03/23/2022
The recent refugee crisis in Europe with Ukrainians entering surrounding countries provides an example of why we, as Speech, Language, Hearing scientists, need to focus studies on the communication skills of refugees. Refugees are displaced for many reasons (war, famine, corruption, etc.) but they all face the similar challenge of being able to communicate in their new homelands. For example, it is a challenge to decide what school grade is appropriate for a refugee child who speaks a foreign language. We can contribute in a big way to this major need of refugees: that is, assessment and intervention for speech, language and hearing deficits and increasing understanding of the challenges faced by refugees in second language learning.
We, in the US have largely ignored refugee crises in Europe (Syria, Afghanistan), but are now taking some interest in Ukraine. This is an opportunity for us to add European languages, in addition to those of the Middle East and Asia, to our radar of research interests. European groups have focused on questions of the language barrier for refugees (for example, Multimind https://www.multilingualmind.eu/policy-reports). We should consider adding a concern for refugees' communication skills as a focus of our community here in the U.S. I challenge you (our colleagues, alumni, and students) to find the existing organizations in the US and to post them here.
We should also start a discussion about what we can organize to support second language learning in refugees here in the New York City region and to help refugees obtain the services that they need.
This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska Curie grant agreement No 765556.
