Name: Armant L’Heureux

Social Justice Group: Refugees

Date of Fieldwork: December 1, 2017

Name of Organization: The Arab American Family Support Center

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Hannah

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We talked to a few people at the center about how they help refugees adjust into their new life.

What I learned:

The Arab American Family Support Center is a unique refugee center in a sense that instead of primarily bringing refugees into the country (which they do) they teach them how to get a job, educate them and other important tasks that they may struggle with. We learned that refugees are not taken by boat or helicopter most of the time. Generally they have to take a loan to buy a plane ticket to America, heavily setting them in debt. This makes it hard for them to take off, since from the beginning they are already behind. This center tries to raise money to help them out, it also has a children’s program where volunteers help them with their homework that may be challenging because they are new to the language or a new concept.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

I learned that there are more problems in a project than just the main priority, in this case taking refugees out of danger. There are many other problems, debts, education, homes and jobs, many things that are issues after people are done looking. After they think your safe at home. Not much light is drawn to these topics because they are subtopics to the bigger ones, but they are almost as pressing.