Working with Iraqi and Cuban Refugees as a Career Counselor

Working with Iraqi and Cuban Refugees as a Career Counselor Aim of the Research The purpose of this study is to examine the impacts of the lives of Iraqi and Cuban refugees who have arrived the United States. Specifically, this paper will focus on the statistics of the refugees, their emotional standing, their living styles, problem arising due to language barriers, and the difficulties that they face in finding employment in the US.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Working with Iraqi and Cuban Refugees as a Career Counselor specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Introduction Based on Office of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, 2012 saw nearly 1948 Cuban refugees arriving in the US. Most of these individuals had escaped torture and political persecution in their mother nations. On the other hand, 12,122 Iraqi refugees managed to acquire the refugee status in the US with most of them having experienced additional stressors arising from their journey to the US coupled with the proce dures involved in immigration (U.S. Department of Health, 2012). This increased their emotional disturbances given that they were still reeling from traumatic exposures such as war and persecution. From the studies that have been conducted, it has been identified that discrimination and intolerance are the leading obstacles that these individuals are facing as they try to adjust to the mainstream culture. Therefore, the most widespread mental symptoms for such refugees include overwhelming fears and worries, restlessness, feeling on the edge, and anger management issues (Bemak et al., 2003).  The Iraqi and Cuban refugees face various challenges while in the US. First, they have been forced to adopt a culture that is different as compared to their traditional customs and beliefs. Therefore, they strive to achieve financial success as a means of overcoming this obstacle (Robin, 2003). These refugees also strive to ensure that their children receive the best education they can afford to ensure that they are successful in the long run, a practice that is considered as a norm within the normal American population. This makes them susceptible to depression, nervousness, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (Hardin et al., 2001). Notably, some states do not provide physical or mental health screening for these refugees. Consequently, the government and the non-governmental organizations that deal with refugee affairs do not consider their psychological problems especially in dealing with their employment issues (U.S. Department of Health, 2012). From the studies that have been conducted, the main problem that these refugees are facing is finding work especially under the current economy slowdown although they get help from resettlement centers with the assistance of the International Rescue Committee. However, as compared to the Cuban refugees, most of the Iraqi refugees are highly educated comprising doctors, architects, and translators.Advertising Looking f or essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Most of these individuals had been successful in life while living in Iraq. However, most of these qualifications are not recognized and even the ones that are recognized do face barriers such as deficit of local job experience in addition to lack of knowledge regarding the US work environment. Due to stereotypes arising from September 11 attacks, most employers do not want to give them jobs. To some extent, these individuals find it hard to rent apartments due to discrimination by the owners. It is only in one instance that the State Department offered a grant of $425 for every person in a single family and the refugee aid-groups do not have sufficient resources. Other difficulties they get in trying to seek employment include the inability to speak English and discrimination from employers. This discrimination does not just entail skills but type of jobs since mo st are given the option of seasonal or part-time jobs (Robin, 2003). Others are forced to quit due to their physical or psychological ill health. For instance, it has been reported that most refugees are forced to undertake long sessions of training to work. However, after this extensive training, only a few of them are employed and once employed, they are paid at lower rates as compared to other employees within the organization (Robin, 2003). Literature Review Numerous studies of refugees have focused on the outcome of their mounting traumas on their overall welfare, especially the children and young people. Focusing on the first group, the children, there are those who have lost one or both of their parents. Most of the Iraqi children barely escaped death in their homeland. Therefore, given that they rigorously undertake intensive English lessons as a second language (ESL) course, they continue to face serious communication issues especially in dealing with their severe depressio n or PTSD. Their post-migration phase is filled with numerous stressors such as acculturation, language barriers, prejudices, and thrashing of social status (Hardin et al., 2001). Secondly, the young men have identified language and lack of cultural competence and knowledge to be a key factor of their deteriorating mental health and career problems. Due to such barriers, the counselors need to apply integrative and holistic means in dealing with mental health problems faced by the children and young men, their deprived self-concept, and their advanced self-efficacy concerns.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Working with Iraqi and Cuban Refugees as a Career Counselor specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Acculturation is a factor with members of Iraqi and Cuba populations. This is evident through their own assumptions, prejudices, and preconceived notions against the western culture (Bemak, Chung, Pedersen, 2003).  Furt hermore, their values and personal limitations make them to have a totally different understanding of cultural diversity. Therefore, it is crucial to understand their values and assumptions regarding human behavior. Both Cuban and Iraqi refugees belong to a collectivistic and group-oriented culture, particularly on their psychological orientations and focus of responsibility (Robin, 2003). Therefore, identity development models will help in understanding the target population as they assist in recognizing the most pronounced psychological stress on the refugees’ ability to choose their careers. Therefore, vocational identity theories as proposed by Robin (2003) will help in their career counseling since they entail developing assimilationist, limited assimilationist, and bicultural model applications.  The career counselors of these refugees should not desist from applying confrontational approach, since the care-frontational methods entail the counselor delicately explaini ng the cost of retaining their conventional attitudes and behaviors, a factor that is detrimental to their careers and work experiences. For instance, an employee can be encouraged to improve on his/her time management skills because his/her performance plays a critical role in determining his productivity as well as the performance of other employees within the organization. From a critical analysis therefore, it is evident that this model is associated with people who are coping with new cultures. Due to hostilities from the hosts, a career counselor needs to deal with the social isolation which impacts on their work performance but with the help of a culturally capable therapist (Bemak, Chung, Pedersen, 2003). Secondly, the career counselor should assist them in shaping their awareness and decision making by forming a parallel identity similar to American identity but maintaining their traditional identity outside work. The career counselors need to provide help in defining thei r identities particularly those relating to their work life. The first application of cultural formulations should be cultural identity. This comprises of a contemplation of the extent to which the refugees categorize with their own ethnic culture and the principal culture. Therefore as a career counselor, it is important to identify acculturation as entails helping them to change attitudes, beliefs, and norms (Bemak, Chung, Pedersen, 2003). References Bemak, F., Chung, R., Pedersen, P. B. (2003). Counseling refugees: A psychosocial approach to innovative multicultural interventions. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Advertising Looking for essay on social sciences? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Hardin, E. E., Leong, F. T., Osipow, S. H. (2001). Cultural relativity in the conceptualization. Journal of Vocational Behavior , 58, 36-52. Robin, L. (2003). Building bridges to the American workforce: employment counseling with immigrants and refugees. Washington DC: U.S. Department of Education. U.S. Department of Health. (2012). Fiscal Year 2012 Refugee Arrivals. Web.

The Post-War Economic Boom After WWII

The Post-War Economic Boom After WWII Many Americans feared that the end of World War II and the subsequent drop in military spending might bring back the hard times of the Great Depression. But instead, pent-up consumer demand fueled exceptionally strong economic growth in the post-war period. The automobile industry successfully converted back to producing cars, and new industries such as aviation and electronics grew by leaps and bounds. A housing boom, stimulated in part by easily affordable mortgages for returning members of the military, added to the expansion. The nations gross national product rose from about $200,000 million in 1940 to $300,000 million in 1950 and to more than $500,000 million in 1960. At the same time, the jump in post-war births, known as the baby boom, increased the number of consumers. More and more Americans joined the middle class. The Military Industrial Complex The need to produce war supplies had given rise to a huge military-industrial complex (a term coined by Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as the U.S. president from 1953 through 1961). It did not disappear with the wars end. As the Iron Curtain descended across Europe and the United States found itself embroiled in a ​Cold War with the Soviet Union, the government maintained substantial fighting capacity and invested in sophisticated weapons such as the hydrogen bomb. Economic aid flowed to war-ravaged European countries under the Marshall Plan, which also helped maintain markets for numerous U.S. goods. And the government itself recognized its central role in economic affairs. The Employment Act of 1946 stated as government policy to promote maximum employment, production, and purchasing power. The United States also recognized during the post-war period the need to restructure international monetary arrangements, spearheading the creation of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - institutions designed to ensure an open, capitalist international economy. Business, meanwhile, entered a period marked by consolidation. Firms merged to create huge, diversified conglomerates. International Telephone and Telegraph, for instance, bought Sheraton Hotels, Continental Banking, Hartford Fire Insurance, Avis Rent-a-Car, and other companies. Changes in the American Workforce The American workforce also changed significantly. During the 1950s, the number of workers providing services grew until it equaled and then surpassed the number who produced goods. And by 1956, a majority of U.S. workers held white-collar rather than blue-collar jobs. At the same time, labor unions won long-term employment contracts and other benefits for their members. Farmers, on the other hand, faced tough times. Gains in productivity led to agricultural overproduction, as farming became a big business. Small family farms found it increasingly difficult to compete, and more and more farmers left the land. As a result, the number of people employed in the farm sector, which in 1947 stood at 7.9 million, began a continuing decline; by 1998, U.S. farms employed only 3.4 million people. Other Americans moved, too. Growing demand for single-family homes and the widespread ownership of cars led many Americans to migrate from central cities to suburbs. Coupled with technological innovations such as the invention of air conditioning, the migration spurred the development of Sun Belt cities such as Houston, Atlanta, Miami, and Phoenix in the southern and southwestern states. As new, federally-sponsored highways created better access to the suburbs, business patterns began to change as well. Shopping centers multiplied, rising from eight at the end of World War II to 3,840 in 1960. Many industries soon followed, leaving cities for less crowded sites. Source This article is adapted from the book Outline of the U.S. Economy by Conte and Carr and has been adapted with permission from the U.S. Department of State.