Not a Normal Resettlement
Day 4
Normally the first week is rather intense, but every refugee resettlement case is a different situation. Sometimes, apparently, radically different. By accepting two resettlement cases, via an extended family of 8, we expected more work than usual. Yet, we have less work.
The reason behind this unusual situation is two-fold. First the families are currently living with relatives who are taking care of many of their basic needs until we get them into more permanent housing within the next couple weeks. Second, they’re living about 25 miles away.
In a normal resettlement members of our team would be visiting the family every day to make sure that all is well and to keep planning the next steps.
But this time, our main activity is more pre-arrival type activity. We’re still working on arrangements for local housing, while the relatives see to the day-to-day issues.
It feels strange to be so relaxed this early in the process. I am sure that within a few weeks, when the family moves in locally, there will be greater issues.
One thing that did happen today was a conversation with the local public assistance case worker. Actually the conversation was with a substitute for the pre-screener.
The conversation did not go well because the refugees are currently living in the next county, thus not considered the concern of the local office. We’re trying to get a jump on things, but “the system,” or the entrenched government workers, appear to be against us on this point. Of course, we’ll get it to work out in the end.
The key take-away from this lesson is that when talking to government employees, don’t say anything outside of that which would be expected or that doesn’t follow their script exactly. Exceptions are not received well.
