Where to find cultural information
There are many organizations that deal directly with refugees and disseminate information about why those populations are displaced. Among them:
- Cultural Orientation Resource Center-Although this site is no longer active, resources still house here can give information about students from Syria, Congo, Darfur, Somalia, Bhutan, Burma and more. The list of all the cultural backgrounders can be found here.
- BRYCS-Bridging Refugee Youth and Children Services, or BRYCS, is a clearinghouse of multiple resources relating to teaching refugees. Among them:
- Refugee 101 What is a refugee and what is the process of coming here?
- Refugee Populations has links to cultural background resources on major populations in the United States. HeadStart has also created a worksheet to help educators work together find out more about families using BRYCS backgrounders.
- Refugee Portal has links to documents in several languages to help strengthen a family-school relationship.
- Educating Refugee and Immigrant Students Online Training Course provides free or paid versions of a course to help educators. Additional free modules can be found on this page.
- CDC Refugee Health Profiles are specifically targeted at health workers. They can help people in schools look at how people from different cultural backgrounds deal with health issues and beliefs.
- YouTube. If you know where a student came from, oftentimes there is a youtube video that can help get a glimpse into what students' reality was before.
Vermont's ties to refugees
Timeline of Refugee Arrival to Burlington
1980-----Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP) is established.
1981-89-----Small number of refugees from Laos, Cambodia, & Eastern Europe resettled in the Burlington Area.
1992-----Over 600 Vietnamese refugees are in Burlington by this time ending this large scale resettlement.
1994-----War in Yugoslavia (1991-2001) begins the next large wave of refugee admissions to Burlington. The refugees are mostly Bosnian. The war in Bosnia lasted from 1991-1995.
1998-----Refugee admissions in VT are 350 per year for the first time. Many Bosnians seeking asylum from other European nations arrive in Burlington.
2000-----English language learners number over 300 in the Burlington Schools.
2003-----The resettlement of Somali Bantu begins.
2004-2007-----Resettlement of Somali Bantu continues. Small numbers of Sudanese, Congolese, Burundian, and other African refugees are resettled.
2008-2010-----Refugees from Iraq, Bhutanese refugees from Nepal, and Burmese refugees from Thailand arrive.
2010-----English language learners number over 600 in the Burlington schools.
For the past few years, numbers of English Learners in Burlington School District, not all of whom are refugees, ranges from 530-550 students. Our biggest populations are Nepali-speaking Bhutanese, Somali (speakers of Somali, Maay Maay and Mahaa) and Vietnamese, though we are starting to see more .
For more information on these populations, visit these pages:
1980-----Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program (VRRP) is established.
1981-89-----Small number of refugees from Laos, Cambodia, & Eastern Europe resettled in the Burlington Area.
1992-----Over 600 Vietnamese refugees are in Burlington by this time ending this large scale resettlement.
1994-----War in Yugoslavia (1991-2001) begins the next large wave of refugee admissions to Burlington. The refugees are mostly Bosnian. The war in Bosnia lasted from 1991-1995.
1998-----Refugee admissions in VT are 350 per year for the first time. Many Bosnians seeking asylum from other European nations arrive in Burlington.
2000-----English language learners number over 300 in the Burlington Schools.
2003-----The resettlement of Somali Bantu begins.
2004-2007-----Resettlement of Somali Bantu continues. Small numbers of Sudanese, Congolese, Burundian, and other African refugees are resettled.
2008-2010-----Refugees from Iraq, Bhutanese refugees from Nepal, and Burmese refugees from Thailand arrive.
2010-----English language learners number over 600 in the Burlington schools.
For the past few years, numbers of English Learners in Burlington School District, not all of whom are refugees, ranges from 530-550 students. Our biggest populations are Nepali-speaking Bhutanese, Somali (speakers of Somali, Maay Maay and Mahaa) and Vietnamese, though we are starting to see more .
For more information on these populations, visit these pages: