To the Teacher:
Around the world, millions of people have fled their homes seeking safety and a future elsewhere. This lesson has students consider what it is like to be a refugee, and how we can welcome people who are newcomers. Older students read about and discuss the Afghan refugees now arriving in the United States, and how we might support them. Note: The lesson is written for classrooms without recently resettled Afghan refugees. Adapt and adjust it as you see fit if you are welcoming recently resettled Afghan or other refugees.
In the past decade, refugee crises have made news headlines on a regular basis. These crises are the result of situations like the brutal decade-long civil war in Syria that has left the country in shambles; the grave human rights abuses (possibly genocide) of the Rohingya in Myanmar; the armed conflict in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia that broke out in the fall of 2020; and the conflict in Yemen that has triggered the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history, with people facing physical danger, food insecurity and grossly inadequate healthcare.
There are also streams of refugees fleeing poverty, violence, and corruption in Central America’s “Northern Triangle” comprised of Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador. And the Venezuelan refugee and migrant crisis is one of the largest displacement crises in the world today due to a collapsed economy, shortages of food and medicine, and a lack of security.
And, of course, recent headlines have been dominated by the situation in Afghanistan. A two-decade long conflict, economic hardship, and climate-related challenges have forced people to flee their homes even before the recent Taliban takeover, as the U.S. decided to finally pull out its military after 20 years of violence and occupation.
According to United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) numbers, 1 percent of the world’s population (more than 80 million people) has been forcibly displaced. Of those, 30-34 million are children. The number of displaced people globally has doubled since 2010 and continues to outpace global population growth. With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, moreover, the situation has become even more dire.
For additional resources about the Global Refugee and Migrant Crisis:
- UNHCR chart: Figures at a Glance: 82.4 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. The forcibly displaced global population in this chart is broken down into: Refugees (under UNHCR's mandate), Palestine refugees (under UNRWA's mandate), internally displaced people, asylum-seekers and Venezuelans displaced abroad.
- For definitions of these terms, reference the HIAS Definitions: Refugee, Asylum Seeker, IDP, Migrant PDF. Founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS is a Jewish American nonprofit organization that provides humanitarian aid and assistance to refugees.
- UNHCR data, maps and interactive charts: UNHCR Global Trends of Forced Displacement in 2019
- The Refugee Project website includes an interactive map and chart of global refugee populations from the 1970s until 2018. It includes a map of where refugees fled from and where they fled to, including histories of the various reasons why refugees fled their countries by year. Note: the numbers on this website vary some from the UNHCR numbers.
- Refugeemovements.com provides high-quality spacial and temporal interactive visualization of data collected by the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR.
Opening Reflection and Group Share
Show students Ana Navarro Cardenas’ tweet below.
Have a volunteer read the text out loud. Then ask students to discuss some or all of the following questions:
- What do you think this tweet is in reference to? Explain.
- What are the impressions, feelings, experiences and/or thoughts that come up for you when hearing Ana Navarro Cardenas’ words?
- How do you think Ana Navarro Cardenas feels about refugees coming (fleeing) to the U.S.? Explain.
Next, look at the image and ask students, again, to discuss some or all of the following questions:
- What do you notice about the image?
- How do you think this Afghan family feels? Explain.
- What are your impressions, feelings, experiences and/or thoughts that come up when looking at this image?
Check agenda/Share the plan for today’s lesson.
What is it Like to be a Newcomer?
Elementary School: Drawing & Writing
Have students draw a picture of a time in their life when they felt like a newcomer. Think about a first day in a new class or at a new school, maybe a time they moved to a new building, neighborhood, or even in a new city, state or country.
Ask students to write about what it was like for them. How did they feel? Were they welcomed, or not? How? Have students write a paragraph or some words to accompany their drawing in developmentally appropriate ways.
Depending on who your students are, have them reflect on how their feelings were (or could be) heightened if they were unfamiliar with the language, systems, food, and culture of the new place.
Middle and High School: Journaling
Have students write about a time in their life they felt like a newcomer. Think about a first day in a new class or at a new school, maybe a time they moved to a new building, neighborhood, or a new city, state, or country.
Ask students to write about what it was like for them. How did they feel? Were they welcomed, or not? How? Depending on who your students are, ask them to reflect on how their feelings were (or could be) heightened if they were unfamiliar with the language, systems, food, and culture of the new place.
Pair Share
In pairs, ask students to take turns speaking (and listening) about what they just wrote about or drew, in the case of elementary school students.
Have students decide who will speak first while the other practices good listening. After one to two minutes, have students switch roles. Speakers become listeners, listeners become speakers. Invite students to share as much or as little with their partner as they feel comfortable sharing.
Large group share
Reconvene your class and ask volunteers to share out their experiences. Instruct them not to share their partner’s experience, unless they have permission to do so. Summarize what students share. Jot down feelings and thoughts students share about their experience with being a newcomer.
Welcoming Visitors and/or Newcomers
Invite students to think about how, in their culture, in their family, they welcome visitors and/or newcomers. How are visitors and/or newcomers in your home, (faith) community, neighborhood, or school greeted, fed, nourished, treated?
Consider creating a word web, or other visual representation of the way in which students and their communities welcome visitors and/or newcomers.
Additional Activities For Middle and High School
Mention to students the many crises around the world that have forced people to flee their homes (see the “to the teacher” materials above).
Explain that for the remainder of today’s lesson, we’ll focus on the Afghan refugee crisis that, after two decades of conflict, violence, economic hardship, and climate-related challenges, was further exacerbated after the country’s recent Taliban takeover.
We’ll do this by reading and discussing an article in the New York Times entitled “Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees.”
Small Group Work (middle and high school)
Divide your class into four small groups and provide each group with one of the readings in this handout and at the end of this lesson. Have students read their reading and discuss the questions below among themselves.
Large Group Share (middle and high school)
Reconvene your class and ask volunteers from each of the groups to share out some of the important points that they discussed, guided by the same questions:
- Share your impressions, feelings, experiences and/or thoughts about what you just read.
- How do the Americans in the piece think about the Afghan refugees in need of resettlement?
- What, if anything, are the Americans in the piece doing in response?
Hopes and Dreams (middle and high school)
Ask students to watch the following UNHCR trailer of The Dream Diaries on Facebook. As you close out today’s session, ask what about these refugee dreams is similar and different from the dreams your students have.
Note that one of the children talks about the violence he and his family experienced in their home country. Make sure it is appropriate for your students by vetting it yourself first.
For older students, if interest remains, and time allows, the full 6:20 minute version of the video can be found on YouTube at The Dream Diaries. Note that several of the children talk about the reasons why they were forced too flee their home countries. Make sure the video is appropriate for your students, by vetting it yourself first.
Closing
(for students of all ages)
Ask students to think about what they can do to have everyone in their class and community feel welcome.
As you close today’s session, invite each student to share one thing they can commit to. Consider having them write it down, so you can come back to it later to see how it’s going.
If you know Afghan or other refugees are being resettled in your community, consider having students think about how they can help welcome the newcomers.
See this blogpost from Refugees International: We’re Welcoming Refugees! A How-To Guide for Talking to Your Neighbors About Refugees. Imbedded in the post is Refugee Council USA’s Volunteer Opportunity map.
Reading 1 (also see this pdf handout)
from New York Times: “Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees”
Throughout the United States, Americans across the political spectrum are stepping forward to welcome Afghans who aided the U.S. war effort in one of the largest mass mobilizations of volunteers since the end of the Vietnam War.
In rural Minnesota, an agricultural specialist has been working on visa applications and providing temporary housing for the newcomers, and she has set up an area for halal meat processing on her farm. In California, a group of veterans has sent a welcoming committee to the Sacramento airport to greet every arriving family. In Arkansas, volunteers are signing up to buy groceries, do airport pickups and host families in their homes.
“Thousands of people just fled their homeland with maybe one set of spare clothes,” said Jessica Ginger, 39, of Bentonville, Ark. “They need housing and support, and I can offer both.”
Donations are pouring into nonprofits that assist refugees, even though in most places few Afghans have arrived yet. At Mission Community Church in the conservative bedroom community of Gilbert outside Phoenix, parishioners have been collecting socks, underwear, shoes and laundry supplies.
Mars Adema, 40, said she had tried over the past year to convince the church’s ministries to care for immigrants, only to hear that “this is just not our focus.”
“With Afghanistan, something completely shifted,” Ms. Adema said.
In a nation that is polarized on issues from abortion to the coronavirus pandemic, Afghan refugees have cleaved a special place for many Americans, especially those who worked for U.S. forces and NGOs, or who otherwise aided the U.S. effort to free Afghanistan from the Taliban.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/us/afghan-refugees-volunteers.html
Discuss:
- Share your impressions, feelings, experiences and/or thoughts about what you just read.
- How do the Americans in the piece think about the Afghan refugees in need of resettlement?
- What, if anything, are the Americans in the piece doing in response?
Reading 2 (also see this pdf handout)
from New York Times: “Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees”
The moment stands in contrast to the last four years when the country, led by a president who restricted immigration and enacted a ban on travel from several majority-Muslim countries, was split over whether to welcome or shun people seeking safe haven. And with much of the electorate still deeply divided over immigration, the durability of the present welcome mat remains unknown.
Polls show Republicans are still more hesitant than Democrats to receive Afghans, and some conservative politicians have warned that the rush to resettle so many risks allowing extremists to slip through the screening process. Influential commentators, like Tucker Carlson, the Fox News host, have said the refugees would dilute American culture and harm the Republican Party. Last week, he warned that the Biden administration was “flooding swing districts with refugees that they know will become loyal Democratic voters.”
But a broad array of veterans and lawmakers have long regarded Afghans who helped the United States as military partners, and have long pushed to remove the red tape that has kept them in the country under constant threat from the Taliban. Images of babies being lifted over barbed-wire fences to American soldiers, people clinging to departing planes and a deadly terrorist attack against thousands massed at the airport, desperate to leave, have moved thousands of Americans to join their effort.
“For a nation that has been so divided, it feels good for people to align on a good cause,” said Mike Sullivan, director of the Welcome to America Project in Phoenix. “This country probably hasn’t seen anything like this since Vietnam.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/us/afghan-refugees-volunteers.html
Discuss:
- Share your impressions, feelings, experiences and/or thoughts about what you just read.
- How do the Americans in the piece think about the Afghan refugees in need of resettlement?
- What, if anything, are the Americans in the piece doing in response?
Reading 3 (also see this pdf handout)
from New York Times: “Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees”
The national infrastructure for resettling refugees has shrunk drastically over the last five years as the Trump administration slashed refugee admissions and cut federal funding to the nine contracted resettlement agencies whose caseworkers help arrivals enroll children in school, find jobs and become self-sufficient.
More than 100 offices where refugees seek help when transitioning to their adopted homes had shuttered by 2019. ….
Public opinion surveys have shown broad support for resettling Afghan refuges [sic]. In a Washington Post-ABC News poll released on Friday, 68 percent said they supported taking in refugees who had been subjected to security review, and 27 percent opposed it. The support included 56 percent of Republicans. Volunteer agencies said the community mobilization has crossed traditional political dividing lines.
“We have never seen anything like it,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the chief executive of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, a resettlement agency that has affiliates in 22 states.
Many Afghans are expected to join family and friends in established communities in California, Texas and the Washington, D.C., metro region. But, given the large volume of arrivals, they are likely to land in any corner of the country where jobs are plentiful, housing is affordable and there is a resettlement infrastructure.
On a recent rainy day in Prince George’s County, Md., Laura Thompson Osuri, executive director of Homes Not Borders, a small nonprofit, was racing between the group’s storage unit to two apartment complexes where two new families would be housed. In the car, she was zipping through frantic queries on her cellphone: Where was the stuff for the crib? Who needed the table? Yikes, was that my exit?
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/us/afghan-refugees-volunteers.html
Discuss:
- Share your impressions, feelings, experiences and/or thoughts about what you just read.
- How do the Americans in the piece think about the Afghan refugees in need of resettlement?
- What, if anything, are the Americans in the piece doing in response?
Reading 4 (also see this pdf handout)
from New York Times: “Americans Stretch Across Political Divides to Welcome Afghan Refugees”
“There is a momentum now that I have not seen since 2015,” said Mary Kaech, who leads Phoenix Refugee Connections and advocates evangelical involvement with refugees. “I’m hoping that momentum will sustain,” she said.
But will it?
Tiffany Kapadia, 38, a realtor and mother of two young children in Phoenix, said she had seen the news from Afghanistan and had tried to put herself in the shoes of families fleeing for their lives. She has donated money to the fund-raising effort at her church.
“I am trying to peel away the negative rhetoric that comes from some news outlets and people,” she said, including from her brother, Josh Davies, who said he worried about terrorists and other criminals infiltrating the mass of arrivals, and about the impact of so many new immigrants on American culture and politics. “Who are these people? If 1 percent of them are ISIS, it’s all it takes,” Mr. Davies said.
Kari Lake, a former television anchor who is running for governor, tweeted a warning: “Unvetted refugees incoming.”
But Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona, a Republican, said recently that the state welcomed Afghan evacuees and was working to offer them “safety in Arizona.”
Chris St. John, a vice president at the Center for Arizona Policy, an advocacy organization that promotes conservative values, said in a blog post that he applauded the governor. “I am not looking at this from a political perspective; I’m coming from a decidedly biblical perspective,” he said in an interview. “Could someone dangerous come? Perhaps. It is still worth the risk.”
Jason Creed, chairman of the board of Desert Springs Bible Church, said he had not heard complaints about the fund-raising drive for refugees. ….
The church is part of a newly formed coalition of churches in Phoenix that has committed to provide families with groceries, household supplies and furniture as well as assistance navigating the bus system and filling out job applications. “At the core of our mission is loving our neighbors,” Pastor Campbell said. “Which is not a one-time event.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/us/afghan-refugees-volunteers.html
Discuss:
- Share your impressions, feelings, experiences and/or thoughts about what you just read.
- How do the Americans in the piece think about the Afghan refugees in need of resettlement?
- What, if anything, are the Americans in the piece doing in response?