When: Tuesday, Nov. 12, 3:30-5 p.m.
Where: Great Plains Art Collection in the Christlieb Gallery,
Hewit Place, 1155 Q Street
Lincoln, Neb., Oct. 30, 2002--International and national policies that affect the influx of refugees into Lincoln and Nebraska generally will be the subject of a panel discussion Nov. 12 at the next Paul A. Olson Seminar in Great Plains Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
"Refugees on the Great Plains: Policies, Practices and Potentials" will be presented from 3:30 to 5 p.m. at the Great Plains Art Collection in the Christlieb Gallery, Hewit Place, 1155 Q St. The seminar and a 3 p.m. reception in the gallery are free and open to the public.
Panel members will include professors Robert Hitchcock and Mary Willis of the department of anthropology and geography at UNL; Johnna Keim, Bryan LGH Medical Center; Onyema Nkwocha, Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services; Liliana Selendic, Heartland Refugee Resettlement Program; Loukia Sarroub, UNL Teachers College; and several members of the refugee community.
Lincoln is a major refugee resettlement location and is a place where people who came to the United States originally as refugees move as migrants. The panel will address reasons for Lincoln being chosen by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement as a good place to settle refugees and why it is seen as a good destination by refugees themselves. Some of the ways in which refugees adapt to life in Lincoln will be explored, as will the experiences of some individual refugees. The panel will also assess the activities and capacities of refugee-related programs in Lincoln and identify constraints and opportunities for refugees who come to Nebraska and the Great Plains.
Contact: Linda Ratclilffe, Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3965 (lratcliffe1@unl.edu)
For questions regarding these releases, contact:
tsimons1@unl.edu
(402) 472-8514, Fax: (402) 472-7825