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Fujianese-Speaking
Social Workers Hard to Find
From
Singtao Chinese Daily
January 11, 2003
The Chinese Community Health Services Association
held its January meeting yesterday. Representatives from a number
of Chinese social service organizations were present. In introducing
themselves and the work of their individual establishments, they
touched upon a problem that they were all facing -- social workers
who understand both Chinese and English are hard to come by, and
those who know the Fujianese dialect are even scarcer. Language
has created a substantial barrier between the many new Fujianese
immigrants in the city and their need for counseling. The social
workers at the meeting found this distressing.
Rapid
Growth In Immigration, Equal Growth Needed In Social Service Profession
The rapid increase in the rate of Chinese immigration,
especially from the Fujian province in Mainland China, forced the
issue of the need for bilingual social workers to the top of yesterday's
agenda. According to the U.S. Census, New York City's Chinese population
grew by 53.4 percent in the past decade to a total of 374,000 persons
at present. In 1994, the U.S. State Department estimated that the
city's Fujianese population was about 100,000, and that it would
grow by 10,000 a year. If true, there are now approximately 200,000
Fujianese in New York.
This growth has thrown the organizations that
cater to the well being of the Chinese community into a frenzy.
It prompted the Lude Society's family and social outreach divisions
last November to establish the New Life Center [Xin Shengming Center],
which aims to help new Chinese immigrants, especially the Fujianese.
Within its first two months of existence, more than 40 Fujianese
immigrants showed up for counseling, overwhelming the center's two
full-time counselors.
"Fujianese immigrants have a strong need for
social workers, but the majority of those who operate within the
confines of the Chinese community are Cantonese or Mandarin speakers,
and organizations that are able to meet their varied needs are small
in number," said the director of the center, Ye Guihua. For example,
he added, only three organizations in Chinatown provide services
for abused children, these being the Lower East Side Family Network,
the Chinatown Youth Council and the Chinese Planning Council. "This
is not enough to meet the demands of the Fujianese community," he
added.
Language
Problems Raise Difficulties For Aid Seekers
"Social service organizations frequently encounter
health and legal questions. Often, Chinese immigrants will only
feel relaxed and be able to give a true reckoning of their problems
to someone who speaks their language or dialect," said Asian Americans
for Equality social worker Zhang Huixian. "But such bilingual individuals
are hard to find, and Fujianese speakers even harder to find." He
related a recent encounter with a Fujianese couple. Originally,
the wife had come in looking for counseling, but as she spoke only
Fujianese, on later visits, she brought her Mandarin-speaking husband
along as a translator. "That took up a lot of his time, and was
not very convenient," said Zhang.
He is not the only one to have encountered this
language problem. The Chinese-American Cancer Prevention Council's
director of publicity, Pan Wei, makes weekly trips to Bellevue Hospital's
cancer ward to explain cancer treatments and provide psychological
counseling to its patients.
He said that because Bellevue is a service-oriented
institution, those he counsels include many Fujianese immigrants,
who as a group tend not to have health insurance. The hospital does
have Fujianese-speaking staff on hand, but there are not enough
to go around. And since the Chinese-American Cancer Prevention Council
does not have a social worker who can speak Fujianese, Fujianese
patients often have to find their own interpreters. "Sometimes they
have their children there to translate their Fujianese into Mandarin
for my understanding. I then translate it into English for the doctor's
understanding," said Pan.
Social
Work Profession Will Continue To Suffer Lack Of Bilingual Speakers
There are many reasons why there is a lack of
bilingual social work professionals. Representatives of various
social organizations agree that the main reason is the failure of
university social work departments in attracting students of Chinese
origin. According to the Statistics on Social Work Education in
the United States, of the 1,733 students enrolled full-time in the
six recognized social work programs in New York City in 1970, only
10 were Asian. In 2000, although the total enrollment in these programs
had increased to 3,083, only 169 were Asian. "Most hard-working
immigrant parents ultimately hope that their children will take
up profitable fields of study and stay a respectful distance away
from the poorly paying but societally enriching social service profession,"
said Ye Guihua.
Pan Wei of the Chinese-American Cancer Prevention
Council believes that the lack of appropriate bilingual counselors
in the community is due to the fact that the Fujianese are recent
arrivals, and the younger generation has not yet had a chance to
attend college. "In such a situation, social service organizations
should not restrict their focus to new social work graduates, but
rather recruit college-educated students for training. Anyone with
compassion can enter the profession," added Ye Guihua.
Translated From Chinese by Kelvin Wu
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