I'm Carina Black and I'm the Executive Director
of the Northern Nevada International Center.
A native of Argentina, Carina Black received
her Ph.D. fro m the University of Nevada,
Reno in 1997 in Comparative Politics and has
has taught courses in global studies, world
politics, international organizations, and
Latin American politics. At the NNIC, Black
focuses her efforts on resettling refugees
and helping immigrants become active US citizens.
We have 3 different programs. One is the resettlement
program. One is exchanges through the US Department
of State. We have about 500 visitors that
come to twelve different programs. We also
have a language bank where we provide interpretation
and translation services in 30 languages.
The NNIC became a resettlement agency in 2016
and has since worked to resettle refugees
who are escaping conflicts from across the
world.
We became a resettlement agency in early 2016
and we have resettled about 13 families or
about 77 people. Since then, they have from
the Congo, Syria, Afghanistan, and El Salvador.
We really have to push them hard to get them
to think about self-sufficiency which is the
main goal of resettlement in the United States.
The Syrian Refugee crisis is one of the largest
humanitarian issues and has contributed to
4.8 million refugees and 6.6 million internally
displaced within Syria.
Well most of our families now are from Syria,
and of course, those refugees have fled their
country to either Jordan, Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon.
Most of them haven't been home since 2010
or so, when the conflict broke out.
Refugees spread out in the Middle East and
Europe struggle to survive and find a sustainable
place to live.
Every refugee has a completely unique and
different experience. Some have lived as refugees
in refugee camps, where the UNHCR took care
of them. Some have lived as urban refugees,
where a lot live probably illegally and receive
very little help.
Many refugees are entering developed countries
for the first time and struggle to understand
new government rules and regulations, like
the healthcare system.
In every family there is somebody working.
I think the adults struggle with homesickness
and medical issues. We have a lot of refugees
with medical issues. Kind of understanding
the maze of the American healthcare system
is difficult for Americans...even more difficult
for people who haven't been here for a long
time.
Carina Black understands the difficulties
that refugees face and is a firm believer
that the United States should lead the way
in helping them.
In the United States, we do a pretty good
job of welcoming people from other countries
because that's what we are. We are a country
of immigrants.
