The Scars We Carry _ Immigrants' indelible wounds.
We were talking about how the explosions in Baghdad marked us. I was saying how I jump whenever there’s a large explosion, and he looked at me and flatly said he has never stopped hearing the explosions. Even here. Even months later after arriving from Iraq.
I fumbled to say something. I was stunned.
“Do you talk to anyone about this,” I asked.
“No,” he replied.
“But there are people here who can help,” I said.
“Who are they?” asked the middle-aged Iraqi, a recent arrival in the growing tide of refugees coming to Chicago from Iraq.
He is hardly the first Iraqi refugee to share the story of the indelible scars they carry. But I was quickly reminded of them by a story in today’s Tribune about Arab immigrants. It quotes an Arab-American family therapist who talks about the depression he sometimes encounters among immigrants, and the lingering wounds of war he finds among refugees.
So how does the ethnic news media help immigrants from war-torn places in the Middle East, Central and South America, Eastern Europe and Africa, people who now call Uptown or Rogers Park or the Far South Side their new homes? How do we journalists tell about the emotional crises faced by these refugees and by the immigrants whose lives and journeys here have similarly marked them?
First, we can identify the places that provide help, especially those that treat victims of torture. The Heartland Alliance’s Kovler Center is one of the pioneers in this issue and it began by helping immigrants from Central America.
We can ask the mental health agencies and the mental health professions that serve these immigrants how they have adjusted to their needs. Another Iraqi who has faced similar scars told me of the medicine he gets from his doctor to treat his anxieties, but nothing else.
We can ask them what programs they offer as a way of fitting in and what examples they can offer for these immigrants to start their lives over. We can ask the agencies that serve these immigrants how well they are prepared to cope with these challenges.
And we can make all of these stories far more compelling by putting a human face on the scars that do not go away.
Again, if you do any reporting on this, please let me know.
Steve@newstips.org
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