Walking together: Healing and hope for Colombian refugees

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Understanding and Appreciating our Differences CULTURAL COMPETENCE Cultural competence does not mean knowing everything about every culture. It is a mindset that leads to lifelong learning. It includes respect for differences, eagerness to learn, and willingness to accept that there are many ways of viewing the world. Just as refugees are expected to begin demonstrating cross-cultural competence as soon as they step on Canadian soil, churches that sponsor refugees should do everything they can to become crossculturally aware, so as to better understand and support their sponsored refugee family as they experience profound cultural adjustments. While becoming cross-culturally competent is not a formula for avoiding all potential conflicts in a sponsorship, it can go a long way in promoting understanding and laying a strong foundation on which to construct the sponsorship relationship. Lack of cultural understanding can affect the relationship between the accompanying church and the refugee family in many ways, from communication barriers to difficulties building or maintaining trust. Lack of cross-cultural understanding for both the refugee family and members of the sponsoring church could mean unsatisfactory results over the course of the sponsorship, with shared goals possibly not being met, or even understood.
34 w a l k i n g t o g e t h e r Ideas for building Cross-Cultural Competence: Thankfully, becoming cross-culturally competent is neither difficult nor tedious. It can be an enjoyable process of discovery and learning, both for the incoming refugee family and for the sponsoring church community. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge differences and talk about them with the refugee family - this is important and can be a great way to learn more about one another’s cultures. Before and after your church’s refugee family arrives, learn as much as you can about Colombia and Colombian culture. Learn about the language, food, music and climate in the region of the country that the refugee came from. Colombia is blessed with great regional diversity, which as a result fosters in Colombians a deep sense of regional identity and pride. Also learn about traditions, family values, favourite activities and ways of celebrating special cultural holidays. Once the family arrives they will appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to learn about their country and culture. Throughout the journey of accompanying the refugee family as they learn about Canadian culture and customs, don’t miss the opportunity to learn more about Colombian culture and customs. The family will likely be more than pleased to teach you, and your interest in their culture is dignifying to the refugee family. To the extent that you as a church sponsorship group show your value for Colombian culture, you will be able to help the refugee family find a healthy balance between honouring and maintaining a healthy identity as Colombians, while building a new positive identity as Canadians. INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION For effective intercultural communication to take place, it is helpful to understand some of the cultural dynamics that come into play. This section is a very brief introduction to the topic; the resources mentioned at the end of this section are well worth reading and contain many helpful insights and tools for improving your intercultural communication skills. High Context vs Low Context: One way to categorize cultures is that of high context or low context. 10 Each context is characterized by very different communication styles. 11 Although entire cultures can be generalized into one of these two categories, in fact, we all use both types of communication to some degree. In high context cultures, meaning is conveyed through the context or through nonverbal cues and communication tends to be indirect. This means that requests and intentions are more likely to be 10. The terms “high context” and “low context” were coined by anthropologist Edward T. Hall in his book Beyond Culture. The terms are not meant to be interpreted as “superior” nor “inferior,” rather they simply distinguish the importance of context in communication. 11. Sources for this section are: a. Ting-Toomey, S. and Chung, L. (2005) Understanding Intercultural Communication. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury Publications. b. Articles: Michelle LeBaron. (2003) Communication Tools for Understand Cultural Differences and Cross-Cultural Communication. Beyond Intractability. (www.beyondintractability.org)
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Walking together: Healing and hope for Colombian refugees

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