Amarillo Refugee State of the Union event presented – Amarillo.com

Douglas Clark|Amarillo Globe-News

On Tuesdayevening, the Refugee Language Project presented the inaugural Amarillo Refugee State of the Union event via a webinar.Organizers said the effort provided local partners with an opportunity to learn about Amarillos refugees in a comprehensive and empowering manner.

"I'm so excited to celebrate with you about the refugees communities of this city," saidRyan Pennington,Refugee Language Project executive director, during thewebinar, extending gratitude to Amarillo College, local churches, volunteers and varied donors. "It is complex. It is interesting and I have a lot to share with you."

The webinar, which lasted just more than anhour, offered an outline focusing on an introduction; definitions and statistics; the refugees of Amarillo; what organizations are already doing; what Refugee Communities are saying; and recommendations and methods of getting involved.

Pennington said the Refugee Language Project was founded in 2017 and from 2009 to 2016 he worked as a Field Linguist in New Guinea noting the organization's Mission Statement is removing language barriers, building leaders and cultivating community among refugees in the Texas Panhandle.

"Tonight is not about Refugee Language Project," Pennington said during the session. "Tonight is about the refugees of Amarillo, celebrating what all of us are doing together and informing you all so you can be empowered to be agents for change. Today's goals are to equip leaders to effectively engage the complex network of refugee communities in the city. And to amplify the voices of those refugees who shared with us at those meetings."

Pennington said when a person flees across an international border, they must seek official sanctuary by applying for asylum,which, he said,is the right to be recognized as a refugee,receive legal protection and material assistance.He said a refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality or political opinion. Per Pennington, war, as well as ethnic, tribal or religious violence are the leading causes of refugees today.

"Crucially, someone cannot just raise their hand and say 'I'm a refugee'," Pennington said. "It's a legal status. It must be registered with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. People who cross the southern border of Texas, for example, are not refugees unless they have sought asylum and had their case vetted."

After resettlement, refugees are accorded freedom of movement around the country, just like citizens, Pennington said. When they relocate, he said this is called secondary migration, noting relocation is often for the purpose of finding a job or reconnecting with family.

"The Texas Panhandle's low cost of living, job availability and stabilized population of refugee communities already here will continue to draw secondary migrants from around the USA," he said. "Even if Amarillo settled no refugees, you'd still have incoming refugees or former refugees in the form of secondary migration."

During the webinar, Pennington produced a chart depicting the trend of Amarillo refugees since 2010with a high of 767 in 2010, and in the fiscal year 2020, 113 refugees were settled in the city. He said the resettlementscome from two local agencies Refugee Services of Texas and Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle.

Pennington said more than 50% of Amarillo's refugees come from the continent of Asia and with regard to nationalities that have been resettled here, more than half since 2015 are from the nation of Burma, followed by Congo, Iran, Somalia and Afghanistan. Others include Rwanda, Brunei, Dominican Republic and Ethiopia.He said since 2018, Congolese have taken the lead over the last few years, with more than 50% of the resettlements, 214 individuals have been from the nation of Congo.Burma was represented with 135 individuals.

"I use the term refugee community to refer to specific immigrant communities composed primarily of people who initially came as refugees," Pennington said. "So anexample, locally, would be the Lao community. Even though a majority of the Lao people became citizens long ago and are therefore no longer refugees, their community experiences many of the same language and cultural barriers and social stigmas that current refugees do. So we use refugee community to communicate about those groups of people."

Pennington said resettlement agencies such as Refugee Services of Texas and Catholic Charities of the Texas Panhandle provide support services that include case management, career counseling, English education and many other social services during the initial five years after resettlement.He also noted the work of Mission Amarillo, Speiro Legacies and Square Mile for mentoring endeavors, as well as individuals making significant contributions.

The following recommendations were offered duringthe webinar:

Local leaders and local partners collaborate to establish a Refugee Community Leadership Council where leaders can address their own overlapping needs; share their specific needs with city leaders; hear from local leaders about programs, initiatives and concerns and raise youth as future leaders.

Local partners collaborate to open a community center where cultures can be celebrated; community gatherings can be held; classes and tutoring can be offered and a handicraft market can be operated to help foster some of the needs of the refugee communities.

New partners rise up to engage refugee communities by forming a business development program where new businesses are incubated; business mentorships are fostered; business English can be taught and new farming initiatives can be explored.

Organizations in Amarillo offer English as a Second Language instruction.

Mother tongue education be promoted wherever possible by providing literacy materials in heritage languages.

Supporting grassroots educational initiatives such as Chin language classes.

Refugee Language Project officials said a recording of the webinar can be access via the organization'swebsite athttps://refugeelanguage.org/state-of-the-union/ or on its Facebook page athttps://www.facebook.com/RefugeeLanguageProject/

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Amarillo Refugee State of the Union event presented - Amarillo.com