Growing up in a refugee camp leaves a lot of uncertainties for the future. Your dreams and decisions are highly influenced by the choices and restrictions of the government. In the case of the Nepali students, they have an extra obstacle of being unwanted in their own nation. They claim themselves as Bhutanese yet most have never set foot in the country that removed their families so severely many years before.
One of the first things that we focused on in our classroom was creating an identity. There are two main ways we approached identity: through nationality and through occupation. Defining a national identity is not a simple process as they are now a mixture of Nepali, Bhutanese, and Canadian. While they are all three of these nationalities they are also none at the same time. Bhutan did not accept them as nationals and removed them from the country, Nepal would not receive them and therefore forced them into refugee camps, and now in Canada there is still many years between now and citizenship status. We focused on creating their new Canadian identities—by teaching them about our customs and traditions—while still maintaining who they are when they came here. We encouraged them to continue learning Nepali and taking part in their cultural and religious practices, entreating their parents to not let their culture become assimilated just because they as a family are trying to fit in. National identity is a complex concept and it is not worth eradicating either culture for the sake of a easily defined label.
In regards to their occupational identities, they do have goals and dreams, but not ones that are necessarily attainable in their new lives. For example, when asked what they wanted to do when they grew up, almost every student responded with either doctor or nurse. The possibility of even graduating high school is incredibly slim for most of our students, let alone another 5 to 10 years of medical school. They have started formal schooling late in life and don't understand the complexities of the academic structure that is required for graduation and post-secondary education. We work with the students on creating realistic goals while being cognizant of not destroying their dreams entirely. We start with creating goals for their daily classroom lives and then worked on creating occupational goals. Letting the students participate in work experience is an important step in showing them the wide range of occupations now available to them, while teaching them the practical aspects of attaining and maintaining a job in Canada.
One of the first things that we focused on in our classroom was creating an identity. There are two main ways we approached identity: through nationality and through occupation. Defining a national identity is not a simple process as they are now a mixture of Nepali, Bhutanese, and Canadian. While they are all three of these nationalities they are also none at the same time. Bhutan did not accept them as nationals and removed them from the country, Nepal would not receive them and therefore forced them into refugee camps, and now in Canada there is still many years between now and citizenship status. We focused on creating their new Canadian identities—by teaching them about our customs and traditions—while still maintaining who they are when they came here. We encouraged them to continue learning Nepali and taking part in their cultural and religious practices, entreating their parents to not let their culture become assimilated just because they as a family are trying to fit in. National identity is a complex concept and it is not worth eradicating either culture for the sake of a easily defined label.
In regards to their occupational identities, they do have goals and dreams, but not ones that are necessarily attainable in their new lives. For example, when asked what they wanted to do when they grew up, almost every student responded with either doctor or nurse. The possibility of even graduating high school is incredibly slim for most of our students, let alone another 5 to 10 years of medical school. They have started formal schooling late in life and don't understand the complexities of the academic structure that is required for graduation and post-secondary education. We work with the students on creating realistic goals while being cognizant of not destroying their dreams entirely. We start with creating goals for their daily classroom lives and then worked on creating occupational goals. Letting the students participate in work experience is an important step in showing them the wide range of occupations now available to them, while teaching them the practical aspects of attaining and maintaining a job in Canada.