refugee issues

[kusojiji]

anyone working with adult refugee populations?

[Tessa Olive]

Yes, I'm teaching adult refugees from Iraq here in Sydney. They are in a difficult situation because they are all on temporary refugee visas and have been for more than three years. They can't access free adult education (they would have to pay overseas students' rates) which they can't afford so they do the rounds of free/voluntary language services. The Australian govt has taken a hard line with these people (milking votes) keeping many in detention centres out in the middle of no-where for long periods (months, years!) while they process them. How long does it take to process these people?! Forever, apparently. The students I teach are all female, although the course is open to both sexes, and they all arrived in Australia by boat, a very scary prospect considering the people traffickers are unscrupulous and the boats are ricketty and overcrowded. They tell me their children, mothers, husbands, sisters etc. are scattered all over the world and some are still back in Iraq. As they are 'temporary refugees' (trying to make permanent their status) their lives are in limbo, can't make roots in case they are uprooted.
As I work on a shoe string (basically a room, a black board and me), I'm always on the lookout for materials. This site has been invaluable.
Bye for now!

[sita]

I only meet them at court.........

[snappy]

hi,

I'm currently teaching recent immigrants in SW Florida and am faced with many of the same issues as Tessa describes. One good resouce I've found is the Oxford Basics Series. There's a listening, speaking and presenting new language book, each of the 30 lessons follow the same topics. So Ch. 26 in each book covers housework, for example. And the beauty of the book is that nothing more than a board, paper and pens are needed. JoeBob says check it out. At Oxford University Press at www.oup.com

snappy