APIASF Releases New Report on Burmese and Bhutanese Refugee Student Communities!

The Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) in collaboration with the Association for Asian American Studies today released a new report, Invisible Newcomers: Refugees from Burma/Myanmar and Bhutan in the United States, which gives voice to and provides comprehensive data about the following “dire” challenges surrounding these refugee populations:

• Difficulty navigating systems to access long-term funding and support services
• Limited-English proficiency
• Intergenerational conflict between children/youth and elders
• Inability to communicate in various realms, including educational access, employment resources, for instance.

In addition to sharing a historical and demographic portrait of the Burmese and Bhutanese experience in the United States, the report outlines several policy implications and offer recommendations for different stakeholders to enhance the refugee integration process.

They include providing adequate pre- and post-arrival orientation sessions, making readily available intensive English-as-a-Second-Language training, extending educational and social support services, and offering job training and job development, to name a few.

This report is part of APIASF’s ongoing initiatives to provide data that more accurately reflects the AAPI community and to help elevate the AAPI student experience in the national higher education dialogue, especially since AAPIs represent the “changing face of America.”For more information about APIASF’s other research projects, click here.

For more information about the report, click here.