Refugees Stereotyping Name: Institution: Refugees Stereotyping Question 1 American refugee families face many challenges in their everyday lives. While some refugee families assimilate and acculturate into the American system, others find it difficult to cope with these challenges, hence, ending up in deplorable circumstances. The difficulties these families face are enormous and refugees that cannot cope with them languish in poverty and desperation. One of the greatest challenges refugees face when they come to America is the challenge of acceptance. Koppelman (2011) suggests the assisted acculturation and assimilation of refugees as the best way to assist them.
Society tends to alienate or reject refugees simply because they are not natives or are of a different color. Refugees, therefore, struggle with these issues having no one to turn to and, thus, are likely to run into problems or resort to crime in order to survive. The American society has an opportunity to assist refugees begin new lives, recollect their past and prosper in the new and challenging environment. Failing to help these people is a failure on American’s part to assist them to become established and knowledgeable students. Refugees require humanitarian assistance and special programs that will assist them recover and chart a promising future. Inability to provide services and an environment suitable for their recovery places them in difficult conditions (Koppelman, 2011). Hostility from American citizens and the lack of welfare programs would doom the lives of the already traumatized and desperate individuals that come to seek refuge and a new beginning.
They, therefore, need food, shelter, clothing and a means of income. Without these provisions, they may never survive the harsh conditions of the new life. Refugee assistance is a critical contribution to their recovery and a crucial step towards their success (Koppelman, 2011). The government must develop programs for the provision of necessities and accessories for refugees. Citizens, on the other hand, have a duty to be hospitable and co-exist peacefully and in understanding with refugees. Individuals can also join programs offering services that help refugees.
Native people can also assist them in seeking employment and accessing other essential services from the government and the community. The most crucial responsibility the government and society have in helping refugees, however, is the provision of a favorable environment for the refugees within the community. Question 2 Generalizations direct the overall perceptions people have on a certain group of humans.
A great number of the population, for example, might perceive refugees as people who come to America to scramble for the limited resources. In other instances, some people might view all other non-Americans as refugees. These generalizations lead to the creation of stereotypes. For example, all black people might be viewed as poor people from Africa even though some of them have lived in America for most of their lives. Categorization of refugees into communities and groups according to their ethnic origins or their countries leads to the development of negative stereotypes (Elliot & Segal, 2012).
Negative stereotyping results from the general perceptions of individuals that what is right for a person is right for the entire community. Thus, communities and groups of refugees or individuals make a significant contribution to the stereotyping issue. The Jim Crow Museum of Racism located in Michigan is the best Museum with racism and racial stereotyping memorabilia in the USA. The items exhibiting in the museum show a lot of racist material compiled over the years depicting racial discrimination against colored people. The following are some of the questions about the museum exhibit I will find: Why are black people less intelligent and sophisticated than white people? The Revision of the question: What factors contribute to poverty in African countries? The rest of the questions for the museum exhibit: Why do racial stereotypes exist even in modern times? Is the level of racial/refugee stereotyping increasing or reducing? What generalizations do Americans have on refugees and refugee communities? How does racial stereotyping affect the development/ progress of refugee recovery? What has the government and concerned bodies done to curb increasing racial stereotyping? References Elliott, D., & Segal, U. A.
(2012). Refugees worldwide. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.
Koppelman, K. L. (2011). Perspectives on human differences. Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.
