Cultural Competence: Immigrant and Refugee Communities

What do you know about the Somali, Vietnamese, or Karen immigrants who might be your clients in a couple of years?

For help, let's go to the doctor—or rather, go to a website produced by Harborview Medical Center and the UW's Health Sciences Library. EthnoWeb has "medical and cultural information about immigrant and refugee groups. Information is specific to groups in the Seattle area, but much of the cultural and health information is of interest and applicable in other geographic areas."

Lawyers won't need all the material aimed at health care providers, but many of the materials are useful for anyone. For instance, Phrases of Courtesy in Nine Languages: A Tool for Medical Providers, has video clips of native speakers to teach some useful phrases. A lawyer probably won't need to say "You are in ___ Hospital," but being able to say "Hello" or "We are here to help you" would be just as helpful in legal services as in health services.

Phrases of Courtesy menu for Vietnamese

Screen snip of video for "See you next time" in Vietnamese.

Go to the Cultures page for links to information about different cultures, including Cambodian, Chin, Chinese, Eritrean, Hmong, and Somali.

EthnoWeb Cultures page