The Bhutanese

For those of you who might be interested, I completed my research on the Bhutanese refugee community in KCK. Below you will find my paper (read: intro and last paragraph will give the basic idea) along with some demographic mapping of the neighborhood. Hopefully it's readable. I really wanted to upload some sounds bites from my interviews so people could hear their lovely little accents, but not can do, I guess. Does anyone know how I could do that?


































The Dynamics of Displacement: The Bhutanese Refugee Community in Kansas City, Kansas

The position of a refugee is a complicated one with varied perspectives of how they should be treated. Although the position of the refugee is of international concern, one does not have to look far from the local scene to come in contact with these displaced people. The purpose of this research was to examine the situation of the Bhutanese refugees living in Kansas City, Kansas and to understand their role in the dynamics of the ethnically diverse neighborhood in which they live.
I was referred to a friend of a friend who works for an organization called “Mission Adelante.” This organization is based in Kansas City, Kansas and works primarily with the numerous Hispanic immigrants in the area, offering various forms of community support such as language classes and children's programs. Mission Adelante launched a refugee support branch about two years ago lead by David Steler, the person with whom I worked to arrange most of my research. The initial referral to David Stetler was what provoked my interest in researching the Bhutanese refugee community because of the connections that were available. Because of the basis of my decision to research this community, my specific research purpose was open-ended until further information was gathered.

My first meeting with David Stetler proved enlightening and evocative. I was introduced to a community of displaced individuals who found themselves in the middle of a foreign country that and a city that, for the majority of the group, was arbitrarily chosen by someone else,. These Bhutanese refugees originally descended from a group of Bhutanese who immigrated to Nepal about 200 years ago. Conflict came when the Bhutanese living there began to form a political party and interact with the Nepali people in a way that the Bhutanese government did not approve. This eventually led to the group of about 100,000 who were living there to be required to leave. They were not citizens of Bhutan nor would Bhutan recognize them and accept them back. Because of this, they were trapped between two nations with nowhere to go but refugee camps between the two countries. These people lived in these camps for about 20 years until outside governments stepped in and allowed them to be resettled in other locations. The United States agreed to receive 60,000 Bhutanese refugees to be resettled all over the United States. There are about 600-700 Bhutanese living in the Kansas City metro area in two different locations, one of which is the community on which I researched, in Kansas City, Kansas.

In talking to David Stetler, I was given some information in light of the focus of this project, spatial segregation. He described that the Bhutanese had been settled in the area because of the resources that were available to them such as the Don Bosco Center, a social service agency; Catholic Charties, the non-government agency the federal government works with to place refugees on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metro; and David's agency, Mission Adelante, a non-profit religious social service agency. An interesting aspect of information to note about this community is that it is primarily composed of Spanish-speaking people, namely Hispanic immigrants. In addition to this, over time there has been a “crowding out” phenomenon as the Hispanic community has pushed out the surrounding African-American community.

After a preliminary realization of this information, I was interested in finding out the dynamics and tensions, if any, of a very diverse area. The purpose of this research became focused on the experiences of the Bhutanese refugees in Kansas City in light of already existing theoretical framework and other scholarly perspectives on refugees. I was also interested in gathering information about the dynamics between the various demographics that make up this KCK neighborhood.

The majority of the data for this research was conducted through in-depth interview, starting with David Stetler and leading to individual interviews with six Bhutanese refugees. In addition to this, the program SimplyMap was used in order to gather demographic information about the neighborhood.

A useful article for understanding the various perspectives toward refugees in the United States is Jeremy Hein's piece “Refugees, Immigrants, and the State.” As shown in the article, the United Nations defines a “refugee” as a person who “owing to a well founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself with that country.” This definition applies to the KCK community of Bhutanese refugees because they were members of a particular nationality and social group that were forced to be outside the country that had been their home for 200 years.(Hein 44)

Hain discusses two contrasting perspectives toward refugees, one view refugees as exiles displaced from their place or origin, and the other viewing the term “refugee” as a social construct, seeing refugees in essentially the same light as immigrants. He explains that the push-pull theory of international migration comes from a realist perspective in that it makes a distinction between immigrants and refugees. This difference can be found in the difference between planned and chosen migration and a spontaneous and obligatory move. Hain explains that internal migration is common among both refugees and immigrants before international migration. He also states that refugees use kin and friendship networks to aid their entrance into new society in the same manner as immigrants. The realist perspective and the some of the aforementioned aspects he draws attention to seem to be true of the Bhutanese refugees. The Bhutanese experienced internal migration as they had to migrate to refugee camps long before the resettlement process began. In regard to the statement about kinship ties, my research indicated that they were not the same as immigrants, especially when in comes to the immigrant pattern of “chain migration,” or cumulative causation. “Chain migration” is the pattern where immigrants attract family and friends from their country or origin, thus creating chains of people who continue to immigrate and the network keeps expanding. (Massey 42) Refugees have limited choice about their destination. Although the government of a refugee-receiving country might choose to send refugees to a community where there are resources, including social capital, for this group, the United States' government often chooses to distribute refugees spatially throughout the U.S. Refugees are unable to receive government financial assistance if they choose a different geographic location. (Hein 49)

In Peter Marcuse’s piece, The Enclave, the Citadel, and the Ghetto: What Has Changed in the Post-Fordist U.S. City,” he discusses various types of spatial segregation. My research indicated that two of these three types are visible in this particular neighborhood. The immediate are where the Bhutanese could be considered an enclave, although not a Bhutanese enclave but a Hispanic immigrant enclave. This type of segregation he describes as being an area where people sharing ethnic or religious background congregated in order to improve their economic, social, political or cultural development. The second type that can be observed is the ghetto, which he describes as a spatially segregated area which can be seen as subject and inferior to those outside the area. In this case, the aforementioned enclave is surrounded by what could be considered a black ghetto, especially directly to the north of the Hispanic enclave.

The specific boundaries of the area I studied in Kansas City, Kansas are as follows: a central point was 18th street and Central with the boundaries from 29th to 7th street east to west and Minnesota to 70 Highway north to south. I was able to do demographic mapping with SimplyMap, which was helpful in understanding the ethnic make-up of the neighborhood. In the appendix section are maps that show the Hispanic, Black, and White make-up of the area I studied. It was evident from the maps that the “crowding out” phenomonon was actual in reality, as it was easy to see that where the Hispanic population was most dense, the black population was most sparse and vice-versa. For instance, at a central point in the neighborhood at 18th and Central, the maps showed the area to be 8-15% black and 45-60% Hispanic.

When I addressed ethnic tension in my refugee interviews, my main finding was that the interviewees had neutral attitudes toward the Hispanic community. Most said that they had little interaction with their Spanish-speaking neighbors because of the language barrier. A few mentioned that they could be confused to be Mexican because of their physical similarities and that their neighbors were often surprised to find out that they did not, in fact, speak Spanish. I was interested in finding out what language was most important for them to know, English or Spanish, since Spanish was so widely spoken in the community. Unanimously, the response was English, as all the social service agencies that work with the refugees are English-speaking agencies. Some interviewees as well as David Stetler mentioned that they would have more job opportunities within the community if they could speak Spanish, though, instead of having to venture out geographically. One interviewee mentioned that some of the others had trouble because of tension between the Hispanic community and black community, saying that there were times where they would be cut off in traffic or be in danger of being robbed at night because they were confused by black people to be Mexicans. The reason for the perceived animosity between the Hispanics and blacks is unknown to me at this point; it was not something for which I probed in my interview questions.

There were many questions asked of the Bhutanese that applied to the areas of occupation, living conditions, age, size of family, and more. The answers were in-depth and comprehensive, allowing for a highly valid understanding of the refugee experience. Most of the questions elicited the same responses which enhances the credibility of the results. Most respondents did not choose to move to Kansas City. All said they liked living in the neighborhood, that it was good and safe and that they appreciated all the assistance they received. Most had not been in the United States long, several less than a year. They all resided with their expended families which were fairly large in number- more than five per household. All but one had to travel outside the city for work and described difficulties with acquiring transportation. One of my favorite question responses was for the question, “How long do you intend to remain living here?” The unanimous initial response was to laugh, and say something to the effect of “indefinitely.” Most accepted that they had been resettled in Kansas City and seemed pleased to be out of the camps.

I took many pictures of the neighborhood, most of which alluded to a strong Hispanic presence. There were many churches, stores, parking signs, etc. that were either written in English and Spanish or in Spanish only. From the pictures of the local high school and middle school, it appeared that both the Bhutanese and the Hispanic people had access to good education, as much as I could infer from the well-kept look of these buildings. There was not any visual evidence of Bhutanese refugees in the neighborhood, except for the possibility that a mural which seemed to depict the history of the community alluded to blacks, Hispanics, and possibly Bhutanese were living together at present day.

I conclusion I drew from my research was that the Bhutanese experience seemed to line up with the realist perspective toward refugees, that they do have truly unique experiences from those of immigrants. The group living in KCK was too new to make any conclusions about their pattern of spatial assimilation; many had been there less than a year and had been sent to the area by the United States government. All in all, this endeavor was a rewarding experience as it allowed for me to better connect with and understand a group of people with a rich culture and an epic history that lead to them taking residence in the metropolitan area in which I live. It is worth taking note, although not necessarily applicable to this research, that my interactions with the Bhutanese gave me a generous dose of perspective. By this I mean that many seemed very grateful to be living in an area that some Johnson County residents look down upon. One respondent was grateful that he made a friend at his job at Wal Mart because now he doesn’t have to walk several miles to and from his job, which was especially difficult in the winter snow. There were many things they were content with that my peers and I would probably complain about. I have a lot of respect for these people and hope to be able to work with them more in the future.