. To understand the subject I will write a short summary of it and explore people’s reaction after hearing the presentation and its effect on me. It is of great importance to reflect on how the presentation was done and how I wish; I had done it. Research and preparation I began my research by Googling the word” refugee”. The result was overwhelming. I felt I needed to find a more structured book to begin with. I had some Swedish and German reports and began to go through them. Studing those reports made me to realise the imortance of defining who is refugee and how it is different with immigrant. I began to search for research that has been done around the subject. Amazingly, I found out that countries like Sweden and Germany have completed more researchers in the subject than UK. Unfortunately, it proved to be a difficult task to find many works which have been done on the area here. However, it seemed that the majority of refugees’ issues are similar despite their origin and the host country. Reading some reports such as the (Swedish Government Official Reportentitled The key to Europe- a comparative analysis of entry and asylum policies in Western countries, (Stockholm: Ministry of Culture 1994) and books such as J Shackman & J Reynolds (Working with refugees and torture survivors) helped me to have a clearer vision of what I wanedt to include in my presentation. Finding a definition for refugee had to be my first main concern. It was important that the definition was correct for me and matched my vision in the way the rest of my presentation would look like. Finding so many different definitions only resulted in more confusion! In the end, I managed to find some that felt right and understandable from my point of view. I felt I needed to doublecheck the definition that I chose. Therefore, I decided to call some agencies working with refugees. After many telephone conversations with different people, they promised me to send some material that I could find very useful to read. Some books like Hélène (Lambert (1995) Seeking asylum comparative law and practice in selected European countries, Göran Melander. (1988) "The concept of the term refugee”, Bramwell “Refugees in the Age of Total War” etc, were recommended. The material and books seemed overwhelming, and soon I realised that the subject is more complex and divided in different specialities. Child refugees appeared to be an area with more interest to many experts in some countries for example for Germans, Swedes and Belgians. Different community support groups in England had done their own research such as Somalian and Bosnian Society support groups. Still I felt that more was needed to be done. Some expart argued every refugee has their unique story, which makes it difficult to find same ground rules, others were worried that with labelling refugees’ issues the risk is that they become pathologies. After a while, I realised that I had to make a decision about what it was that I wanted students to understand about refugees. I revised my notes, and tried to prepare a hand out. First one was almost 15 pages long. I needed to make it shorter and more understandable. Because of time limitations and difficulties of arranging any appointment with some counselor who worked with refugees, I was able to interview two different counsellors one from the Refugee centre in Islington and one from “Tortured refugees’ society”. Both of them had worked for many years with refugees’ issues and felt strongly about the subject. I had not prepared any questionnairees as such but I knew what I wanted to ask. For example, how do refugees see mental health' Do you think counselling refugees would be different compared with others' Most importantly how is the assessment differen' Is it important to clarify an immigrant’s and refugee’s status when asking questions during thecounselling session' Is it differen working with people when you do not know if they have a refugee background' They both confirmed what I already knew as my experience to working with refugees had taught me. Outcome The lack of time was worrying me so much that I decided to concentrate more in the overview which I would be able to present in a limited time which was allocated to the presentation. Even though my heart was acking of desire to present a deeper knowledge, I wanted the students to almostbe able to touch the issues and not just read about it. The result was a six page hand out with two pages reference books and names of some charities. Feelings. The feeling played a huge role in my research because of my own memories, flashbacks and reading other people’s detailed life stories and about the suffering refugees experienced in their lives before and after coming to their host countries. I felt sad and almost depressed. I felt angry towards the abuser and overwhelming sadness and admiration for the survivors. I was able to imagine their feelings, I have been there myself. I visualised their life, their suffering, feeling of helplessness, shame, guilt were so present and so raw that I could taste those feelings in my mouth. It shocked me when I realised how children under the age of three can experience the journey and all the emotion that adults feel in much greater intensityand be trumatised by it. I have never cried so hard in my life as I did then for my son. I remembered the stories that we told everybody of how brave he was and how he acted as an adult at such a young age during our journeyand how proud we felt without realisinghow it affected him. We did not realise he was another forgotten casualty. I understand now why he did not like us to move from one area to another, how he strived to belong somwhere, I felt devastation but at the same timeI felt that I am one of the lucky ones. I chose life both for myself as well as my family. Now when I am in counselling and have a lot of support around me I understand the affects these experiences had on our lives but we survived and despite some emotionall y hard times we made it and we are now enjoying our good fortune. I feel hopeful for others, as I know many refugees who have done so. The hope is there and many refugees who have survived the ordeal with their strain and determination will succeed. This hope makes me feel positive and helped meto continue with this presentation. Strategy/ approach I changed my idea many times in how to present the subject, which could givethe students a taste of how a refugee feels. My idea was to open the presentation with some question, which makes them feel and prepare them to follow me in the journey of the experiences of refugees for the rest of the time, which will include some case studies. The question will be asking students to imagine that they have to leave their home and they are allowed to carry only 10 things with them what it would be and afterward ask them to discuss how they feel if they are not allowed to take anything with them. For the later I have prepared a summary to present an outline of what will happen to refugees before and after they arrive at the host country. In the end I will present the two different case studies which I had prepared. One about a father and husband who came to U.K as a refugee and could not assimilate in the new country. He manifested his Trauma symptoms through domestic violence. The other one would be the case study of young Somalian who had experienced his family being butchered and in the host country was offered to be an apprentice in a butcher shop. I read my presentation loudly so many times that I felt I could close my eyes and just talk. Feelings I was worried about how I was going to manage to talk for 45 minutes. Being in the centre of attention from other people is hard for me now more than ever. I have to speak in a language that I do not feel confident about it. The subject that I had chosen was too close to my heart and I felt force presenting it in a best way that it was possible. I was aware of the feeling of anxiety which came with presenting the subject in front of a group. Some years ago part of my job was to present the ideas and business plans and I used doing it in very confident way. I felt that I should be able doing the same with my presentation despite my language barries. I was worried that may loose my self in the subject that I will forget the time limit. it even though I do not feel so confident in my language skill to be able to summarise these huge subject in just 45 minutes and make it so interesting that other student go away with hunger to know more about the subject. In the end I felt confident enough that I will bealble preseningt a good work because of all the research and planning that I have done Subjects summery Refugee is an alien, unwilling to return to his or her country of origin because of persecution or a well founded fear of persecution on an account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion. Before living the countries the refugee have experienced trauma. Women may have been raped, physically and mentally abused. Many men have been tortured and jailed. The children have lost parents; have seen other people being slaughtered in front of their eyes. The assumption is when they reach the host country; they are able to rest and feel safe. The reality is that they are traumatised again in the process ofboth seeking asylum and the new experience in the host country such as racist, culture shock, language and feeling unworthy. In many cultures the understanding of mental health is that you are a person who is sane or crazy. The other problems should be dealt within families. It may even be presented by physical symptoms. Many of refugees do not acknowledge any problem because of their basic needs which has to be met. Later it may impact their life and they come in contact with counsellor for the first time in other presenting forms. This may be in children behavioural problems, depression for women, martial problem, bereavement, substance use and etc. It is important to be aware of it when we are taking history and doing assessment. We have to remember that many refugees have survived the trauma which can be used as their strange to overcome other problems in their life. In whole we need to be sure that we are not just recognising the symptom but also evaluating their significance with reference to the refuge’s sense of what matters. Execution of the task I began presenting the reason to why I choose this subject. As I had planed I asked people to think about what they decide to take with themselves if they had to live their house for two and half minutes. Therefter I asked them to discuss in the group of two how they feel if they were not alowed to take anything with them. The aim of exercise was to put them in the mood to understand the difference between immigrant and refugee. I continued talking about gender issues and how a woman’s way of presenting symptomes differs from a man. How young people showes the symptom of trauma that they have experienced before they come to the host countries and what the expectation differs from reality. In the middle of presentation I offered examples of my own life and what had happened to me and my family when we went to the counselling not as a refugee. I explained how problem and symptom may be presented in our orinary life but the root of that can be issues of being refugee which had not been delt with sooner or even recognised. In stead case study I decided to offer the students apportunity to ask me questions. It seemed more positive to have a living case study insted reading a papper. I was very honest and oppen as I felt this is my one chance to offer more understanding then just presenting theories. I distributed my hand out. Feelings I felt confident and prepared before checking then the feeling of anxiety hit me.The question in my mind was can I manage to stay calmand finish my presentation in front of the group of students. I felt so vulnerable and anxious. I did not know what to do. Usually I do one of the extremes one is very confident, the other playing the role of the victim. This time I decided against any of them. I told myself it is Ok to feel anxious, it is normal and I am surethat most of the people will feel the same in this scenario. Nobody needs to take care of me I can do it I know my subject. The anxiety affected my presentation. I forgot to follow my well-planed work that I had reapeted for myself in forhand.It was only one thing that I could do and it was to follow my heart and follow the line that I felt it is right in that moment. I knew the subject and I had my own experience as examples. In my back mind I felt because I knew even if it happened that I forgot to present some important issues, they would have possibility to read it in the hand out. I could hear people laughing and tried to write something for fun. I felt confused the reaction was not as I expected.I could hear my heart pounding faster but I was there and I had to finish the presentation. When I told them the exercise showed the difference between refugee and immigrant I could see people listened more seriously. I relaxed and continued but in my mind I decided to change my tactic. I want them to feel as I felt for refuges. Did every time I answered, a questionI felt satisfied I could see the affect that I wanted in people’s face. My hert began to bit regurarly and my voice changed to the calmer voice.t I could feel how everybody was deeply involved and the hunger for knowledge had filled the air. Even though the presentation had not turned up to be done as it was planned; it seemed that it went well. In the end I felt released that it was done and over with. The anxiety was lifted from my shoulder and now the only thingt that I could do was to sit and listen to the feedbacks. Responses Manyof students thanked me because they felt my honesty and my passion affected them so much emotionally that they feel ashamed to have been so ignoret in the subject. Some told me seeing determination and me as a survivor give them hope and appreciation of many refugees strong will which they will be to take in consideration if they counsel them. Some felt confused in the begining but when I used the examples and offered a summery of the goal and practical help that they could use in their assessment process was very valuble. The question and reactions continued even during brakes with many hugs that I so gratefully received Feelings I felt unease before the students response.The reason was that I was assuming that they may be positive because of mea as a person not how well the presentation went. From my previouse experiences I had realised that because english is my third language and the fellow students admirethe knowtion of me being able studying in the language that is not my mother thounge they are excessivly kind to me However, I could see the sincerities in their body language, which showed how, move they have been about the subject. Using examples of my own life seemed to have the biggest impact. I felt proued and satisfied with my work. As I have achieved what I wished with this presentation. Alternative approaches Even though I believe, I presented the subject as heart-warming and with enough knowledge that I possibly could do in that time limitation. I wish I had done differently. The first thing that I need to do was to limit myself more in the subject from begging which could save me a lot of time. It is important to make a questioner of what I wanted to include in my essay and see how much I could include in 45 minutes before beginning my research. If I could do my presentation again I will choose one part of refugees’ life experiences and will discuss it deeper. Presenting the feeling of losing identity is an important issue that I feel I neglected to present to my peer group. I will begin the presentation as I did, but I will change the rest of my planning by continuing with offering some general information knowledge about refugees’ different categories. Then I will ask the group to come with their understanding of what they think it happens to a refugee before living their own country and after they come to the host countries. Discuss what they think the affect of the trauma has on them and finishes the presentation with one case study who give them opportunity to play counsellor and refugee to able them to experience what it may happens in a counselling room. I t may be more helpful if I did personal note and summery in the way that I could follow it more easily which would result that I feel less anxious. I still believe the knowledge of the subject is a key point but I am aware that it is not possible to know everything. Therefore maybe rehearsing the presentation with time keeping is a good idea for me and it may help me to reduce m y anxiety level. Being passionate about the subject that I present is always positive for me, this raises the desire to learn more and understand it before presenting it to my peer group. Feelings When the presentation was finished and I felt overwhelmed by so many positive responses, that I thought I could not change something that it works. I didn't do as I had planed but it went well. After having time to calm down and reflect on the idea what could I do different' I realised that it is always room to do better. I cannot be perfect but I always could do better or in the other word could try different approaches. Being perfectionist has been my way of being. I have gone through a life of unfinished business, playing games and the most difficult one feeling inadequate because of this feeling. I am still in the developing process that is why I prefer to forget about what is done. It is difficult to disassemble everything and look for the best way to rethink what it could be done instead. I have been forced to face myself in details and look hard on every details of my personality during this year. Being perfectionist is a major part that I haven’t realised it had affected my life so deeply. Anyhow I am aware that reflection on how I did and what I could do different with my presentation is the issue here. The bottom line is I can do the process differently in my presentation, but I am happy that I received a much better emotional involvement in the subject by my peer. And their feedbacks were the evidence of their emotional involvement and understanding of the subject.