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Storyline

Burmese and Karen refugee communities

Refugee families resettled in Chapel Hill and Carrboro from the 2000s, and the schools, gardens, and congregations that grew with them.

In briefRefugee families from Burma began resettling in Chapel Hill and Carrboro in 2005: the schools, gardens and congregations that grew with them.

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4 works about Burmese and Karen refugee communities are indexed here.

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In the chronology

Events in this storyline, in date order. See these 23 dated events in the chronology →

  1. Refugees from Burma are among the first recorded direct arrivals in Orange County Orange County Health Department figures record 19 refugee direct arrivals in fiscal year 2005-2006, from Burma, Cuba and Iran. At the time one resettlement agency, Lutheran Family Services, served the Triangle.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  2. Refugees from Burma begin arriving in Orange County in larger numbers All 55 refugee direct arrivals recorded in Orange County in fiscal year 2006-2007 came from Burma. A second resettlement agency, the Triangle office of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, opened.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  3. Arrivals from Burma to Orange County increase sharply Orange County recorded 255 refugee direct arrivals in fiscal year 2007-2008, from Burma, Iran and Colombia, the highest annual figure in the 2005-2017 series. A third resettlement agency, the Triangle office of World Relief, opened.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  4. Orange County Health Department starts an Immigrant and Refugee Health Program During the sharp rise in arrivals from Burma, the Orange County Health Department initiated an Immigrant and Refugee Health Program. The 2018 report found Karen and Burmese were the two refugee languages most requested by the department's patients.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  5. A fourth resettlement agency opens as Orange County arrivals stay high Orange County recorded 194 refugee direct arrivals in fiscal year 2008-2009, from Burma, Bhutan, Iran and Iraq. The Triangle office of Church World Service opened as a fourth resettlement agency.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  6. Burma Art Therapy Project begins in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools The Art Therapy Institute began a school-based art therapy program for adolescent refugees from Burma in partnership with Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and the refugee community in Orange County. A later UNC evaluation estimated that about 400 Burmese families lived in the county.In the index: Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools (N.C.) · UNC Carolina Digital Repository: Evaluation of the Burma Art Therapy Project for Adolescent Refugees from Burma in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
  7. Local schools and health providers report Burmese, Karen and Chin families moving to Orange County from elsewhere Although direct refugee arrivals fell to 86 in fiscal year 2010-2011, local schools and health care agencies reported significant in-migration of Burmese, Karen and Chin residents from other counties and states.UNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  8. The 2010 census counts the Asian American population of Carrboro and Chapel Hill Asian Americans were 8 percent of Carrboro's 19,582 residents and 12 percent of Chapel Hill's 57,233. Chinese residents were the largest Asian group in both towns, while people from Burma made up a fifth of Carrboro's Asian population and 6 percent of Chapel Hill's; 24 percent of Carrboro residents and 16 percent of Chapel Hill's were born abroad.Search the index · Willow Lung-Amam, "The Not-So-New South Suburbs," RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 9, no. 2 (2023), p. 67
  9. Transplanting Traditions Community Farm begins with refugee farmers from Burma Kelly Owensby started Transplanting Traditions in 2010 with three years of federal Office of Refugee Resettlement funding, after meeting Karen families at a community garden run by the Orange County Partnership for Young Children. In the first year 44 people from Burma turned a pasture into a farm.Transplanting Traditions Community Farm: Who We Are
  10. UNC starts the Building Integrated Communities program The Latino Migration Project began Building Integrated Communities, which Gill co-founded, to help North Carolina local governments plan with immigrant and refugee residents. Each partner community works with the program for about two years.Search the index · UNC Global Affairs: Global Heel Profile: Hannah Gill and the Building Integrated Communities Program
  11. Transplanting Traditions begins farming at the Irvin Nature Preserve After Triangle Land Conservancy began working with the farm in 2010 to find more land, Transplanting Traditions held its first growing season at the conservancy's J. Logan and Elinor Moore Irvin Nature Preserve, off Jones Ferry Road, in 2011.Triangle Land Conservancy: Conservation for All Farm Tour
  12. Karen Community of North Carolina is incorporated in Chapel Hill The Karen Community of North Carolina was registered as a nonprofit corporation with a Chapel Hill principal office and Eh Tha Pwee as registered agent. In May 2012 he estimated that about 400 Karen families lived in Orange County.City-Data (NC Secretary of State business entity record): Karen Community of North Carolina
Show all 23 dated events
  1. Asif Khan founds the Refugee Community Partnership Asif Khan, then a UNC-Chapel Hill undergraduate, founded the Refugee Community Partnership to strengthen support networks among refugee families in Chapel Hill and Carrboro. The organization, now based in Carrboro, runs help lines that include Karen and Burmese.North Carolina Health News: Lost in translation: U.S. health care agencies struggle to serve refugees
  2. Refugee Support Center opens in Carrboro The Refugee Support Center, a volunteer-based nonprofit in Carrboro, was established in July 2012 to serve refugees in Orange County. Its main client groups are from Burma, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria, and it offers Karen interpretation.Refugee Support Center: About Us
  3. UNC School of Social Work launches its Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative Josh Hinson launched the initiative at the UNC School of Social Work in 2013 to support resettled refugees, connecting refugee communities to interpreters, mental health screening and treatment.UNC School of Social Work: Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative partners with N.C. African Services Coalition
  4. UNC Refugee Wellness begins providing mental health care under a state refugee contract In 2015 the UNC School of Social Work's Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative began contracting with the Refugee Office of the state Department of Health and Human Services to provide mental health services directly to refugees in Wake, Durham and Orange counties.Jordan Institute for Families: Refugee Mental Health and Wellness Initiative
  5. Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities assessment documents the refugee community from Burma The Town of Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities assessment reported about 1,200 refugees living in Orange County, roughly 90 percent from Burma. Of 74 refugees surveyed through Transplanting Traditions and the Refugee Support Center, 57 were from Burma and spoke Karenic languages. People: Hannah GillUNC Latino Migration Project: Building Integrated Communities in Chapel Hill, NC: Community Perspectives and Recommendations for Local Government (August 2018)
  6. Chapel Hill adopts a Building Integrated Communities action plan Following the 2018 community assessment, the town produced a 34-point plan covering public transportation, relations with law enforcement, resident leadership, housing access and communication in other languages. The town went on to translate documents into Spanish, Mandarin, Karen and Burmese and to add interpretation at meetings.Search the index · Chapelboro: Chapel Hill's Building Integrated Communities Program: Helping Immigrants, Now With New Funds
  7. Chapel Hill adopts a Language Access Plan covering Karen and Burmese The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously adopted a Language Access Plan in November 2019, following the 2018 Building Integrated Communities process in which immigrant and refugee residents named language access as a key need. The plan covered the town's leading non-English languages, Burmese, Karen, Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.Chapelboro: Language Access Plan to Help Chapel Hill's Diverse Population (December 4, 2019) · Also: Chapel Hill Public Library: Language access
  8. Mutual Aid Carrboro opens a COVID-19 solidarity fund for workers Mutual Aid Carrboro partnered with NC Piedmont DSA to raise money for workers sent home without pay, running a solidarity fund for emergencies such as evictions and utility shutoffs. Applications were offered in Spanish, English and Chinese, with interpreter lines for Karen, Burmese and Kinyarwanda speakers.INDY Week: Local Rapid-Response and Mutual-Aid Groups Scramble to Fill Federal-Aid Gaps
  9. Hsar Ree Ree Wei becomes executive director of Transplanting Traditions Founder Kelly Owensby stepped back in spring 2022 and Hsar Ree Ree Wei, who was born in a Thai refugee camp and joined the farm as a youth intern in 2012, became executive director.INDY Week: A New Season at Transplanting Traditions Community Farm
  10. A Blue Cross NC Foundation grant expands Building Integrated Communities The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation awarded $1.55 million to the program, with further money to community partners, naming Gill as principal investigator. Chapel Hill received a separate three-year grant of $375,000 from the same foundation for its own immigrant and refugee work.Search the index · UNC Latino Migration Project: New funding boosts support of Building Integrated Communities program
  11. Carrboro adopts a townwide Language Access Plan The Town Council adopted a Language Access Plan naming six community languages (Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Karen, Burmese and Arabic), with Spanish the most spoken. The plan was developed with UNC's Building Integrated Communities program and the Refugee Community Partnership.Town of Carrboro: Language Access

Places in this history

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first.

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Indexed works

Related works found in catalogs and archives across North Carolina. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

Food insecurity and the health of Karen migrant communities : nutrition, culture, and local action

Suk, Ann · 2012 · Gillings School of Global Public Health, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Ann Suk's 2012 paper takes up food insecurity and health among Karen migrant communities in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, covering nutrition, culture and local action. Produced at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it runs to iv and 70 leaves with a map. Topics include the Karen people in both towns.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Karen (Southeast Asian people).

UNC

Improving primary care provision for Karen refugees in Chapel Hill/Carrboro

Emrani, Bita Jasmine · 2010

Bita Jasmine Emrani's 2010 paper on primary health care for Karen refugees resettled in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, a Southeast Asian community. It addresses how local providers might improve care for those patients and runs to 36 leaves. Of interest for the recent history of refugee resettlement in Orange County.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Karen (Southeast Asian people).

UNC

People from Burma living in Chapel Hill and Carrboro : an action-oriented community diagnosis ; findings and next steps of action

2007

An action-oriented community diagnosis of people from Burma settled in Chapel Hill and Carrboro, dated May 25, 2007. Topics include community health services, health status and socioeconomic factors, with the Karen among the groups named, and the findings are followed by proposed next steps of action. A snapshot of a refugee community in Orange County and of the services it used.

Included because: Catalog heading in the UNC record: Karen (Southeast Asian people).

UNC

Transplanting traditions: the story of a community farm

Paw, Hae Ku · Frank Gallery

An account of the Transplanting Traditions Community Farm in Chapel Hill, produced by nine young adults of the Karen Youth Art Group and published by Frank Gallery. The text runs in English and in Karen in Burmese script, translated by Hae Ku Paw. Topics include community supported agriculture in Chapel Hill and Karen people in North Carolina.

Included because: Catalog heading in the Chapel Hill PL record: Karen (Southeast Asian people).

Chapel Hill PL UNC

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Health, Medicine & Care →Farms & Rural Life →Health care across language and immigration →Schools & Education →UNC & Campus Life →

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