Counseling approaches for immigrant and refugee college students

Counseling Immigrants and Refugees - Bring the World to your Backyard

Immigrants add depth to the American cultural landscape, and enhance the character of our already colorful communities. This is true in microcosms, such as school campuses. It is therefore critical to address the needs of immigrant populations. Addressing the needs of immigrant populations with specialized counseling services is a good way to minimize mental health problems, address physical health needs, and also provide the means by which to foster healthy community growth and social development. This proposal for an immigrant-specific counseling program takes into account the differential needs of immigrants based on culture of origin, nation of origin, languages of origin, gender, socio-economic class, and refugee status.

Refugees are a special category of immigrant, but both immigrants and refugees are foreign nationals who expatriate. In the United States, and indeed most developed countries, there is a clear and legal differentiation between immigrants and refugees. Refugees seek asylum from political persecution or crisis. Both immigrants and refugees move for "a better life," but there are more serious "push" factors involved in refugees' decision to leave their home country ("Immigrant vs. Refugee," 2013). One of the most important distinguishing features of a refugee vs. An immigrant is that, "In most cases, it is not possible for them to go back to their country," ("Immigrant vs. Refugee," 2013). The 1951 Geneva Convention definition of a refugee has been supplemented in the United States by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) in section 101(a)(42)(United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, 2013). Refugees are said to seek political asylum; immigrants seek jobs.

According to the textbook, immigrants will become a substantial part of the American economic, social, and political future. "Immigrants living in the U.S. make up approx. 12% of the population - And about half of these 33.5 million people have arrived since 1990," (Text). Although half of all immigrants to the United States are from Central and South America, the biggest mistake is lumping all immigrants and refugees into one category. In fact, immigrants come from all over the world and are therefore a heterogeneous group. Even within the Latin American cohort, there will be some cultural, economic, and social differences that will impact things like communication style, attitudes, beliefs, and involvement in the community.

Adjustment to life in the United States is dependent on various factors such as language, gender, and socio-economic class status. Some immigrant students arrive on their own with no family to help them, presenting unique challenges to the individual and the counselor. Some speak little to no English. Others come to live with family, and have strong English language skills. Some have money, while many do not. Some of the most common hardships related to adjustment to life in the United States are issues that can be mitigated by simple understanding of differential needs. Those needs include access to social services, community outreach, healthcare, career counseling, professional development, language courses, and social support networks including leisure activities. Of course, not all services are needed in all communities. Individual differences also determine needs.

Counseling strategies must be culturally relevant and culturally sensitive. The counselors should ideally have experience working with the target community, or at least some familiarity with the culture, its language, and its customs. Reading books like The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Fadiman (1997) highlight the importance of counselor knowledge and sensitivity. The health care workers in the Fadiman (1997) case study were not understanding of the needs of the Hmong refugee family needing their services. As a result, social services took their child away and placed her in a foster home without delivering the proper care she needed. Counselors working with Chinese clients should be familiar with Chinese culture and perhaps language, depending on the language status of the target population. Small issues, such as the color scheme of the office or the number of the office door can have a large bearing on the receptivity of the clients. For example, the number four is bad luck in Chinese culture. If a counseling office is located at number 4, it might be a good idea to change the number if working with the Chinese community.

Best practices will take all sociological dimensions into account including gender, class, and social status. The presence or absence of existing social support networks must be established. If the individual has access to a social support network such as family or cultural center, then the person can be advised to use that network for leverage. However, many refugees will arrive without such luxuries. The counselor should be in the position of researching what resources might be available for the student, and guide that student to using those resources. Sometimes students simply remain unaware that resources and programs are available to them, because their counselors did not research enough or failed to communicate about the presence of such services.

Ideally, counseling styles and communication styles should be culturally sensitive. Avoiding judgment and confrontation is likely to be important in counseling sessions. Issues like transference and countertransference should be avoided, and biases eliminated by self-awareness and self-reflection. The counselor is ethically obliged to excuse herself or himself from counseling any individual or community towards which there is a bias. For example, a counselor whose grandmother is a Holocaust survivor might not feel comfortable counseling a Germany student whose grandfather fought with the Nazis.