Every resettlement brings about different issues.  Each becomes its own story.  Each varies somehow in its outcome.

Our current resettlement case is still underway.  We’re more than 3 months in at this point and we’ve reached an interesting milestone… 4 moves.  That is we’ve moved the family, or parts of the family, into 4 different living quarters.

Well, to be fair, I should state that our case really consisted of two family units.  So, maybe that’s only two each.  In that case it’s not bad.  If you’re following along, the playbook looks like this…

1. Pick up 8 family members at the airport.  There was much tiredness as the trip from Thailand to Milwaukee is arduous.
2. Same day, move them all into a close relative’s apartment in Milwaukee.  There was much joy in the reuniting.  (move 1)
3. A few weeks later, unpack the sardine-like situation, moving the recent 8 arrivals into a house in Waukesha. There were mixed emotions of separation and settling down. (move 2)
4. A couple months later, split the family in half, with the parents and siblings of the relative in Milwaukee wanting to move back to Milwaukee and away from the others.  Meanwhile the related family unit in Waukesha wanted their separation, and found reason to stay in Waukesha. This was mostly happy, though I think a couple that moved would have been better off staying and one who stayed really wanted to move. (move 3)
5. With the expense of renting a house on their own completely unaffordable at this point, the family remaining in Waukesha had to downsize.  Today we moved them into an apartment. I think they were happy about this. (move 4)

So there you have it.  Four moves – a single resettlement.  With any luck the present situation becomes stable.

I am writing this so that you have awareness that refugee resettlement is not always predictable…

There is a “system” in place in which we have to abide.  (Regardless of my feelings about the system at various points in time, the only way to navigate it successfully in any given moment is to go with the flow.)  There are personalities of the refugees and personalities of the resettlement team members.  Everyone involved, best as I can tell, is human.  That makes us fallible.  We do our best with the information we have and discover the consequences at future points.

This is all to say that as much as we would like to follow a simple checklist of “do this then that,” it doesn’t always work out that way.  For example, my list says, “move them into an apartment where they can live until they decide to move themselves.”  And, there is only one alternative which states, “move them into some temporary housing until the apartment is available.”  That’s it, two moves.

Some may be disappointed that we have extra work to do.  Some feel bad for those of us who have to do the same activity over again.  But neither of those is necessary.  We have chosen to help refugees get started with a new life here.  If it takes 4 moves to get it right, then so be it!  We want to get it right.

By the way, we had enough help to get everything moved out of the house into a pickup truck and several minivans, a couple trips back and forth, and we were done in 2 hours.

Now if we can stop moving, let’s get focused on employment!

Actual numbers will, of course, vary by family.  Size of family, health care needs, education requirements, English language ability, background like experiences - all of these will play a factor in the volunteer effort and the amount of time needed to help with their adjustment to a new life.

In addition to time there will be expenses.  At first the largest expense will typically be housing.  The second greatest expense will typically be food.  Both of these will vary depending on family size and location of resettlement.

Since I started this blog series as a case study of our current refugee resettlement case I’d like to demonstrate the effort that we’ve already expended.

The family arrived on July 21.  Through July 31 our resettlement team contributed 69.75 hours, had driven 552 miles, and spent $750.97.  The biggest segment of time (32.25 hours) related to housing issues, mostly preparation of space and coordination of donations.  The largest expense ($377) was food.  

In August our resettlement team added 286.5 hours, drove 1,081.5 miles, and spent $772.41.  The greatest use of time was, once again housing, with 145 hours.  Move-in day was in August so many people were involved with transporting donated goods and helping to convert an empty house into a home.  Again the biggest expense was food with $462 in that category.

So, our six week summary reports 356.25 hours of volunteer time, $1,523.38 spent on their behalf, and 1633.5 miles driven.

Volunteer time will drop significantly in September.  Since 30 days has passed and the family now has a food assistance card, our obligation to pay for food has ended.  They are receiving cash in the form of a matching grant so we should not have to pay for incidentals at this point either.

Our total expenses will go up for the next couple months, however.  Because of timing, in this resettlement case we were able to apply some of the refugee’s own resettlement grant money to the first month’s rent and security deposit.  That’s why housing was not our greatest expense above. 

Since the family is enrolled in the matching grant program we cannot use their matching grant funds for their own housing.  Therefore, our financial assistance for housing will take a big jump up in September.

One of our co-chairs and her husband went to the family’s house twice today.  First she returned some bedding that she had taken home to wash, and she picked up more blankets to launder later.  Yesterday we believed that the wash machine in the house did not work.  Today the consensus is that it works, but the cold water delivery isn’t up to par.  It will have to be fixed.

The first cultural lesson of the day could also be considered a food safety lesson.  This is a lesson we’ve had to teach to several families.  That is, leftover food should be refrigerated. 

In this case leftover chicken from yesterday’s lunch was discovered in a bowl in the cupboard.  We’ve seen other families use cupboards, the oven, and even microwave oven as food storage places.  If you consider their past, from days in a refugee camp, having leftover food is probably not a very usual problem.  And, when it is, you would want to store somewhere that bugs or other animals will not get it.  If a refrigerator is unavailable you’d work with what you have.

Common language is not necessary to teach this lesson.  Simply pointing, and explaining that it belongs in the refrigerator, while putting it in there is generally sufficient.  The lesson may need to be repeated before it really sticks.  We’ll also put this on our list of things to discuss further the next time we have the convenience of an interpreter.

On the second trip, our co-chair returned the freshly laundered blankets and supervised the delivery of new bed rails and the box spring mattress for a queen size bed.  She and her husband also swapped out the mattress on a twin size bed with a brand new mattress that was donated. 

They also demonstrated how to use the alarm function on the alarm clock the family received.  It seemed rather complicated so we may need to replace the clock with a simpler one at some point.  The use of an alarm clock becomes important when we schedule early appointments and becomes much more critical once employment is obtained.

Several bicycles were donated.  These are great for family members to get around and explore their neighborhood.  Until they master the local bus service and/or get a car the bikes can be a way to move around independently.  Someone on our resettlement team will have to take a look to make sure they’re all safe with tires properly inflated.

A retired plumber from our church stopped by the house to fix an outside water faucet.  It was dripping, OK running, much more than it should in an off position.  No point in running up extra water utility bills.

The other co-chair took the family grocery shopping.  This resulted in another cultural lesson.  Fortunately she noticed, before leaving the house, that one of the adults entered the minivan barefoot.  She had to point out that footwear is required in grocery stores.  This resulted in some conversation and the ultimate acquisition of shoes, potentially borrowed from someone else in the family.

While grocery shopping they indicated a need to purchase shoes.  Since the grocery store was not next to a shoe store that purchase will have to wait.

Overall the family seemed happy and pretty comfortable in their new home.

I really enjoy move-in day.  Actually this is one of my favorite parts of the entire refugee resettlement process.  Picking up at the airport is my other favorite time.  To me these are the big transitional moments.

So, move-in day…

We arrived at the temporary housing (their relative’s apartment) at about 9:20 this morning.  We already faced heavy driving rain and wind to get there.  I had our car, my wife had the minivan.  Another member of our team brought a car.  We had to transport 8 people, some mattresses, plus drivers and luggage, so we needed three vehicles.

The family was ready and waiting for us.  Between blasts of rain drops we hustled loads into the cars and van.  It appeared that everyone was anxious to move on and get to their own home.

By 10:00, or shortly thereafter, we had everyone to the house.  Work began about 9:00 so already much was in order by the time we arrived with the family.  For the most part we directed what went where, but whenever there was doubt we tried to get the opinion of the new occupants.

A living room was set up.  Dishes washed and in cupboards.  Beds placed in bedrooms.  Some pictures hung on walls.  Sheets, towels, utensils, tools, cleaning products, tables, lamps, television, and more all placed in appropriate places.

We had volunteers from church helping to organize and helping to pick up and deliver furniture.  Because of the weather our team had to pick up more than we had originally planned on.  Some of the previous owners were going to drop things off but they did not have an enclosed trailer.  So two guys on our team spent much of the day running around gathering things.  Too many couches.  Those will go to other families.  There were enough mattresses for everyone, though not all had frames yet.

Around noon, another Burmese family, our previous refugee family, brought over lunch.  There was a rice dish, a noodle dish, and my favorite – something called mow-ray-tow (at least that’s how I remember it pronounced) – that was flame throwing hot.  It was a red sauce that I put over white rice.  I kept going back for more.  Perhaps the pain was addicting.  My nose didn’t stop running for the entire meal.

Then back to work, moving more things into place.  We got the television hooked up to a digital converter box.  It pulls in a couple local channels.

The family was taught how to use a cellphone to dial 9-1-1 in case of an emergency.  They were showed how to use the electric stove.  We taught them about the fire extinguisher and had them test the smoke detector. 

I turned down the water heater which was previously set on vaporize!  Hopefully the temperature drop prevents the burning of hands or other flesh, both young and old.

By the end of the day, almost everything was in place.  Most importantly the family is happy, at least in this moment.  The darkest days are yet to come, but not for a month or two.  For now we celebrate this momentous milestone!

The big news today is that we were finally able to get an intake appointment for food and medical assistance!  This will happen next week in a 4 hour-long meeting. 

For an average American family going through this process it is expected to be a 2.5 hour meeting.  Throw in an interpreter and we add another hour and a half!  Much of this could be eliminated if we, as sponsors, could just answer on behalf of the refugees.  Since the refugees don’t know the answers, we typically have to give the guidance anyway.

The other significant event is move-in day tomorrow.  Tonight our leadership team spent some time sorting donations.

Any time we ask for donations there are things we receive that we never asked for.  People with good hearts, who mean well, often contribute things that are wonderful, perfect additions that we would not have considered.  Sometimes we get multiple sets of things beyond our needs (for example, 32 sets of dishes might be a few too many).  And, sometimes they contribute things that we cannot use at all, things that may be clutter or even culturally inappropriate.

So before we take the effort to wash the extra dishes or figure out where in the housing the donated items may go, we spend a little time to decide what should be moved in at all.  As other people drop stuff off on move-in day we scramble to make similar decisions.  But the night before, we can take our time and plan the actions.

Usually after move-in day is completed, we have unusable things that we will take to Goodwill.  Other things are great for refugees in general, but unneeded by our current family.  Those items will go to LSS for another refugee family.  This year we have some things that we might even try to sell on Ebay or Craig’s List.  The money would go into our refugee resettlement fund and be used for food or rent for the family.

This is the first chance we’ve had to get the resettlement team back together since the family arrived just over two weeks ago.  Even so, we had only a total of 6 people available for the meeting.  We’d usually hope for more, but things are moving forward pretty good, so a small core was sufficient.

Two of those present were not from our team.  They were visitors from another church, quite significantly, the church that has resettled the relatives of our current family.  Their team was surprised to recently discover all the extra people living in their family’s apartment.  I can imagine that shock.  Our meeting tonight was a good opportunity to explain our situation and also learn from their experience.  This is their first resettlement experience and it sounds like they’ve been doing a great job.

Primary discussion was that of donations and move-in day.  We have nearly complete coverage of all required items (i.e. those items required by the U.S. State Department  ensuring that refugees receive a basic standard of living and are not just being dumped into tough conditions in a new country) and a fair number of niceties as well.

One of the interesting requirements is that each person have a bed.   It turns out that finding complete beds is usually one of our more difficult tasks, especially when we’re working with larger families.  What makes this requirement interesting is that often the beds go unused.  In some case, beds are not typical culturally.  So we provide them only to discover later they are used for storing other items, a gentle cushion upon which other goods can rest.

Often families have been living together in tight quarters so the are most comfortable to sleep all together on the floor.  We’re not here to push them into what we would call “normal” behavior.  But we make our “normal” available to them.  In time separate beds and bedrooms become appreciated.  We’ve not had a refugee family yet that threw away the beds to make more space available.

Our move-in day will start at 9 a.m. Saturday.  We have several teams ready to pick up donations.  Our previous Burmese refugee family, of Karen ethnicity, has volunteered to make lunch, comfort food for the new family.

Our meeting agenda also included discussion of the matching grant, a welfare alternative designed to financially help the refugees for 3 to 4 months while an aggressively looking for employment. 

Whether they receive the grant or apply for the state welfare program is the refugee family’s choice to make.  We strongly encourage acceptance of the grant because it saves our resettlement team from dealing with one aspect of “the system.”  It also frees up the family to job search and study English without the well-meaning, but cumbersome requirements of welfare.

We also shared an update on the status of applying for a food card.  Food assistance is available for low income families in Wisconsin, but each program is run by individual counties.  We typically apply within days of their arrival, but since they are temporarily in Milwaukee county, we’ve been unable to make real progress.  This could hurt later on as a delay will increase our need to provide food longer than anticipated and therefore at greater expense.