Warmly Welcoming Refugees: Ready to #InspireHope?

My View

Refugees are a polarizing issue. The latest wave of those desperately in need — so much so they risk their lives on flimsy crafts on the open sea — are from Syria. They’re in a life-and-death battle.
In North America, another battle wages over opening our doors to these and other refugees. Some want to create a safe haven. Others fear the impact on society, including schools.

Consider these comments:

• “Putting them on a boat and sending them back home would end crime in this country.”
• “Few of their children in the country learn English. They will soon outnumber us and we will not be able to preserve our language.”

The first quote is from a 19th century Chicago Post story about Irish immigrants, the second is from Benjamin Franklin about German immigration. Each era often sees the newcomer as the danger to “our way of life.”

An Imperative Response

What does that mean for school districts in 2016? Public education is a key place of inclusion and common ground where, as my Peel District School Board in Ontario says, the world comes to learn.

Educators have a moral imperative to respond to the refugee crisis with caring, compassion and action. Here are three keys.

Be a voice for the voiceless.

School districts do this well. Without that voice, there wouldn’t be support for everything from special education to breakfast programs for families in poverty to Gay/Straight Alliance groups. That same voice must be heard for refugee families.

That means standing against the voices of anxiety and discrimination. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people.”

School districts shouldn’t be silent. My board wasn’t. Our trustees wrote the government to request more refugees be allowed and at an accelerated process. We want to welcome them to schools and communities that will inspire success, confidence and hope.

The moral imperative — the service to students, the voice for the voiceless — is clear. Have you had this discussion with your board? Will they take a stand?

Equity is not equal. Refugee students need more.

As leaders in school districts, we pride ourselves on giving all students the same access, rules and welcome. For refugee students, equal simply isn’t enough.

Many families in your community come to school with a wealth of privileges, not least of which is knowing how the system works. Refugees come with a unique sense of loss and face a struggle with a new country and a very different school experience.

We establish structures and processes to help other students who struggle. With refugees we need to go much farther, and it starts with registration.

Some school secretaries behave like border guards, doing everything possible to root out potential invaders. For refugees, the endless questioning and document chase can seem cruel. As well, many immigrants arrive with huge gaps in education. Add in the lack of grade equivalency between countries and varying levels of English, and you get a recipe for an unpleasant and frankly unfair process.

In Peel, a district that has 154,000 students, we partnered with the federal government, which is responsible for immigration, to fund three We Welcome the World Centres. Last year, they greeted, academically assessed and registered more than 5,000 students. Meanwhile, skilled settlement workers walked parents through the school system in their language.

Beyond the expected, the centres refer the parents or older siblings to language or job training and to dental and vision screening with the local health department.

Not every district can have such centres. But review your registration rules. Talk to local agencies serving refugees. Do focus groups with newcomers. And recommend ways to create greater equity in your welcoming process.

Set the stage for success.

We created an action team and a report to the board for our support of refugees called “#InspireHope: Ensuring a warm welcome and successful school experience for refugees.” (http://bit.ly/peel-board-inspire-hope) 

The approach is unabashedly optimistic. The narrative for refugees is often negative, a story of struggle and desperation. It’s our role to share how we support refugees and make them a part of our amazing school family.

Each September, for example, we pitch our We Welcome the World Centres as a first-day-at-school story. The public can’t help but be moved when they hear of those who travelled here from unspeakable trauma and who now are excited about finding their child a place to learn.

Find a way to tell that story. Like public education, it’s a story of success. Of confidence. Of hope.