points much it has been down the last five segs, and your 401k is not too happy. we want to thank you for watching aljazeera america. aim del walters. "the stream," check it out 24 hours a day at aljazeera.com. our producer is here as always, bringing in all of your live comments throughout the show. most people, including you and me, before deciding to do this show, had no idea that folks from myanmar, the country formerly known as burma, make up one of the largest groups of refugees in the u.s.

>> yeah and most of our community had no idea either. they resettled in places like omaha, kentucky, tennessee, and we actually have emily who tweeted in using the #ajstream. her hometown utica, new york has one of the largest burmese communities but there are problems providing health care say huge problem because there is no lynn question particular or cultural expertise to communicate. they deal with so many health problems, including wild birth on their own. brent i have worked in emergency aid and resettlement. one of the most difficult things i have seen is adjusting to american work culture, that's the theme throughout the show. this is a minority attorney, sandra tweets in the united states is not an international tear cakier or the police. too many refugees live here all right enough all right. that is of course a minority opinion. >> in the lands of immigrants. >> yes. >> the u.s. accepts more refugees than any other nation and one of the largest groups

comes from myanmar. over the last decade nearly 90,000 have come to america to escape religious and political persecution. fleeing a military regime, many rights groups call brutal they often end up in refugees camps, sometimes for decades while awaiting permission to start a new life elsewhere. once here, the transition is not so easy. even for those who plug in to communique groups and activities. according to a new report, 30% of those resettled here in the u.s. from myanmar live below the poverty line. 39% never finish high school. that's five times the national drop without rate. out rate. many have little or no education when they arrive and don't know how to navigate things that we think of as every day. what is it like starting a new life from scratch. not by choice but circumstances, are they successfully establishing their own communities so that he can thrive. joining

us is neil, his group is the largest to provide scholarship to airen and pacific islandser americans. kathleen is the cofounder of the migration policy entice, folk you go is on refugees protection and the relationship between immigrants and government. myra, is a human rights activist from the karin state in eastern mmyanmar she was a refugees for stephen years before settling in the u.s. in 19194. she works closely with refugees to make sure that they can adjust in the school systems. 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 strug and hardship are common things, paint us a picture if you will of your life before arriving in the u.s. from myanmar. where were you born, where did you grow up? >> thanks lisa, thanks for having me. i will try my

best. it's a 30-year-old story to make it short. i was born in eastern burma. it's literally where we call jungle. there is no school. the a little tiny village for 10 houses but 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 national 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. so i was born as an internally displaced person in my own country. and i was internally displaced for more than a decade. which eventually i ended up at the burma border becoming a refugees starting from 1995 until i left the border. so basically i had to come to the border because of the persecution that perpetrated by the burmese troops. what did they do?

they came in to our village, burned down our houses, either we flee for lives or we get killed, shoot on the site. >> so you came to the u.s., but you came alone, why did you come alone? >> i came alone because i was a grown up enough. whereas many other families, they have children so they have to come with children. so it's a slightly different. and also when i came, it wasn't the time when massive resettlement opportunity opened yet. it started from 2000 late 2006 2006 begibeginning of 2007. >> and your parents? >> my parents were killed since i was a child by the burmese troops. >> neil, it's so shock to go learn that people from myanmar represent one of the biggest groups of refugees here in the u.s. yet it's largely unknown to most people. how does that happen? >> so lisa, so thank you very much to having me on the show. >> our flesh.

>> you are and thank you for also highlighting with the reports and the scholarship fund that i represent. and exactly the way you asked that question was what i faced literally 18 months ago. when for the first time i realized that we had some scholars who identified themselves like myra as being karin, and attending the university of nebraska omaha and all of a sudden i asked myself, who are these scholars? they are from burma, and at the time i said karen because i didn't know better, i apologize to you, myra for that. but the net of it was that i learned something. we asked ourselves, so who are the karin and why do they go to the university of nebraska omaha. and this is literally 18 months ago this month. and so here is the thing now, i have been in my job since the fourth quarter of 2008. all of these refugees coming in to the u.s. have been coming in since that date. i call it it's my watch.

i feel responsible for this. responsible for at least understanding the data. the statistics, the numbers, you know, you cited, lisa. and so one of the things that we did was we literally invited myra in to our organization to do a briefing for us and myra had our organization in tears over a lunch and learn session to just explain what she was just explaining to you about who myra is, where she comes from, the jungle, she did some google maps for us and if you want you can do google maps and hover over the refugees sites. >> it's a tragic and empowering story. i can't wrap my brain around why there are 90,000 people here from myanmar and nobody knows. other refugees communities we know about them. see them in groups and hear about them. why don't we hear about these people? >> that's a great question. the way i address it, years ago at the end of the vietnam war, we kind of have some visuals, right, we remember boat people. many, many people came over. 20 years ago we heard about the

mongs who had immigrated to the u.s. these communities have been coming to the u.s. and from the data we have been looking at, they have been scattered throughout the entire u.s., so it's not just clustered in one city. they are clustered in all of these cities throughout the united states, and what's most interesting about it, would be the places you had just mentioned, like omaha, nebraska. so we have done out reach in places like ford wayne, indiana, northwest "a," portland, oregon, columbia, south carolina not exactly the places you think about these asian communities. >> i am sorry, community has been chiming in about that. we have people from kentucky, you mentioned respond and on facebook tom said it is important for us american to his give a home to refugees, but we also need to give them support once they get here. the opportunities for international resettle. are rapidly decreasing so families trying to vettel are feeling a lot of extra pressure. aaron said employment isn't the only assistance these refugees

need but they also need hepa simulating or integrated scheyer a video comment from someone in kentucky dealing with per piece refugees. >> we have a settlement of 10 they are a wonderful group to work with, they enjoyed getting jobs quickly working and saving money. the biggest problem they are isolated because they live in the same apartment complex and it makes it difficult for them to get to know people. >> kathleen you heard pat she used the word isolated some people say burmese are invisible invisible. what's the as al for sending them to these places and how well do they integrate? >> over the

long-term it's good but it takes time. and i think refugees who are arriving in the united states right now of whom burmese and people from butan are the largest groups are arriving at a particularly difficult time balls our refugees vettel. program puts a tremendous emphasis on early self sufficient asufficiency on gett, any job, even if you have qualifications as a physician if you can't get a job as a doctor you are expect today sweep floors or sling hamburgers or whatever you need to do to earn a salary . so when we resettle people we look for places where there are entry-level jobs, where there is affordable housing and where there is some kinds 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, which we are only now beginning to climb out, it's been much more difficult for people to get those entry-level jobs. and social support services have been strained too. >> my myra, speaking of settling in, you think of refugees plucked out i've jungle or refugees camp after being there for decades, coming to america seeing things that they have likely never seen before, airplanes, infrastructure, new cars and literally you are asked to become an american overnight. psychologically, how do you wrap your brain around that? how do you cope with that? >> well, physically, psychologically, mentally it was pretty hard to cope. but considering my situation when i came, partially educated, speaking some of the languages already, but i still struggle to cope with pretty much everything on a daily basis, i went to school, i barely understand what's going on in the class.

so considering these people that came with very little to no education, which many of them especially the parent generation, who are illiterate in their own language, that is very hard for them to comprehend how to survive for the next day. >> yeah. we are going to talk more about that educational gap when we come back because it's not just a language barrier, we are talking about, it's a whole different sets of customs and that sinces all which need to be learned like not taking off your shoes which you come in to the classroom. first here are a couple of other stories we are following online. ♪ ♪

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♪ when they come here they have never been in a school environment so we are kinds of teaching them the skills like how to lineup with everyone else, how to ask to go to the bathroom. that kind of thing. it's kind of a cultural thing we work on too. >> welcome back, we are talking about one of the largest groups of refugees in the u.s., people from myanmar and the huge challenges that they face, sarah, you have worked with kids in two communities, that are really hubs to large refugees populations. it has to be such a challenge they come from different background not just educationally but socially which i am sure affects how they assimilate. >> absolutely. you talked earlier about this is sort of the incredible refugees population. >> right. right. >> this population in particular feels really reliant on their families, and are not so comfortable asking others for help. so, you know, they are the kids who skate by in the classroom,

they are really quiet, well behaved. listen to the teacher, they night not get everything that the teacher is saying. but they are not going to raise their hand and ask for help. >> our community just tweeted in about a case that i would like to say the burmese are embarrassed to talk about their instructional openly because they weren't a model minority. we have this coming in on facebook, sarah says burmese refugees have the aftereffect of mental health and it needs to be a part to help them . >> mmyanmar, school is optional. do you find that these kids of high school age of come to this u.s., being placed in a great 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 -- like i was talking about they are relines on their families, they are also focused on their friends as the people who are most likely to get them to succeed in class. so an age appropriate placement is really ben if beneficial for academic growth in terms of identifying pierce, finding people who be able to encourage them in school. maybe students who have been in the united states just a bit longer than they have who can really help them out. but as you mentioned, if they have gaps in their education, if they have a lack of literacy skills, if their parents don't read or write in the first language, they will struggle in that school setting. and it's going to be very difficult to graduate especially when we are emphasizing 4-year graduation rates and trying to get students out and in to the workforce and in to college as soon as possible. >> if i may, lisa, the -- i think one of the things that we also have to understand about this population is how many have spent years and years and years

in refugees 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 have been forced in to passivity for a long, long time. and it's really hard to make that adjustment. >> myra, i know you wanted to jump in. >> yes. going back to the education differences, so i came here when i graduated grade 10 already, i was in -- i went in to the working world communicating with people in english, my very basic english language then, but i came here when i came first came here i wasn't even able to do the fourth grader's homework. so consider coming here age 16 and 17 who are put straight in to high school. the gap is so big for them to the point where they cannot comprehend how to jump from paint "a" to point "b" and therefore we ended up with drop

out rates so high because we have a good number of that age, the age between 14 -- let's say 14 to 18 who come in to this country too. >> something kathleen just said, myra, that made me -- when she said a lot of these refugees camps particularly in thailand you can't leave. you are hostage to that camp if you want to remain in it. what was it like when you came to the united states and you were suddenly all of the these freedoms were laid before you. i mean, it sounds amazing when you say it, but i imagine they were also a lot of challenges connected to that. >> exactly. i mean, considering in the camp, we are -- we were illegal inside the camp. once we get outside of the fence of the camp. then we'll become illegal and subject today arrest by the police, the thailand police, whether we are going to be sent back to burma or put in to thailand jail. so once we get to the u.s., of course there is a totally level of freedom. but at the same time, it's very scary where to go and what is

right to do, what is the safe place where we can call home or literally to be at a safe place we are not really exactly sure. aside from our own home. >> myra, most of our community is talking the scary aspect is not knowing english. and sarah, again, on facebook goes burmese refugees have key needs, better language assistance is crucial for success in education, current the esl language classes are north instruction tuesday to provide no less common languages and contributes to the number of drop outs we have seen the 39%. learning english and accept how friendly americans are is key for the refugees and kay says language barrier is the biggest problem. english isn't the mother tongue and they face other struggles that force them to drop out. neil i want to go to you, speaking about integration, a simulation, the key words, learning english, do we see the newer generation of

burmese picking up english which is causeinging an inter again raisal divid generational divide? >> the college attain. , something that we are very interested in overall, but most importantly, too , it's about i want generational education. we did a stud by the scholars and the assessment of what they really need. what we found out is that student as a whole, including burmese students learn from each other. that is a very, very profound fact. >> more so than parents and teachers. >> they don't go to parents. that's one of the least source of information they don't go to the counselors, they don't go no anyone else but their pierce. peers and that's in another report on our website. that's very profound overall. as we try to educate for support, what happens on campuses and help to highlight

the creation of the asian serving institutions, asian american, native american, pacific islandser serving institutions something that's very big, those are minorities serving institutions akin to hbs. the historic black colleges and universities, this is where a lot of refugees and under served asians are attending today. and they serve a great purpose in the jec next generation. >> when we come back what do you suggest to help them. sweet us using the >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america

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♪l jazeera america. >> 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. i start wrestling. it makes me stronger. and kids respect me. i think as a refugees, like you should play sports, do some activity and make friend with americans people. >> welcome back, we are talking about influx of refugees from myanmar to the united states. and some of the challenges that they face, kathleen, before the break neil was talking about studies his organization has done and the huge importance they discovered that these younger refugees to the united states place on their peer relationships ask, it kind of made me wonder, you know, earlier on we were talking about how people from myanmar are so invisible because they are so spread out it made me wonder is this really the best way to go about placing hess groups if

these relationships between them are so important in strengthening and force identifying these communities would it be better to have them all locate in larger areas rather than across the country? >> one thing we see, lisa, is that there is a fair amount of what the bureaucrats call secondary migration, where people leave the places where they have been resettled and go for another community where they may know people or know that there is a communities of their compatriots or people that speak their language, and so people do sort of vote with their feet in that way. the problem is that when they move the refugees benefits that are provided don't move with them. and there is no ability for the communities where they are going to plan so that when the refugees program at least a community knows if they will have a certain number of kids that don't speak english welcoming in to the system and

they are prepare for that. with secondary migration it's more difficult. one of the things that we need to do is think about how to support both the refugees and the communities who are engaged in this secondary migration process. because they don't fallout of the system. >> myra, speaking of the benefits that kathleen mentioned what are they and how long do they last? >> when you first come in, they usually -- pretty much everyone usually gets support with housing, food stamps, physical benefits for -- medical benefit is for having insurance is for about eight months, but the housing as well as the food -- 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 that surrounding them, they have to start looking for jobs at the same time. and so that is something which is very hard for everybody to cope with. but going back to what kathleen said earlier, why we ended up with secondary immigration, why we move back to where the community is is because of the language ability that we don't know how to get armed, we don't know who to talk to and the people who brought us in to sometimes we cannot even call them. the community make more than 10 phone calls eventually they knock on the door and the door wasn't open for them. so if that is the case, then why should i go to my own community to get help? >> so we have a community is actually willing to help, sheila says instead of doctors without boards, esl without borders someone in corporate america should fund it. have them shadow a native citizen it take them to befriend them. i would. nora says mentoring both the offer and acceptance will help build refugees communities, how

can we help build these communities, support them, and never tru newer true them? >> great question. we provide the access and success to help the next generation to uplift them and get them education education is the next great weapon for them. so they can become mole and have economic growth and, their families they can grow as becoming part of the american culture and most importantly, they are part of the changing face of america, big campaign that we have going on right now. you know, in part because they are the changing face of america. in cities that are all over the nation, not just the big cities. but all over the country. >> yeah. thanks to all of our guests, neil, kathleen, myra, and sarah. until next time, we will see you online at aljazerra.com/ aljazerra.com/ajstream. ♪ ♪

♪ thi >> hello, and welcome to the news hour. with the top international stories. the united states asked syria to take immediate steps to remove its chemical arsenal. >> in london with the news from europe, ukrainian protestors continue to occupy central kiev. and president victor kovic has gone on sick leave.