In response to Jill's question about refugee populations:
 
We will continue to see groups from East and West Africa, including
Somalis, Ethiopians, Sudanese, and some Liberians. Arrivals of religious
minorities from the former Soviet Union, including Jews, Evangelical
Christians, and Ukranains, will also continue. One of the newer refugee
groups, Meskhetian Turks out of the Krasnodar Krai region in Russia,
some 9,000 of whom have been resettled to the U.S. since FY2005, will
continue to arrive through 2007 and into 2008. A total of up to 16,000
Meskhetian Turks are expected to be resettled all across the U.S. 
 
Arrivals of religious minorities from Iran, including Baha'is and
Christians will continue as well, as will resettlement of Cubans and
small numbers of Columbians. 
 
Some of you will also start seeing refugees from two groups new to the
U.S. Refugee Program:
 
Karen refugees from Burma will start arriving this fall, and up to 9,000
are expected to be resettled over the next few years. They are being
resettled out of Tham Hinh refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. Over
90% of those being accepted for resettlement to the U.S. speak Karen,
and some may speak Burmese or Thai. Between 20% and 30% are
non-literate. Karen are Christians and many adults have experience in
agriculture, fishing, farming, and the health sector. 
 
The so-called 1972 Burundians are refugees primarily of Hutu ethnicity,
who fled the widespread ethnic violence and government-sponsored ethnic
cleansing that took place in Burundi between May and August 1972, and
have been in refugee camps in Tanzania ever since. Upwards of 10,000
Burundians are expected to arrive over the course of several years,
starting in early 2007 and will be resettled across the country. We
don't have reliable statistics on this group yet, as overseas processing
for U.S. resettlement has not started. 
 
As some of you may know, the Cultural Orientation Resource Center at CAL
publishes a series of publications about the history and culture of
particular refugee groups. Past publications include "The Somalis, "The
Liberians," "Hmong," "Muslim Refugees in the United States," and "The
Somali Bantu." We are currently finalizing two Culture Profiles, the
latest in the series, on Meskhetian Turks and on Burmese refugees
(including the Karen.) Both of these will be posted on our Web site,
www.culturalorientation.net in late September and in early October,
respectively. We will also be putting out a fact sheet and a longer
Culture Profile on the 1972 Burundians sometime in October. You can view
current Culture Profiles, and order print copies, by going to
http://www.culturalorientation.net/pubs.html All of the Profiles have
information about language and educational background of these groups,
as well as information about challenges they may face when learning
English.
 
This is just a broad overview, so please let me know if you have
specific questions on any of the groups above, or other groups, and I'll
be happy to continue this discussion.
 
Regards to all
 
Sanja Bebic
Cultural Orientation Resource Center
Center for Applied Linguistics


________________________________

	From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Jill Kramer
	Sent: Monday, August 07, 2006 4:53 PM
	To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
	Subject: [EnglishLanguage 546] Re: Panel discusssion on working
with literacy-level English language learners begins today (longer)
	Importance: Low
	
	
	Sanja -Can you tell us about the immigrant and refugee
populations that we might see in our classes in the near future?  What
are the broad trends and what might certain regions/states expect?
	 
	Debbie - Can you share the materials and resources you use in
your program with the literacy classes?  What training do you give the
volunteers who are working with literacy students?  
	 
	Jill Kramer
	Columbus Literacy Council

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/attachments/20060808/c8e97b9e/attachment.html