By Sanjeev Kumar
Ihappened to meet Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin for the first time at a Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) camp in Tampa, Florida, in December 2008. These refugees travelled to the US via Nepal, having left Bhutan and entered Nepal in the 1990s. The refugee crisis was prompted by government-sponsored discrimination against Nepali speakers in Bhutan (Banki, 2008). In the late 1990s, the first batch of refugees (called Lhotshampa1) began to move out of Bhutan and entered Nepal. Bhutan, however, refused to recognise these Lhotshampas as refugees from Bhutan and Nepal refused to acknowledge them as Nepali citizens. By 2008, some 130,000 Bhutanese people of Nepali origin had been forced to live in exile for more than 17 years (Banki, 2008; Hutt, 2003). In Nepal, around 105,000 of these refugees lived in refugee camps organised by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Morang and the Jhapa districts of south-eastern Nepal and the rest lived in different parts of Nepal and India (Banki, 2008; Hutt, 2003; Human Rights Watch, 2007; UNHCR, 2010).
After years of failed negotiations between the governments of Bhutan and Nepal, in 2006, at the request of UNHCR, the US declared its willingness to accommodate 60,000 of these refugees (UNHCR, 2009). Countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands promised to accommodate the rest of 45,000 Lhotshampa refugees from the UNHCR camps (UNHCR, 2009).
The idea of third country settlement initially met with some stiff resistance; amongst its strongest opponents were those organisations that were supporting the cause of Bhutanese refugees in Nepal. In addition, radical elements inside the camps that were sympathetic to or supported the Maoist movement in Nepal threatened physical violence to anyone who favoured resettling in the US. Many refugees themselves also had apprehensions about third country settlement. One refugee (Deepak, personal interview) explains how his family finally decided to migrate:
Those at the refugee centre said that a good opportunity has come along on the way and now you can go to the US. ‘They said think for yourself … what you all have brought from Bhutan, what have you acquired in Nepal and what all you can achieve in the US.’ At first we only talked about it behind the closed doors and would try to convince our parents that after seventeen years there is no going back to Bhutan and the US seems to be a good place to go.
Life in the US is not without its share of problems. As most refugees are from rural areas, settlement within urban centres of the US is a challenge. Recurring problems experienced by refugees include securing suitable employment and associated low levels of pay, commuting to work, neighbourhood security, accessing educational opportunities and affordable health care. The bulk of social support to deal with these issues comes from faith-based organisations involved in the resettlement effort. The majority of these organisations are associated with different Christian denominations; in response, Sangh Parivar organisations in the US have actively involved themselves in supporting Bhutanese refugees.
Since 2001, the Bush administration supported federal faith-based initiatives, as part of refugee resettlement programmes in the US. Even before 2001, 8 of the 10 major resettlement agencies in the US were run by faith-based organisations (Gozdziak, 2002). One of my interlocutors, Mr K, who is a non-Hindu, non–South Asian social worker associated with refugee resettlement efforts in the Atlanta area, informed me:
The refugees are provided support for anywhere from 60 to 90 days, and the whole idea of the (refugee resettlement) programme he is to make people self-sufficient in 90 days. The refugee agencies get US$450 per person in the family to settle somebody, with which they provide an apartment, take care of the house rents and health insurance for the initial period of 180 days. During this six-month period, special English language classes are also organised (in the Church) and efforts are made so that at least one member from each family is gainfully employed. Given the economic crisis in the US, not every family has a working member. Some of the families that I have worked with have lost their homes because they were unable to manage the rent after the initial assistance ended. The refugees are most vulnerable after the initial three months of their migration. In their hours of need, these refugees turn to the congregations of these faith-based voluntary organisations for help. As lack of resources keep these refugees on a very short leash, they feel obligated to attend religious services because of the help these volunteers provides during their distress.
Mr K had sustained contact with some of the church groups and was critical of their conversion activities in relation to refugees. To him, resettlement organisations should ‘change their attitudes’ when dealing with the religious beliefs and practices of the refugees. He stated that multiculturalism is an entitlement for different groups to maintain their distinct identity, without being homogenised. Therefore, Mr K was surprised to learn that even though most of these Bhutanese refugees were Hindus, they did not seem to have contact with other Hindu groups in Atlanta:
There was an undercurrent in the community, and some misinformation was given to them in the camps. The perception was that if they came to America, they would have to become Christian; they were convinced that there were no Hindus in America.
Mr K started emailing all the listed Hindu organisations in the Atlanta area to ask for their help in resettling the Bhutanese. Amongst the first responders to Mr K’s message was a (Hindu) temple in the Atlanta metropolitan area, whose president happened to be an active member of HSS. By the fall 2008, with Mr K’s active encouragement, HSS and other Sangh organisations, such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA) and Sewa International, became involved and started the Bhutanese Refugee Empowerment Project (BEP), followed by the Ashraya Project (VHPA, 2010).
When the Sangh Parivar initially intervened in the Bhutanese refugee resettlement programme, their involvement was relatively ad hoc, as they had no prior experience of working with refugees. Initially some of their initiatives, such as providing employment within the Indian community, backfired. The Indian business owners were unhappy because of the unprofessional nature of the refugee workers; the refugees were unhappy because of excessive work and low wages and the uncomfortable daily transport involved. Modifying their approach, Sangh volunteers began to coordinate their work with other Indian/Hindu organisations.2 Instead of directly finding employment for the Bhutanese refugees, efforts focused on making the refugees employable. The volunteers of Sangh and other organisations organised language and other training programmes, and developed a job data bank. In conjunction with individual physicians and organisations, including those of Sai Health Fair Inc.; Eye Physicians and Surgeons, PC.; and Georgia Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, the Sangh also organised regular health camps (Sewa, 2009). Given that most of the refugees after their first six months (in the US) have no health insurance (for the first six months, health insurance is provided by the refugee resettlement organisations), these preventive health care interventions are quite popular among the refugee families.
The Bhutanese refugees have a variety of social needs as well. Because they are in a new country and speaking an alien language, most of the Bhutanese refugees are unable to make new friends and are confined to their houses. In order to help the refugees negotiate their lives in the US, Sangh volunteers make home visits, especially to the elderly. During the summer, internship programmes (to tutor the refugee children who are attending local schools) were run by Sangh volunteers and led by second-generation Indian immigrants enrolled in high schools or colleges. Transportation problems make it difficult for the refugees to visit temples. Sangh volunteers organised regular weekend temple visits, and a Bhutanese priest was appointed in one of the Hindu temples in Atlanta in order to accommodate the distinct practices of Nepali Hinduism. A dedicated Nepali Hindu temple is already being discussed. In addition to the Sangh, a host of organisations including different Hindu temples around metro Atlanta and Atlanta chapters of various transnational Hindu organisations, such as The Art of Living Foundation, the Chinmaya Mission, Bochasanwasi Shri Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS) Swaminarayan Sanstha and the Radha Madhav Society have all started their own outreach programmes for the Bhutanese refugees.
When the Sangh first intervened, its major concern was to check the apparent trend towards conversion to Christianity amongst the incoming Bhutanese refugees. In the American context, the use of religion instrumentally by refugees and immigrants to advance their economic cause is nothing new (see Gozdziak, 2002; Haines, 2007; Men, 2002). Conversion to Christianity had been observed amongst Buddhist Cambodian refugees who resettled in the US during 1979. Mortland (1994) worked on Cambodian refugees and identified three main reasons for their initial conversion. In the US, Christianity as a belief system offers more protection from social prejudice than Buddhism. Christianity helps incoming refugees in assimilating and thus opens up more avenues to survival and advancement in America. Men (2002) further added that the Cambodians’ choice of Christianity was a social networking necessity; in the absence of Khmer Buddhist temples, churches proved to be a convenient place to meet. However, once the refugees resettled and started migrating within and away from their initial settlement point, they no longer felt obliged to attend Christian services (Men, 2002: 228). Whether the Bhutanese refugees will follow a similar trajectory or chart out a new course is something only time can reveal. However, with the involvement of the Sangh Parivar, the Bhutanese refugees have been able to access alternative (that is, Hindu) sites of social networking, which might lead to the strengthening of new forms of Hindu diasporic identity in the US.
Banki, Susan. 2008. ‘Resettlement of Bhutanese from Nepal: The Durable Solution Discourse’, in Howard Adelman (ed.), Protracted Displacement in Asia: No Place to Call Home, pp. 29–55. England: Ashgate Publishing Ltd.
Gozdziak, Elzbieta M. 2002. ‘Spritual Emergecy Room: The Role of Sprituality and Religion in Resettlement of Kosovar Albanians’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 15 (2): 136–52.
Haines, David W. 2007. ‘Ethnicity’s Shadows: Race, Religion, and Nationality as Alternative Identities among Recent United States Arrivals’, Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 14 (3): 285–312.
Human Rights Watch (HRW). 2007. Last Hope: Need for Durable Solutions for Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal and India. New York: Human Rights Watch.
Hutt, Michael. 2003. Unbecoming Citizens: Culture, Nationhood, and the Flight of Refugees from Bhutan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Men, Chena Rithy. 2002. ‘The Changing Religious Beliefs and Ritual Practices among Cambodians in Diaspora’, Journal of Refugee Studies, 15 (2): 222–33.
Sewa International USA. 2009. ‘Bhutanese Refugee Empowerment Project GA’. Available at http://www.sewausa.org/bhutanese-refugee-empowerment-project-ga (accessed 31 October 2010).
United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). 2009. ‘Number of Refugees Resettled from Nepal passes 25,000 Mark’. Available at http://www.unhcr.org/print/4b22462e6.html (accessed 28 September 2010).
———. 2010. ‘Nepal: 2010 UNHCR Country Operations Profile-Nepal’. Available at http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49e487856.html (accessed 28 September 2010).
Vishwa Hindu Parishad of America (VHPA). 2010. ‘Ashraya: A New Beginning Bhutanese Resettlement Project’. Available at http://www.vhp-america.org/press/Ashraya.html (accessed 31 October 2010).
1 ‘Lhotshampas’ literary means southern Bhutanese in Dzongkha (official language of Bhutan).
2 A list of different organisations that have been involved with the Bhutanese refugees in the Atlanta metropolitan area can be accessed at http://www.sewausa.org/bhutanese-refugee-empowerment-project-ga (accessed 31 October 2010).