Cultural Orientation Resource Center: Our Publications: Refugee Backgrounders

Refugee Seniors

The following COR Center resources are designed to assist with the orientation of refugee seniors.

Video of interviews with refugee seniors of various ethnic groups

Refugee Seniors in the United States, comprised of interviews with refugee seniors from Burma, Bhutan, Iraq, Somalia, and Sudan, highlights the challenges and successes refugee seniors face in their resettlement and adjustment to life in the United States. Funded by ORR, the video is accompanied by scripts and reflection questions in eight languages and a variety of lesson plans.

Providing Orientation to Refugee Seniors: Tips and Strategies

The COR Center's ORR-funded four-page digest, Providing Orientation to Refugee Seniors: Tips and Strategies, addresses the needs of refugee seniors in an education context and highlights ways to accommodate their potential challenges and strengths.

Overseas Cultural Orientation lesson plans

Each CO program develops specialized lesson plans suited for their participants' background and needs. Overseas CO lesson plans targeting the issues surrounding the resettlement and adjustment of seniors include:

HIAS Vienna

Grandmother Aghajani Small Group Discussion

IOM Nepal

Part I: Family Roles

Part II: Seniors

Attachments to Part II: Photos

American seniors in the U.S.

Bhutanese seniors in Nepal

Inactive Bhutanese senior in the U.S.

Active Bhutanese seniors in the U.S.: Attending ESL, at a playground, shopping

Program descriptions describe the structure and content of programs offering orientation and other services to refugee seniors.

Refugee Elders Program - Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Inc.

The Elders Program - Kentucky Refugee Ministries and Catholic Charities in Louisville, KY

Case studies allow service providers and refugees the opportunity to consider the issues and opportunities that arose in one person's experience, and how refugees might address those themselves.

This case study of a refugee senior from Burma resettled in the U.S. several years ago is accompanied by a lesson plan to facilitate reflection and discussion.

Web conference presentations

Presentations included here are from the September 28, 2010, COR Center Web conference, "Orientation of Refugee Seniors."

PDF of PPT: Summary of Online Survey Responses on the Orientation and Adjustment of Refugee Seniors (Cultural Orientation Resource Center, August 2010)

PDF of PPT, with notes: Cultural Orientation for Elderly Refugees at the HIAS OPE Vienna (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society Overseas Processing Entity Vienna, now known as HIAS Resettlement Support Center Austria)

PDF of PPT, with notes: Providing Orientation and Services to Refugee Seniors (Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Portland, OR)

PDF of PPT: Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Inc.'s Refugee Elders Program