From Stateless to all 50 States


  • Photographer
    Caroline Kavit
  • Prize
    Honorable Mention
  • Date of Photograph
    October 2011- May 2012
  • Technical Info
    Shot on a 5D MarkII

Philadelphia, like many American cities is experiencing an influx of Bhutanese refugees. In 2008, it is estimated that only 150 Bhutanese refugees were living in the United States. A year later, over 22,000 had been moved to the U.S. through an internationally coordinated resettlement program. Faced with growing anti-immigrant sentiment, high unemployment, and low literacy rates, they are struggling to navigate their way through American society. In a photographic essay, Caroline Kavit intimately explores how this new population is adapting to Philadelphia, their new home.

Story

In October of 2011, Parangkush “PK” Subedi and Ashok Rai waited outside their car in the darkness of the Philadelphia International Airport parking lot. Subedi looked down at his cell phone then caught sight of an incoming vehicle. A van pulled into a nearby empty space, and the black vacuum that existed before was transformed into a procession of human bodies scurrying back and forth with machine precision. They were unloading bags stamped with logo of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and herding a group of tired, withdrawn people out of the van. Subedi approached a family of three as they emerged. He was going to be their final guide in what was a two-day journey from the refugee camp in Nepal, to their new home in Philadelphia.
This was a life changing moment for the Gurung family, but this was not a new process for the IOM transportation team. Over 30,000 Bhutanese refugees have already been resettled in the United States and another 30,000 are waiting to come. Despite being one of the largest resettlement operations ever undertaken by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the plight of the over 100,000 displaced people from Bhutan has largely been overlooked by the general public.
After nearly twenty years of stagnant talks and failed repatriation attempts, the IOM in partnership with UNHCR has begun a process of third country resettlement. Of the 107,000 Bhutanese refugees, the United States has agreed to resettle 60,000, and Australia, Canada, Norway, Netherlands and Denmark have offered to resettle 10,000 each. Third country resettlement is the last resort of the UNHCR. Less than one percent of the identified ten and a half million refugees worldwide are eligible for resettlement. Only the most desperate cases are willing to give up the hope of ever returning home, learn a new language, and assimilate into a new culture.
The Gurung family came to America because after twenty years in Nepal, living off of UNHCR rations, they could no longer envision a future in which their children could succeed if they stayed. In 2010, after overcoming a hesitance to leave everything that they knew behind, they registered for resettlement and a year later they were finally greeted by PK Subedi and Ashok Rai, who would show them to their apartment in South Philadelphia.
In America, meeting their basic needs of food, safety, shelter, and medical care is much easier than in Nepal, but not everything is perfect. Frightened by their new surroundings and frequently traumatized by past events, a growing xenophobic sentiment expressed by the established communities that the refugees are often resettled into only propagates fear and distrust within the refugee population. More than anything, refugees like the Gurung family need American volunteers to develop relationships with and act as liaisons between them and the new world that they must somehow learn to adapt to, but simply not enough people have stepped up to fill the gaps that the government programs leave.

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