Empowerment and the Refugee Experience is Panel Topic
At Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus, April 10
- Includes refugees from Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Sierra Leone -

Brooklyn, N.Y. – The struggles of refugees from Afghanistan, Albania, Bosnia and Sierra Leone in New York City will be the focus of a panel on “Empowerment and the Refugee Experience” at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus.

The discussion, which will take place on Monday, April 10, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in Health Sciences Room 119, is free and open to the public.

Panel members are themselves refugees now involved with social services agencies that assist newcomers. Distinguishing between immigrants and refugees, they will explore the politics behind the granting of refugee status to certain groups, and also will talk about the histories of conflict in their regions, personal experiences of entering the United States as refugees, challenges in acclimating to American society, grassroots efforts in establishing community-based organizations, and refugee programs, services and federal policies.

“It is inspiring that those who have arrived here, learned English, found work and housing and began to thrive now have established social welfare organizations to help those who come after them,” says Amy Krentzman, assistant professor of social work and coordinator of the event.

Among the panelists Ron Hayduk, political science professor, Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY) will focus on immigration and refugee definitions. International Rescue Committee staff member Sead Suvalic will describe the refugee resettlement experience, particularly, for Bosnians. Les Rickford, program coordinator of Nah We Yone, which assists refugees from Sierra Leone, and leaders from ethnic community-based organizations representing other refugee groups will also speak.

The event is presented by the Brooklyn Campus’s Social Work Department and the Common Ground Service Learning Program. For more information, call Amy Krentzman at (718) 488-3372.

Long Island University opened its Brooklyn Campus in 1926, welcoming a diverse population at a time when other major universities enforced quota systems against racial and ethnic minorities. Some 28,000 students currently are enrolled at the university’s residential and regional campuses, including more than 13,000 at the Brooklyn Campus. Located at the corner of Flatbush Avenue Extension and DeKalb Avenue in Downtown Brooklyn, the Campus is accessible to all major bus and subway routes and the Long Island Rail Road.