are. >> hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you're in the stream. our digital producer, wajahat ali is here, bringing you all the comments from social media. waj, no idea folks from myanmar make up one of the largest grupt

groups of refugees in the u.s. >> folk in omaha couple tennessee, and home town of utica, new york, has a hug refue population. fches emergency aid and resettlement, one of the most difficult things i've seen is these refugees adjusting to american work culture. this is what we've been getting, sandra tweets in, the united states is not an international care taker nor police. too many refugees, too many on welfare, enough already, and that is a minority opinion i think lisa. >> one of the largest groups comes between myanmar between

banninbangladesh and thailand. religious persecution, end up in refugee camps, sometimes for decades while awaiting permission to start a new life elsewhere. groups and activities, according to a new report, 30% of those settled here from meen mas myane below the poverty line. little or no education when they arrive, difficulty, navigating what you and i believe to be everyday. refugees successfully establish their own way. so they can thrive.

joining us, neil's group is the largest to provide aid to arab and pacific islander population. myra dugipa, she was a refugee for 17 years before settling in the u.s. in 2004. and sarah russ is a national communicator, thanks to all of you for being here. myra, i want everyone to really have an understanding of where refugees are coming from and while no stories are the same, unbelievable struggle and hardship are really common themes. paint us a picture if you will of your life before arriving in the u.s. from myanmar.

where are you from, where did you grow up? >> 30 year story, to make it short. i was born in eastern burma, it is literally where we call jungle. it's not just that. it's a location which is very remote. and it's in the location where the burmese troops as well as the union troops also sometimes fight with each other, in and around our village. so we are in the situation where we literally had to flee. i was an internally displaced person in my own country. and i was internally displaced for more than a decade. i eventually ended up between the thailand burma border. so basically, i had to come to the border because of the persecution that perpetrated by the mee burmese troops.

what did they do? they burned our houses or we get shot on the site. >> you came to the u.s. alone, why did you come alone? >> i came here alone, because i was a grown up. many other families have children, they have to come with children. it was slightly different. also when i came it wasn't a time when massive resettlement opportunity opened yet. the massive resettlement opportunity opened from late 2006, beginning of 2007. >> and your parents? >> my parents were killed since i was a child. by the burmese troops. >> neil, it's show shocking to learn that people from myanmar represent one of the biggest groups of refugees in the u.s.

>> thank you for having me on the show. highlighting the reports as well as the scholarship fund that i represent. exactly the way you asked that question was what i faced literally 18 months ago. when for the first time, i realized we had scholars who identified themself like myra, attending the university of nebraska, omaha, i'm who are the scholars, they are caran, at the time i said coran, who are the caran and why did they go to the university of nebraska oem omaha? this was literally 18 months ago this month. i've been in my job since the fourth quarter of 2008. al of these refugees coming into the united states have been

coming in since that date. i call it my watch. i feel responsible for this. at least understanding the data, the statistics, the numbers you cited, lisa. so one of the things we did is we literally varietied myra into our organization to do a briefing. myra had our organization in tears over a luncheon session. explaining who myra is, where she comes from, she did some google maps to -- >> it is a empowering story. i can't wrap my brain around why there are 90,000 people here from myanmar that nobody knows. we see them in groups, we hear about them. why don't we hear about these people? >> this is the way i address it. years ago, at the end of the vietnam war we kind of have visuals, we remember boat people, many, many people came

over. many years ago we heard about the hmongs who had immigrated to the u.s. from the data we look at they have been scattered throughout the u.s., clustered not in just one city but all these cities throughout the u.s. what is most interesting is these places like omaha, nebraska, we went outreach in fort wayne, indiana, north carolina, not places you would is consider to include asian communities. >> you mentioned responsibility, thomas said it's important for us americans to give home to refugees but we also need to give them support once they get there. the opportunities for international settlement are rapidlrapidly decreasing, so fas trying to resettle are feeling a lot of extra pressure.

aaron said, again assimilating g here are some that deal with the burmese community. >> we have settled a group from the chan people from myanmar, they enjoy getting a job very quickly going to work and saving their money and it makes it a pleasure for us to help them. they pretty much all live in the same apartment complex and that makes it difficult for them to get to know people. >> kathleen, you just heard pat use the word isolated. some people say the burmese are the invisible people. we have heard omaha, kentucky, nashville, what is the rationale of sending these people to these places and how well to they integrate into these places. >> over the long term, the

integration record is good but it takes time. and i think refugees who are arriving in the united states right now, of whom burmese and people from bhutan are the largest groups, are arriving at a particularly difficult time, because our getting a job any job even if you have qualifications as a physician, if you can't get a job as a doctor you're expected to sweep floors or sling am burgers or whatever you -- shrill hamburg -- sling hamburgers entry level jobs where there's affordable housing and where there is some sort of a structure to help people get settled in. whether it's their own community or the voluntary agencies, that work with newly arrived refugees to sort of get them on their

feet. now since 2008, when this country has been in a deep recession of which we're only now beginning to climb out, it's been much more difficult for people to get those bring-level jobs and social support services have been strained, too. >> myra, speaking of settling in i mean you think about re refugs being plucked out of a refugee camp for decades, seeing things they've never seen before, airports, infrastructure, new cars. you're asked to become an american overnight. psychologically how do you cope with that? >> physically, psychologically, mentally it was hard to cope. speaking some of the language already, i still struggle to cope with pretty much everything on daily basis. i went to school, i barely

understand what's going on in the class. considering these people came with very little to no generation, many of them are illiterate in their own language, that is very hard for them to exr comprehend how to survive for the next day. >> when we come back, it is not just a language barrier. it's a whole different set of customs and traditions, that need to be learned. like not taking off your shoes when you come into the classroom. here are a couple of other stories we are following online.

d.c. this morning. and good morning, mr. fietz. >> good morning, del. >> are you confident that this year immigration reform passes and are you sure why it pass it's. >> i'm confident that the president will be talking about the importance of find of bipartisan agreement with this congress, and this is obviously the issue that seems more teed up to have the senate has passed a bill by a bipartisan super majority and now it's up to the

house to pass it. and we know that the pass republican conference is meeting in a retreat this week, and one of the things they will be discussing is how to move forward on immigration reform. >> every sunday night al jazeera america brings you controversial... >> both parties are owned by the corporations. >> ..entertaining >> it's fun to play with ideas. >> ...thought provoking >> get your damn education. >> ...surprising >> oh, absolutely! >> ...exclusive one-on-one interviews with the most interesting people of our time. >> you're listening because you want to see what's going to happen. >> i want to know what works what do you know works? >> conversations you won't find anywhere else. >> talk to al jazeera. >> only on al jazeera america. >> oh my!

>> when they come into the school environment, we are teaching them all kinds of skills like how to line up with everyone else. kind of a cultural thing we work on too. >> welcome back. we're talking about one of the largest groups of refugees in the u.s., from myanmar. sarah, you have worked with two groups much kids, in minnesota and then in tennessee. it's got to be a challenge because these kids come from such different backgrounds not just educationally but culturally which i am sure affects how they assimilate. >> absolutely. one of the things, you talked about this as the invisible

refugee population. >> right, right. >> this population feels really reliant on their families and are not comfortable asking others for help. those are the kids that skate by in the classroom, they are really quiet, well based, they listen to the teacher. they might not get everything that the teacher is saying but they're not going to raise their hand and ask for help. >> our community just actually tweeted in, the burmese are embarrassed to talk about their struggles, because they are not a quote unquote model minority. this coming in, burmese often bear the after-effects, of witnessing violence. nick said, greatly point to add, what about counseling and mental health, many refugees deal with trauma and mental health, lisa. >> do you feel these kids of high school age are coming to the u.s., being placed in a

grade level consistent with their age but not having the educational background to sustain that grade level? >> absolutely. i think that a lot of the students are -- you know like i was talking about they were reliant on their families. they are also focused on their friends of the people who are most likely to get them to succeed in qulas. so an age-appropriate placement are beneficial for their academic growth in terms of identifying peers, finding people who are going to be able to encourage them in school, maybe students who have been in the united states just a bit longer than they have w.h.o. can really help them -- who can really help them out. if they have gaps in their education, if they have a lack of literacy skills, if their parents don't read and write in the first language, it is going to be a struggle, very difficult to graduate. especially when we emphasize four year graduation rates and

getting the student out into the workforce as soon as possible. >> if i may lisa i think one of the things we have to understand about this population is how many have spent years and years and years in refugee camps. closed camps in thailand where they weren't allowed to leave the camps. these camps are really pretty much opportunity-free zones so they've been forced into passivity for a long long time and it's hard to make that j. >> myra you wanted to jump in. >> yes, going back to the education differences. i came here when i graduated, grade 10 already. i went into the working world, communicating with people in english, my very basic english language then. but i came here, when i first came here i wasn't even able to did the fourth grader's homework. so considering those come here at the age of 16, 17 who are put

straight into high school, the gap isto so bik to the owners -- is so great that they can't exre comprehend from point a to point b. we had a newspaper of doneouts because we had a good number from age let's say 14 to 18 who came into this country too. >> something kathleen said, when she said a lot of these refugee camps you can't leave, you are hostage to that camp, you can't leave it. suddenly ough all of these frees were put before you, there were a lot of challenges put before you william. >> exactly. we were illegal inside the camp. once we get outside the fence of the camp we would be illegal, subject to arrest by the police, the thai police, whether we would be sent back into burma or

put into thai jail. there is totally a level of freedom but at the same time, it's very scary where to go, and what is right to do, what is safe place where we can call home, or our -- literally be at a safe place we're not really exactly sure aside from our own home. >> myra most of our community is talking one of the scary aspects for the refugee community is not knowing english. burmese immigrants have key needs. currently the english languages are not structured to cater to the other languages. key for the refugees and in cases language barrier is the biggest problem. english isn't the mother tongue

and they face other issues that force them to drop out. learning dplish, do we see the younger generation, the newer generation of burmese picking up english which is causing the intergenerational divide with the first generation that has been here? >> so like anything else, that is a question of not only the high school education but also the college attainment, something we are very interested in overall. but most important too. it's about the intergenerational education. what we did recently was the study of our scholars, the assessments of what they really need. what we found was quite profound. students as a whole, including burmese students learn from each other. that is a very, very profound fact. >> more so than parents? >> in fact they don't go to parents. that is one of the least source of information. they don't go to counselors, they don't go to anyone else but

their peers. that is very profound overall. as we try to educate for programmatic support, what happens on campuses, we helped to create the asia american, native american pacific islander serving institutions. those are minority-serving institutions. akin to hbc, historic black colleges and universities. they serve a major purpose in educating the next generation, as i said it's about up ward generation as well. >> when we come back, what do you suggest? tweet us using the hashtag #ajamstream.

♪ ♪ >> i came to the united states when i was 13 years old. school was hard. i didn't know english. i wasn't very good. and people are bullying me. i started working out, it made me stronger and people respect me. i think as a refugee, like you should play sports, do some activity. for me, train with. >> welcome back. we are talking about the influx of refugees from myanmar and the challenges they face. the huge importance they discovered that these younger refugees to the united states placed on their peer

relationships, and it kind of made me wonder you know earlier on we were talking about how people from myanmar is so invisible they're so spread out, it made me wonder, is this the best way to place these groups if these relationships between them is so important in strengthening and fort fieg these communities, wouldn't it be better in placing them throughout the country? >> one thing we see lisa is there's a fair amount of what the bureaucrats say secondary migration, where people leave the places they have been resettled and go to another community where they may know people or know that there is a community of their compatriots or people who speak their language. and so people do sort of vote with their feet in that way. but the problem is that when they move, the refugee benefits that are provided to them don't move with them. and there's no ability for the communities where they're going

to plan, so that with the refugee program at least a community knows that it's going to have a certain number of kids who probably aren't going to speak english welcome into the system and they can sort of prepare for that. with secondary migration it's much more difficult. what we need to do is think about how to support both the refugees and the communities who are engaged in this secondary migration process so they don't fall out of the process. >> speaking of the benefits, what are they and how long do they last? >> when they first coming they usually -- i mean pretty much everyone usually get support with housing, food stamps, medical benefit for -- medical benefit is for have insurances for about eight months. but housing as well as -- the housing especially goes on for about three months.

but then they are expected to be self-sufficient in 90 days which is pretty impossible for us. and therefore when they first come in instead of having to go to classes, learning esl and trying to understand things around them, they have to start looking for jobs at the same time. so that is something that is very hard for everybody to cope with. but going back to what kathleen said earlier, why we ended up with secondary migration why we moved back to where the community is, the language ability, we don't know how to get around, we don't know who to talk to. the people that brought us in, sometimes we captain even make phone calls. we call and the door wasn't open for them. if that is case why should i go to my own community to help? >> willing to help, sheila said, instead of doctors without

borders, esl without borders. take time to befriend them, i would. and nora said, help rebuild burmese refugee communities, how do we nurture these communities? >> great question. we're a scholarship fund. we provide the access, the pins anpersistence, because education is the next great weapon for them so they can become whole, they can have economic growth, they can grow as becoming part of the american culture and most importantly part of the changing face of america, big campaign we have going on now. in part because they are the changing face in america in cities that are all over the nation not just the big cities but all over the country. >> thanks for all our guests, neil, myra, sarah, we will see

you online at aljazeera.com/ajamstream. >> good evening everyone. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. >> if i don't get home to my parents i'm going to like freak out! >> a frozen nightmare. students stranded at school. drivers on gridlock on highways after an ice storm paralyzes parts of the south. running dry, in california, weeks away from running out of water, steps taken to deal with the drought. human trade, the sex slavery and forced