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In 2022, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in San Diego welcomed 860 newly arrived refugee individuals and families— 47% of whom were children under 18. Having recently reached safety in the U.S. from uncertainty and conflict, their excitement for the future is revitalized. However, as families work to rebuild their lives in the United States, refugee youth often bear the brunt of the struggle and face a unique set of barriers to achieving academic success. With nearly half of all refugee arrivals being children, many enter school in the middle of their education and struggle to learn English, accrue credits, and adjust socially.

Education Gaps & Setbacks

One of the greatest challenges refugee children commonly face is a lack of English language skills and formal schooling. This is especially true in City Heights & El Cajon, where the refugee communities include Afghan, Burmese, Somali, and other East and Central African populations.

These populations are characterized by students with interrupted formal education (SIFE) who face a substantial gap in education level for their age and encounter substantial barriers in addressing this gap − especially in the U.S. education system, which relies on parents to play a significant role in helping with homework. Upon arrival in the U.S., they are placed in or around a grade based on age, not aptitude. For elementary or middle school newcomers, there is time to adjust, catch up and meet graduation requirements relatively easily. But research shows that it takes students with little or no formal schooling 7-10 years to reach grade-level norms in English language literacy. Unfortunately, for older, high school-age youth who fall in that category, our education system does not truly afford them the time to reach literacy. Some are forced to exit high school due to their age and enroll in alternative education with even less support.

Importantly, many students are enrolled in English Language Development classes to support English learning. While these classes help students learn, they may not fully address the unique and individual needs of these students due to large classes sizes with mixed languages and language levels. Lack of English and limited schooling makes it exceptionally difficult for many refugee children to fully catch up and meet high school graduation requirements in a timely manner. Equally challenging for many refugee youths is their potential trauma and severe adversity, including poverty, displacement, and violence. Crisis and conflict directly and profoundly affect a youth's physical safety, well-being, and learning ability. This compounds the already high levels of chronic stress associated with the resettlement and acculturation process. Refugee youth, like all teenagers, are experiencing the changes and emotions that coincide with adolescence. Without additional support, refugee youth are easily overwhelmed by the pressures their family and school put on them, which may result in negative social conduct or dropping out of school.  

Additional Barriers to Success

Beyond the stress of learning a new language and culture, refugee youth often deal with family responsibilities not experienced by their American peers. Because they are younger and are exposed to English and American culture much faster than their parents, they often become the translator and sometimes the conduit for their family when navigating new US systems in an unfamiliar language.  

Imagine that you need to practice and study your English every day for two hours after school to give yourself a chance to graduate high school on time, but you can't. Your parents need you to help translate for the doctor or at your sibling's school. This puts a great deal of responsibility and burden on youth who are just teenagers. This also creates intergenerational tension as the power shifts from the parents to the youth. Finally, as youth acculturate quickly, many new customs they adopt from their new home can confuse or upset their parents. There is always pressure from the family and community they are a part of to stay true to their culture and practices while simultaneously feeling immense pressure from peers and media to acculturate even quicker and completely.

̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ Support for Refugee Youth

Since 1975, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in San Diego has provided services to some of San Diego's most marginalized families and youth. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ has resettled more than 30,000 refugees in San Diego County over the past 43 years. It has helped these individuals, plus thousands more in the community, build a healthier, safer, economically well, and educated future. In 2022, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ San Diego served more than 6,000 people in programs that included youth services, workforce and job training, financial education and counseling, microenterprise, access to loans and asset-building products, free tax preparation services, immigration education and legal services, civic engagement initiatives, community health services, and much more. These clients came from nearly 91 countries and are very low-income – more than half of households earned less than $1,000 a month. Among those served, almost 1,200 were children. Having worked with these youth and their parents over the past 43 years, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in San Diego is uniquely positioned to understand and address the challenges and barriers that these young families face as they work to rebuild their lives in the U.S.   The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in San Diego has long recognized that school is a critical part of a child's transition to the U.S. Over the past twenty years, the ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ has run academic enrichment and extracurricular programming at Crawford, Hoover, and El Cajon Valley High Schools.

Each year these schools enroll significant numbers of newly arriving refugees. They are home to children of refugee families who have been in this country for many years. The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in San Diego has run the Refugee Education, Acculturation, Civic Engagement and Health (REACH) program since 2012, helping refugee youth successfully stay in school, graduate, and transition to college or a career. REACH focuses on newly arrived refugee youth who have experienced trauma and continue to deal with great stress through acculturation and language acquisition. The success of this model can be seen with a 93% graduation rate and 84% post-secondary or employment placement for those who have completed the high school program. To meet this need, the REACH program has expanded to provide services at six different densely refugee-populated schools and offer two out-of-school programs that served over 459 refugee youth in City Heights and El Cajon in the 2022 school year alone.

The ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ in San Diego offers youth programs to facilitate community, leadership., and skill building for newcomer, refugee, asylee, and immigrant youth across four high schools and two middle schools. Activities include academic tutoring, in-class academic, social, and emotional support, field trips, summer programs, job and leadership clubs, English learning, public speaking, community service, college application, scholarship assistance, and parent engagement opportunities. In 2022, ̽»¨¾«Ñ¡ supported 293 middle and high school students with in-class social-emotional support and led over 29 field trips across San Diego County for over 123 participating students.

Motivated to Succeed

Despite the significant hurdles they face, refugee youth are thrilled to have the opportunity to complete their education after years of inconsistent or nonexistent schooling. Others who were able to attend school consistently at home are anxious to pick up where they left off. To a large extent, refugee youth work hard, put in the extra hours, and go on to succeed in higher education or vocational pursuits.

_{Updated May 2023}