Diverse Past Aids Job Counselor’s Work

Jonathan Lee at 29 is a product of four countries.

Born in Vietnam of a Chinese father and a Cambodian mother, he began his adulthood in the United States. He is fluent in Vietnamese, Khmer and English, but not Chinese.

His multicultural background, and his escape from Vietnam on foot through jungles, prepared Lee for his career today as a social worker for refugees.

“I was one of them, and they need somebody like me to help them,” said Lee, a job specialist at the Cambodian Family Inc., a refugee service agency in Santa Ana. “When I first came over, I also needed those already here to help me.”

The simplest things people take for granted here--from microwaves to walk signals at corners to indoor supermarkets--can be strange for newcomers, especially if they had been peasants in their homelands, he said.

“You come down from the airplane and you see snow, you get scared. You walk on the street and it’s so strange to see people with light hair. There are cars everywhere, and you’re not used to that. You can feel very displaced and you don’t know if you can adapt to life here, where everything is so industrialized.

“First, you don’t have the language skill. Second, your hair is black and you don’t know if people can accept you. Three, you don’t know if you can find a job. You’re just very unsure.”

Lee’s work began even before he landed in America. While still at a refugee camp in Thailand, he got a job with the International Red Cross because he was learning English quicker than others. They also put him to work as a nurse, “though I had no medical training. But they were so understaffed.”

By 1983, he had become a translator for the United Nations Immigration Service in the Philippines. The next year, he arrived in the United States, working for the state of Kansas while getting a bachelor’s degree.

Most of the time, Lee said, he finds himself doing much more than job counseling. Newcomers, stressed by trying to salvage their lives, also need advice about everything from serious family problems to day-to-day tasks such as shopping.

“You have to be strong to provide a shoulder for them to lean on,” he said.

Lee has shared poignant moments with his clients. One occurred in February, when Lee held a lunar calendar New Year celebration for Vietnamese clients who had been political prisoners.

“They cried when we saluted the old Vietnamese flag as part of the Tet ceremonies. These men were in Communist prisons right after Saigon fell in 1975 and now they just came over. Most had not been able to salute the golden flag with three red stripes until our party,” Lee said.

He said he finds fulfillment when former clients drop in to chat with him as a friend or current ones invite him out for a cup of coffee to show their appreciation.

“It’s my reward. What more can I ask for?” he asked.