Challenges facing refugees push some kids into gangs, former gang member and refugee says

When Mandela Kuet was 17, he stood on Spence Street and pointed to the University of Winnipeg buildings. He was going to be a student there one day, he told his friends.

"You'll never go there. You're from the hood,"Kuet remembers them replying.

The South Sudan refugee and his friends lived in a community of refugees and immigrants in Winnipeg's inner city. This is where most of Winnipeg's conflict-escaping newcomers settle, according to Kuet.

Fifty-one per cent of residents in Central Park are immigrants, according to the 2011 census.

The area is also home to street gangs comprised of immigrant and refugee youth. Some ofKuet'sfriends were in the gangs, but he managed to stay out, at first, by finding a sense of belonging elsewhere.

Isolation, academic struggles

Kuetsucceeded in school. He was on pace to graduate early and his basketball talent drew scouts from across North America to hisSislerHigh School gym.

A lot of refugee youth don't experience the same kind of educational success, which leads to isolation and eventually gang membership, according toKuet.

Kuetnow mentors immigrant and refugee youth. He says problemsbeginwhen the kids who don't speak English enter English-speaking classrooms. Some school-aged children never had the opportunity to attend school before getting placed among Canadian students who've passed every grade since kindergarten.

Some refugee children fall behind, some get bulliedand some feel teachers don't care about their struggles, he said.

"If you don't like school, you're going to do everything you can to not be there," saidKuet.

And they're not going to hang out with adults, he said.

The kids could go home and talk to their parents about school, but for some, their cultural norms prevent them from opening up about their struggles, he said.

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Money and a chance to belong

Isolated from school and their families, they find a sense of belonging in gangs, saidKuet. Gangs also offer them money something refugee and immigrant kids may be more inclined to look for.

Newcomers' parents often can't do the jobs they did at homeeither their credentials aren't recognized or they don't have the certifications Canadian workplaces require, saidKuet.

His parents, who worked as a lawyer and schoolteacher in their home country, couldn't work in those capacities in Canada.

They took jobs atPalliserFurniture, but got laid off whenKuetwas a teen. They could no longer affordKuet'smembership to the YMCA the place he spent most of his waking hours outside of school. His friends there acted as mentors to him, but now he was cut off from them and from a place to go after school.

Family issues arose at home, and he joined a gang he had tried hard to stay out of. He racked up criminal charges for possession of a weapon and faced deportation back to South Sudan.

ButKuetleft the gang and went back to school.

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Programs growing

Today, Kuet works in programs at the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM) that help young peoplestay out of gangs. IRCOM liaisons communicate with schools to ensure refugee children are learning and engaged. IRCOM's after-school programs give youth a place to go.

In light of the Syrian refugee crisis, the province announced in January it would spend $1.6 million on education for refugee youth. The money is to help refugee children settle in, to increase English as a second language courses and also to support grants for kids from war-torn areas.

Kuet feels the kids now have a greater chance forsuccess due to these programs that weren't around when he was a teen.

But gangs still actively recruit refugee and immigrant youth because they can offer them something newcomer conditions can't a sense of belonging.

This is one in a series of stories written for CBC Manitoba by Red River College journalism students that looks at ways conflict abroad has shaped Winnipeg.

Here are other stories in the series:

• 'Nobody cares': Soldier feels abandoned 3 years after last Afghanistan tour
• Canada's legions are changing and not all veterans are happy about it
• 'Us versus them': Programs mend strained relations between Indigenous, newcomer communities