Cultural Orientation Resource Center: Program Highlight

Refugees from Burma: Thailand

Population and Environment
CO activities are currently centered upon Mae La camp (population almost 50,000), some 50 minutes north of the town of Mae Sot. The camp is about 70% Karen, 25% “Burmese Muslim (for more information on this group, read Annex 1),” and small numbers of other ethnicities. The option of applying for resettlement to the US was offered to the entire population of Mae La. To date, some one-third of the population has taken up the offer. Smaller numbers of refugees reside in Umpiem and Nupo camps, to whom resettlement was also offered; the populations there are roughly similar in composition to that of Mae La. (For more information regarding the camps, please see Annex 2.

Activities: CO Classes
CO classes in Mae La are three to five days in length, covering the attitudes, knowledge, and skills refugees will need to make their resettlement experience in the U.S. as successful as possible. Class size is ordinarily about 25 for adults, and 20 to 25 for children and youth, although classes become larger and shorter, perhaps only one or two days, if we receive the list of departures only a few days before they travel, as can happen when the number of departures increases dramatically toward the end of the fiscal year.

Although refugees learn about the kinds of assistance they can expect to receive from resettlement agencies and government services, CO classes also emphasize the importance of self-sufficiency and the need to find a job as quickly as possible. Recent additions to our curriculum include ‘family day,’ when parents and children are brought together to discuss the changes they will experience in family roles, methods of child discipline, and maintaining the valuable aspects of their own culture. Simultaneous with this session single students have their own group discussions on dating in the US and other facets of living as a single person in a new country.

The Karen, in particular, can be rather shy and reticent to voice legitimate requests for assistance or complaints, so CO classes also focus on the need to be pro-active, and to take responsibility for obtaining help and achieving one’s own success in the United States.

Activities: Daycare and Parenting
An experienced child care worker on IOM staff developed a daily program of activities for the young children in the CO day-care center. A total of ten refugee daycare workers were hired and received an initial two-day training course in the care of the children, safety issues, and conducting activities (with further daily training and supervision for the first month). Activities included in the daycare program include music, singing, chanting and dance, drawing, arts and crafts, English lessons, and storytelling, as well as basic care of the children’s physical needs.

Two child care rooms are used; one for tiny babies and one for children up to age ten. Daily attendance varies considerably, from a low of eight to a high of 66. The rooms are too small for the larger groups, but the space allotted to IOM is extremely limited and there are no options to expand.

A parenting program targeting the parents of the children in the daycare center was developed for implementation at the start of July. The one-day course focuses on hygiene (30-45 min), nutrition (1 ½ hrs), disciplining children and teenagers (1 ½ hrs), and other topics such as maintenance and cleanliness of the home, and topics related to schooling and parents.

Activities: The Information Campaign
IOM is currently conducting a multi-faceted information campaign to provide refugees with accurate information about the U.S. refugee resettlement program.

Newsletters, addressing resettlement issues, camp rumors, and misinformation about resettlement, cover explanations of the OPE and DHS interviewing process; the IOM medical screening process; facts about travel loan repayment; jobs for refugees in the U.S.; transportation; education; and many other aspects of resettlement life in America. Many bits of misinformation circulating in the camps are addressed in the newsletters as well, such as the rumor that all refugee males must join the U.S. army, or that Asians and Muslims face heavy discrimination in America.

Meetings in the various camp sections and with leadership groups such as the influential KWO (Karen Women’s Organization) and KYO (Karen Youth Organization) continue to be an important part of the campaign. IOM staff organizes Q&A sessions in various camp sections, addressing questions on topics from the OPE interview and medical check processes to the education, employment, and health care systems in the U.S., and exactly how much support would be provided by the government, and for how long. In addition, IOM continues its ‘tea-shop diplomacy’ and house-to-house visitation strategies, to learn of the latest rumors and general camp attitudes toward the resettlement program.

Picture boards, showing general images of life in America, and in particular, refugee life in America, serve as “24-hour cultural orientation information centers,” and always have crowds of refugees keen to get a visual notion of what life in America may be like for them. Pictorial topics are arranged on three-and-a-half foot feature boards, and topics have included American food, famous locations in the U.S., American holidays, refugee jobs, refugee housing, pictures of departing refugees, American leisure activities and sports, transportation, letters from resettled refugees, resettlement agency services, and more.

Theater: Four shows, staged between the end of June and October 2007, were performed by a team of refugee actors from Mae La camp. The shows followed one refugee family’s decisionmaking process of whether to resettle in America or not, and then their adventures in traveling to the US and trying to adapt to life there. The shows were performed in the large Mae La camp, and permission was obtained from the Thai authorities to allow the actors to travel to Nupo and Umpiem camps, as well, making this effort our first “road show.” Interest in all the camps was very high, with usually one to two thousand people in the audience for each performance. The shows have been filmed and put onto VCD, for later distribution in the camps.

Overseas The Process Program Profiles Overseas Service Provider Toolkit CO Program Highlight US Resettlement Lesson Plans and Tools Videos US Refugee Program About COR Center Our Publications Refugee Discussion Refugee Discussion Archive Tell a friend	CO Program Highlight Archive Refugees from Burma: Thailand Population and Environment CO activities are currently centered upon Mae La camp (population almost 50,000), some 50 minutes north of the town of Mae Sot. The camp is about 70% Karen, 25% “Burmese Muslim (for more information on this group, read Annex 1),” and small numbers of other ethnicities. The option of applying for resettlement to the US was offered to the entire population of Mae La. To date, some one-third of the population has taken up the offer. Smaller numbers of refugees reside in Umpiem and Nupo camps, to whom resettlement was also offered; the populations there are roughly similar in composition to that of Mae La. (For more information regarding the camps, please see Annex 2. Activities: CO Classes CO classes in Mae La are three to five days in length, covering the attitudes, knowledge, and skills refugees will need to make their resettlement experience in the U.S. as successful as possible. Class size is ordinarily about 25 for adults, and 20 to 25 for children and youth, although classes become larger and shorter, perhaps only one or two days, if we receive the list of departures only a few days before they travel, as can happen when the number of departures increases dramatically toward the end of the fiscal year. Although refugees learn about the kinds of assistance they can expect to receive from resettlement agencies and government services, CO classes also emphasize the importance of self-sufficiency and the need to find a job as quickly as possible. Recent additions to our curriculum include ‘family day,’ when parents and children are brought together to discuss the changes they will experience in family roles, methods of child discipline, and maintaining the valuable aspects of their own culture. Simultaneous with this session single students have their own group discussions on dating in the US and other facets of living as a single person in a new country. The Karen, in particular, can be rather shy and reticent to voice legitimate requests for assistance or complaints, so CO classes also focus on the need to be pro-active, and to take responsibility for obtaining help and achieving one’s own success in the United States. Activities: Daycare and Parenting An experienced child care worker on IOM staff developed a daily program of activities for the young children in the CO day-care center. A total of ten refugee daycare workers were hired and received an initial two-day training course in the care of the children, safety issues, and conducting activities (with further daily training and supervision for the first month). Activities included in the daycare program include music, singing, chanting and dance, drawing, arts and crafts, English lessons, and storytelling, as well as basic care of the children’s physical needs. Two child care rooms are used; one for tiny babies and one for children up to age ten. Daily attendance varies considerably, from a low of eight to a high of 66. The rooms are too small for the larger groups, but the space allotted to IOM is extremely limited and there are no options to expand. A parenting program targeting the parents of the children in the daycare center was developed for implementation at the start of July. The one-day course focuses on hygiene (30-45 min), nutrition (1 ½ hrs), disciplining children and teenagers (1 ½ hrs), and other topics such as maintenance and cleanliness of the home, and topics related to schooling and parents. Activities: The Information Campaign IOM is currently conducting a multi-faceted information campaign to provide refugees with accurate information about the U.S. refugee resettlement program. Newsletters, addressing resettlement issues, camp rumors, and misinformation about resettlement, cover explanations of the OPE and DHS interviewing process; the IOM medical screening process; facts about travel loan repayment; jobs for refugees in the U.S.; transportation; education; and many other aspects of resettlement life in America. Many bits of misinformation circulating in the camps are addressed in the newsletters as well, such as the rumor that all refugee males must join the U.S. army, or that Asians and Muslims face heavy discrimination in America. Meetings in the various camp sections and with leadership groups such as the influential KWO (Karen Women’s Organization) and KYO (Karen Youth Organization) continue to be an important part of the campaign. IOM staff organizes Q&A sessions in various camp sections, addressing questions on topics from the OPE interview and medical check processes to the education, employment, and health care systems in the U.S., and exactly how much support would be provided by the government, and for how long. In addition, IOM continues its ‘tea-shop diplomacy’ and house-to-house visitation strategies, to learn of the latest rumors and general camp attitudes toward the resettlement program. Picture boards, showing general images of life in America, and in particular, refugee life in America, serve as “24-hour cultural orientation information centers,” and always have crowds of refugees keen to get a visual notion of what life in America may be like for them. Pictorial topics are arranged on three-and-a-half foot feature boards, and topics have included American food, famous locations in the U.S., American holidays, refugee jobs, refugee housing, pictures of departing refugees, American leisure activities and sports, transportation, letters from resettled refugees, resettlement agency services, and more. Theater: Four shows, staged between the end of June and October 2007, were performed by a team of refugee actors from Mae La camp. The shows followed one refugee family’s decisionmaking process of whether to resettle in America or not, and then their adventures in traveling to the US and trying to adapt to life there. The shows were performed in the large Mae La camp, and permission was obtained from the Thai authorities to allow the actors to travel to Nupo and Umpiem camps, as well, making this effort our first “road show.” Interest in all the camps was very high, with usually one to two thousand people in the audience for each performance. The shows have been filmed and put onto VCD, for later distribution in the camps.	Download the full "Refugees from Burma" highlight as a PDF. Click here to view images of camp life in Thailand. Click here to view images of the Information Campaign in Thailand. Highlights Learn more about other programs we have spotlighted by choosing from the list below. Refugees Served by IOM Central Asia and Europe Eritrean Refugees in Shimelba, Ethiopia Karenni Refugees in Mae Hong Son, Thailand Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal Iranian Religious Minorities in Vienna Groups in West Africa Groups in East and Sub-Saharan Africa Refugees from Iraq The "1972 Burundians" CO Program Highlight COR Center Publications Order Form

CO Program Highlight Archive

Refugees from Burma: Thailand

CO Program Highlight

COR Center Publications Order Form