In a recent article for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Robert Patrick details how refugees are adjusting to life in the city during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Patrick focuses on the International Institute of St. Louis, which works with refugees in St. Louis.
“The institute, which has helped tens of thousands of immigrants resettle in the area over the last 100 years, closed its offices March 16 to visitors and switched to providing services remotely whenever possible,” Patrick reported.
“But the staff still had to pick up people at the airport and stock apartments with furniture and culturally appropriate food.”
It has been a challenge to tell new refugee arrivals to self-isolate and difficult emotionally for them not to explore and to delay “that feeling of home,” according to the institute’s senior vice president for programs, Blake Hamilton.
The Immigration and Refugee News Digest 