The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
First day of school jitters for refugee kids
Education is the great equalizer, right? It’s not exactly a road, it’s more like a map you can use to better navigate life. For many, getting to that map means traveling to America, and that’s nothing new. It’s a tradition that has been upheld by generations of immigrants. And this week, as hundreds of thousands of Connecticut students head back to school, several hundred recently resettled families will be experiencing their first day while balancing the weight of current events with the excitement of something new.
Each student, whether preschool or precollege, citizen or immigrant, has their own set of anxieties and concerns that they bring into a classroom. I really can’t imagine what emotions immigrant students may carry the night before school starts. But Dennis Wilson, Education and Advocacy Coordinator at Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services in New Haven, said it’s a particular brand of nervous enthusiasm — figuring out bus routes, language barriers, orientation packets, class schedules and even navigating the potentially problematic perceptions other students may have about immigrants.
Though he didn’t have an exact number, Wilson said “hundreds of refugee students in New Haven and towns all around Connecticut are starting school this week.”
All of his clients experience the last day of summer differently. Often, it’s the familiartoeveryone mad dash with lastminute logistics. But sometimes, students have to muscle through concerns about how and whether they’ll be accepted into the classroom.
“It’s often less of a fear that if I go to school I may be separated from my family,” he said. “And more related to if I wear a headscarf, what are people going to think of that and how will it be accepted?”
This week I’ve been considering what happens when your motivation to come to the US includes access to education, but the US doesn’t feel like a safe place to do that. For the clients Wilson serves, the only option is to progress forward.
Contrary to the “love it or leave it” sentiment we heard all summer, refugees who resettle with IRIS’ support don’t have the option to return to their home country for at least a year. But the reality is, they also may not want to.
“The possibilities of leaving and going somewhere else outside the country is very limited,” he said. “The idea of leaving for our families is just a) not economically feasible, and b) not realistic considering they’re coming from Syria or a refugee camp or central Africa. It’s not something you want to go back to. And for many of them to have even gotten here is a process that can take two, or five, or 10 years so it’s something that they’re heavily invested in.”
Wilson said newly resettled students may also come from environments that do education very differently. Their highly structured and racially homogeneous classrooms may stand in stark contrast to the vast diversity Connecticut schools can offer. Added to the very common preteen concerns, the newness of exposure to different races, religions, and ideologies can be daunting.
“Even just being put into an urban school district like New Haven, meeting kids from all over the place and all the diversity is also a new experience,” he said. “So at the same time that they’re figuring out how to behave and what’s expected of them academically, there’s a very personal thing going on where they’re exploring their own identities and how they fit in.”
After a sigh and a brief pause, Wilson added that he wants people to know that so many of his clients, though they’re documented and receiving services, struggle immensely at the beginning.
“It’s helpful to know that education is so important for a lot of the students and that’s what they’re in the classroom to do and what their parents are pushing for,” he said. “I know how difficult it can be for some parents and community members. They need so many services and they’re requiring so much attention that families sometimes feel they’re being a burden. So it’s important for people to know how central education is to so many of these families.”
After a summer of tumultuous rhetoric around immigration and raids that have separated families while they were at work or school, what’s left once the concern and anxiety settles is very common, very American jitters everyone gets before their first day at something new.
“K12 is a time of life where every kid is developing their own identities and selfawareness,” he said. “Trying to figure all that out is incredibly emotional, and confusing, and frustrating, and exhilarating for students all at the same time. There’s a lot of excitement. For a lot of the kids I’ve been working with over the past couple weeks, their default is just happy to be going to school.”
Beleaguered as the education system may be, it may be the best map to a better life for many of IRIS’ clients. And through their hesitations and excitement, each is just happy to have access to that map — even if 2019 tensions make it a little tougher on day one.