Switchboard’s latest self-paced eLearning course, Understanding Identities in Refugee Service Provision, is an innovative course that explores self-reflection and cultural humility in refugee and newcomer services to foster an ongoing commitment to learning about diverse identities and cultures. To give you a taste of what’s in store, we’ve invited Madina Masumi and Maya Wahrman to share how their unique identities have shaped their experiences in refugee service provision. Madina and Maya are both training officers at Switchboard who facilitate content on cultural humility and positionality for refugee service providers across the U.S. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to refugee services, this course promises fresh insights and practical tools to enhance your work.
In the complex world of refugee resettlement and newcomer services, understanding the interplay of identities—our own and those of our colleagues and clients—is crucial. Yet navigating this landscape can be challenging, even for experienced professionals. How do our personal backgrounds influence our interactions? How can we approach cultural differences with sensitivity and openness? These questions are not just academic; they’re at the heart of effective and compassionate service provision.
In this blog post, Madina and Maya candidly share about their own identities and experiences in the field, offering a glimpse into the type of self-reflection and cultural awareness that our new eLearning course, Understanding Identities in Refugee Service Provision, aims to foster. As you read about their experiences, consider how similar reflection might enhance your own practice and interactions with clients and colleagues.
Cultural Humility Helps All of Us
Cultural humility is a life-long process of learning and growing with newcomer clients and their communities. We practice cultural humility by recognizing that there is no endpoint to learning about other cultures and experiences, and that all individuals are unique and should be approached with an open mind. This goes further than the more commonly known term “cultural competence,” which can suggest that learning about clients’ or colleagues’ cultures has a discrete endpoint at which we have learned enough. Below, Madina and Maya reflect on the importance of cultural humility.
Madina
The question “Where are you from?” can be deeply personal and sometimes triggering for many individuals. Throughout my life, I’ve been asked this question countless times, often wondering if it’s because I don’t look like a “typical American.” I know some people get offended by this question because it implies they don’t belong or are out of place. However, I’ve grown accustomed to it and always love sharing my story.
I usually respond, “My family migrated from Afghanistan as refugees in the late ’70s. I was born in Virginia and have lived here my entire life.” This often elicits varied responses, such as, “Oh wow! Aren’t you so glad they got out?” or “I bet you’re so happy to be here now, right?” or even “It’s great that you’re an American!” These responses always leave me feeling uneasy.
While I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve had growing up in the United States, my identity is multifaceted. My family left Afghanistan out of necessity. No refugee wants to leave their native land; they do it to survive and protect their loved ones. So, when people assume I should feel solely grateful to be American, it feels like they don’t see all the parts of who I am. I have always felt deeply connected to my Afghan roots while navigating my Western lifestyle. My life has been a mosaic of countless moments spent trying to find harmony between my diverse worlds and identities. This journey is a universal human experience. Each of us is a unique puzzle, composed of pieces formed by our identities, cultures, values, and experiences.
This is why cultural humility and exploring our own identities—and how we interact with others based on those identities—is so important. It helps us approach people with a genuine desire to learn through listening. We need to hear their stories, experiences, ideas, and values. We also need to reflect on ourselves and learn. Simple suggestions include starting conversations by learning someone’s name or finding shared interests. This can naturally lead to discussions about their background. It’s important to frame our questions with genuine interest in the person rather than making presumptions. For example, my name is Arabic and is the name of a city in Saudi Arabia. Most Muslims and Afghans know that the name Madina is not limited to Arabs, but sometimes people have incorrectly assumed I speak Arabic based on my name. In addition to asking questions, sharing about your own background can help make conversations reciprocal.
Maya
Early on in my career, I had an amazing experience traveling to Geneva to participate as a student in a global classroom of adult learners supporting education in emergency contexts, namely in refugee camps. Some fellow students were refugees living in the Kakuma Refugee Camp and were originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Rwanda, and Sudan. Other students were social workers and humanitarian professionals from Jordan, Egypt, Italy, Nepal, and many other places. We did a lot of work in groups, and my small groups always said they wanted me to present the ideas everyone came up with because I was such a good presenter. While I always offered to have them present, I didn’t protest too much, and I felt pretty good about what I brought to the table.
After a few of these requests, I realized how much power I had in this context—power that I hadn’t earned. I was one of the youngest and least experienced professionals in this classroom, but because I was a white person confident in speaking English fluently with no discernable accent, I was perceived to be one of the most competent and experienced members of our group. I also had confidence as a student in the classroom because I was fortunate enough to be raised in educational settings that welcomed me. I had never experienced my own privilege like this before.
My family’s support and education had equipped me to easily navigate academic environments. However, I hadn’t considered how these advantages might confer upon me unearned power or perceived expertise and affect others around me. This experience learning alongside refugee students taught me to step aside, encouraging my classmates to share their vast experiences and expertise, especially those who may have felt marginalized due to accented English, less familiarity with higher education, or their race.
I soon began to see how important it was for the refugee students to share their experiences in their own voices. For these students, it was a moment to undo some disempowering that often happens to refugees who have had to flee their home countries and spend many years in liminal spaces where they do not have full rights or representation. And for the humanitarian professionals in the class, hearing refugee voices likely improved their eventual practice and diversified their understanding of who “experts” in the field are.
I further cultivated this awareness as I became a direct services case manager at a refugee resettlement agency. Many clients deferred decisions to me, assuming my knowledge was more valuable due to my background. I had to actively work to mitigate this power dynamic, empowering clients to make informed decisions themselves. Recognizing how my native tongue and ease in professional settings contributed to power dynamics was crucial in improving my services and becoming a better colleague.
Each time a client deferred a decision to me, I had to catch myself and say, “I’m here to try and mitigate this power dynamic. You have the right to make these choices. How can we help you find the information you need to make this informed decision yourself? How can we start building a path to your being able to access the resources you need to move forward in this situation, eventually without my assistance?” I would then reflect the clients’ cultural and personal strengths back to them. I would remind them how far they had come relying on their own assets, and I’d assure them we supported elevating their voices and experiences. I always keep in mind that even in the United States, where our refugee and newcomer clients often have legal rights and brighter futures, there are still entrenched power dynamics that can disempower non-English speakers and non-U.S.-born colleagues and clients.
Challenging Our Assumptions About Identities
Every day, in our personal lives and in our work, we are faced with real-world encounters where we can practice cultural humility and work through assumptions, biases, and prejudice. Because refugee service provision naturally brings together clients and colleagues from many different cultural backgrounds and walks of life, keeping an open mind and challenging our preconceived assumptions about others is particularly crucial in this field. Here, Madina and Maya reflect on ways assumptions shaped their interactions with others and what it might look like to challenge those assumptions.
Madina
Last year, at an education summit where I was presenting on supporting Afghan newcomers, I met a woman who spoke to me in Dari with limited proficiency. I assumed she had learned a few words from clients in the refugee resettlement world. Later, at lunch, I discovered she had lived in Afghanistan for many years and was deeply familiar with the culture and norms. This touched me because I had initially made incorrect assumptions about her experiences. She actually had more firsthand experience of Afghanistan than I did.
This moment was a powerful reminder of the importance of practicing cultural humility—suspending judgment and approaching each interaction with genuine curiosity. It reinforced for me the value of asking questions and truly listening, rather than relying on initial impressions. Most importantly, it highlighted how cultural humility can lead to richer, more meaningful connections and a deeper understanding of the diverse experiences within our field.
Maya
On my first day as an English/Spanish case manager in a middle school, the guidance counselor informed me that she was relieved I spoke Spanish, because she heard a rumor about me that “this gringa doesn’t even know Spanish, so why did they hire her?” I was so confused; it was the main requirement of the job.
I am white, and my Spanish is acquired, after many years of studying and practicing it since middle school. I understood the mistake and was not offended. But my grandparents on my mother’s side were raised as Jewish refugees in Argentina, and I have a strong connection to the Spanish language and some aspects of Latin American culture. Even if that were not true, no one can look at my pale skin and actually know if I speak Spanish or not.
The students and families in the school would often look at me, asking, “Excuse me Señorita Maya… where are you from?” clearly voicing their confusion that this white woman spoke fluent Spanish without an American accent. I don’t fault them given their many experiences with white Americans who have limited or no Spanish, but it reminds me of how much we can miss when we make assumptions based on people’s surface identities, how they look, or how we think of them. On the other hand, my knowing Spanish and having worked with many Latin American families does not mean I can fully understand new Latin American clients or their experiences without listening deeply to them and accepting my own biases and assumptions.
Take the Course, Join the Conversation
This self-paced eLearning course now available at Switchboard has several modules that include the following helpful features:
- Key terms and ideas related to identities and cultural humility in refugee service provision
- Case scenarios to practice considering others’ experiences in resettlement (both clients and colleagues)
- Exercises and reflection questions to help you process the information and learn more about your own identity, bias, and assumptions, and open your mind to improve your service
Excitingly, this is the first Switchboard eLearning course to offer a companion downloadable workbook so you can use the exercises and tools at your own pace and refer to them after the course for your lifelong journey of self-reflection and learning.
Additional Switchboard Resources
Blog: The Eight Stages of Co-Creation: Tips for Refugee Service Providers on Using Inclusive Approaches in Their Work (2024)
Guide: Fundamentals of Equity and Resettlement: Understanding Social Identities in Resettlement Services (2021)
Webinar: Fundamentals of Equity and Resettlement: Understanding Social Identities in Resettlement Services (2021)
Blog: Talking About Race and Racism: Preparing for Conversations with Refugee Clients (2020)
Webinar: Cultural Competence in Refugee Service Settings: What Does the Research Tell Us? (2020)
