Immigrant or refugee? which one will you teach?

My friend's sister is an ESL teacher for the Elizabeth public school system and she came home one day with a very shocking story. She had an email saying that several teachers were trying to work together to welcome a new refugee student to their school. One teacher seemed very eager to get some books together for this student and to also inform teachers about the village where the child came from. She was anxious to help the new student and volunteered to help as much as she could. She later stated that she was once a refugee and her experience was very traumatic. She gave very little info about her background but I do remember her expressing how difficult it was being in the U.S. as she prayed for the rest of her family back home. I didn't think I'd ever have to think about this but after our class, I have realized that I need to educate myself on this as much as I can so I can be prepared. I've started skimming through some great websites and found some excellent info. Must read: http://www.refugees.org/uploadedFiles/Investigate/Resettlement/Teaching_Tools/MH_esl.pdf
I had to read this with my hand over my mouth because it's really unbelievable when you learn about the struggles and hardships certain people go through in order to come to the U.S.-it really helped to put things into perspective for me. Just think this could be the parents of our students.
Check out and learn:
http://www.cal.org/topics/rc/profiles.html
this valuable website gives short intro on the history and cultural background of several refugee populations.