Description:
This is a section of our The Asylum Process: Interdisciplinary Responses to Multifaceted Challenges full day training on August 16, 2023. In these two sessions, we delve into the challenges of service provision for asylum seekers, forced migrants, and survivors of torture coming to our centers. Both for those who are recently arrived and those caught in the asylum affirmative backlog.
Jonathan Ryan speaks to the challenges in providing services for recently arrived asylum seekers and the legal hurdles that may act as roadblocks to their progress. He discusses how, while there may not have been a lot of changes to immigration law in some time, it is subject to interpretation that can change how the law may be executed and enforced over the course of time and how those interpretations may affect clients. He provides an overview to help service providers with an understanding of documents, parole, Immigration Court, and work authorization and discusses some of the many other challenges newly arrived clients may face.
Walter Fendrich speaks to the psychosocial concerns in working with clients who may have been waiting for years after they’ve applied for asylum and may have heard nothing about their cases or have had their court dates changed multiple times. He provides an overview of social and clinical challenges that clients in the asylum backlog may face and what kinds of interventions may be helpful in working with these clients.