Topic: Cultural Adjustment (IOM Bangkok)

Activity: Who is an American?

Introduction

America is a multi-cultural society, made up of people from practically every nationality and ethnic group. Refugees need to know that the ethnic make-up in America will be much more varied than the fairly homogenous societies they are coming from. Also, refugees may have the notion that people of their ethnicity cannot be Americans.

Objectives

Participants will understand the multi-ethnic nature of American society.

Participants will understand that people of any ancestry can become Americans.

Time

10 minutes

Materials

• Pictures of both Americans (of many ethnicities) and a few non-Americans (mostly Caucasian), enough pictures to give one to every participant

• Picture of a tossed salad

Procedure

Variation I: Use only non-famous people of several different ethnicities, all of whom are Americans.

Variation II: Use pictures of both famous and non-famous people, some of whom are Caucasian non-Americans.

1. Tell the participants that you are going to give each of them a picture of a person. If they think their picture is of an American, they are to stand on one side of the room. If they think their picture is of a non-American, they are to stand on the other side.

2. Hand out the pictures, and have the participants move to the sides of the room.

3. It is up to the trainer which group to begin with (the ‘Americans’ or the ‘non-Americans’), but go picture by picture, one at a time, asking the participant to hold up their picture to let everyone else see. [Var. I: Go to the ‘American’ group first, and confirm that, yes, all of these people can be Americans; then go to the ‘non-American’ side, asking each person why they thought their picture was not American, and asking the whole class what they think. Bring the class to the consensus that ANYONE can become an American, and have all the participants stand on the ‘American’ side of the room.] [Var. II: Ask if anyone knows who the person in the picture is (many of the pictures are of famous people), and what nationality that person is. If the participant is standing in the wrong group (for example, they thought Pierce Brosnan was American because he was white), send them over to stand with the correct group.]

4. At the end of the exercise, have the ‘American’ side hold up their pictures, and ask the group ‘Who can be an American?’, or ‘Where are Americans from?’ It should be clear to all that Americans can be of any ethnicity, and can come from any country.

5. Emphasize that each group who came to America, whether it was a new Caucasian group like the Irish or the Italians, or other ethnicities, such as Africans, Asians, or Latinos, all came, struggled and worked hard, fought for their rights, and became part of the ‘tossed salad’ that is today’s American society. Show a picture of a tossed salad to get across the idea that although each group becomes part of the whole society, it is still able to maintain some of its own essential identity.

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