{"id":53,"date":"2018-10-31T11:07:04","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T15:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting\/?p=53"},"modified":"2019-08-07T04:57:31","modified_gmt":"2019-08-07T08:57:31","slug":"language-and-resettlement-a-complicated-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/2018\/10\/31\/language-and-resettlement-a-complicated-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Language and Resettlement: A Complicated Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Welcome sign at Altered Minds<\/p><\/div>\n

At Manitoba Interfaith, also called Welcome Place, the first thing our group did was sign a contract written in an unfamiliar language. Here\u2019s how it unfolded. Minutes after our host, Marta Klaita, director of settlement services, introduced herself, a blonde woman in a suit entered the room.\u00a0\u00a0Without introductions, she handed us a contract that was written in a language none of us understood. There was only one full sentence on the page, and I had no idea what it said. Choosing which word to circle for my gender was like flipping a coin.\u00a0\u00a0I took an educated guess that \u201cData\u201d meant the date.\u00a0\u00a0There were two dotted lines, presumably, for my signature.\u00a0\u00a0Deb Amos, our professor, wrote on one line and handed in her paper. The blonde woman handed back the form without so much as a smile.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We handed in our forms and marinated in a brief awkward silence before another staff member entered the space with a smile and an explanation.\u00a0\u00a0She told us this was intentionally designed to give us \u201ca taste of being a refugee.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0The blonde woman, Valentina, was a refugee who worked at Welcome Place, and the contract was written in Albanian.\u00a0\u00a0The other staff member noted that they would switch it up sometimes, bringing in big, gruff man to deliver the contracts instead.\u00a0\u00a0Valentina told us what we just contractually agreed to do:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAfter your death, you\u2019re signing to use your body parts for science.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When I think of language, I usually think of culture or family.\u00a0\u00a0But the message was very clear here: knowing an official language like English gives you agency and security.\u00a0\u00a0I spent some time at Altered Minds afterwards, interviewing groups of people – through their translators – about the role of English in their resettlement.\u00a0\u00a0Most people had yet to take the Canadian Language Benchmark assessment.\u00a0\u00a0So I asked what their goals were – education, schooling, etc. – and how often they\u2019d plan to speak English.\u00a0\u00a0Some planned for English literacy to be another tool of the trade – after work, they could return to their families and converse in the language that made them feel comfortable.\u00a0\u00a0Some would skip learning English altogether if it meant they could get a job more quickly.\u00a0There were also a good deal of people who spoke to me in English.<\/span><\/p>\n

But nearly everyone told me that learning English would help them learn Canada\u2019s laws.\u00a0\u00a0Upon their arrival in the country, only a small group of them were taught the basics of Canadian law in their native language.\u00a0\u00a0Most newcomers didn\u2019t get those basics – they couldn\u2019t know just what they didn\u2019t know about day-to-day life here.\u00a0\u00a0One woman had been in Canada for about 1.5 months.\u00a0\u00a0She never went anywhere without her interpreter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Everyone should have a right to know what\u2019s going on.\u00a0\u00a0When an interviewee asked me (in English) what I planned to do with this interview, I told him I wanted to make more people aware of just how tough it is to balance language with raising children, working, or going to school.\u00a0\u00a0But it already seems like a no-brainer, and honestly, reading and writing this post in English almost feels like it doesn\u2019t do the experience justice.\u00a0\u00a0Welcome Place really got it right with that first exercise, though I wasn\u2019t worrying about my future when I walked in there.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At Manitoba Interfaith, also called Welcome Place, the first thing our group did was sign a contract written in an unfamiliar language. Here\u2019s how it unfolded. Minutes after our host, Marta Klaita, director of settlement services, introduced herself, a blonde woman in a suit entered the room.\u00a0\u00a0Without introductions, she handed us a contract that was<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":759,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/759"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/64"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commons.princeton.edu\/migration-reporting2018\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}