Belonging Among Newcomer Youths

Abstract

Belonging has been identified as an important resource for health and well-being in the lives of youths. Thus, it is an important concept for upstream health promotion and culturally safe and relevant nursing care. While many researchers acknowledge the importance of the social, cultural, and political context in the lives of newcomer youths, little research has examined the sociopolitical processes inherent in immigrant and refugee youths' experiences of belonging. By employing an intersectional and postcolonial perspective, this study explored newcomer youths' gendered, racialized, and class experiences of inclusion and exclusion that ultimately influenced their sense of belonging in their country of resettlement. Through an examination of online blogs in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and secondary analyses of transcribed interviews from a previous study conducted in Canada, experiences of belonging were revealed to be shaped by complex and multifaceted structures of oppression. Through individual and collective efforts of resistance and resiliency, newcomer youths worked to construct a sense of belonging in their daily lives. Despite these participants' demonstrated strengths, it is evident that more work is needed to support newcomer youths' sense of belonging and well-being throughout resettlement. Implications for nursing practice and research are discussed.

Immigrant child health in Canada: a scoping review

“…Coping strategies are required to adjust to a new society, and family support was shown in the findings of this study to be an integral strategy of resettlement and social adjustment 83. Immigrant adolescents navigated loss of family, friends and cultural familiarity due to migration, resulting in feelings of disconnection and a lack of belonging 78 84. Adjustment was often also critically affected by the low income levels of working immigrant families, which negatively impacted their children’s well-being 85.…”

“…Nevertheless, it should be acknowledged that parental reports of mental health are shaped by their cultural conceptualisations of mental health which may not correspond with Western conceptualisations, thus influencing how and what they communicate about their children’s mental health 82. Parents also reported socioeconomic status as a barrier to mental health service access,65 82 and it has been documented that socioeconomic status contributes to immigrant children’s self-perceived mental health and their shared sense of well-being within the family 66 84 96. Yet, despite the higher prevalence of poverty in immigrant households, immigrant children generally experience better mental and social well-being than their Canadian counterparts, in part, due to protective factors such as social networks and bonds with others of similar cultural and ethnic backgrounds which foster a sense of belonging 95.…”

Ontario’s Poverty Reduction Strategy

“…This is particularly pertinent as the increasing prevalence of poverty among racialized groups is significant (Galabuzi, 2009). Experiences of exclusion among newcomer and racialized groups have been repeatedly identified in Ontario-based studies (Caxaj & Berman, 2010;Galabuzi 2009), and were emphasized among study participants. The positive language and hopeful goals employed in the OPRS, that deem gender and ethno-cultural identities invisible, distract from the social injustices central to the experiences of poverty.…”

Using Blogs as a Qualitative Health Research Tool

“…Four studies focused on emotional and mental health relating to personal experience and the impact on mental health care access for young adults (Marcus, Westra, Eastwood, & Barnes, 2012), voice hearers as a meaningful identity (Woods, 2013), mental health impacts of experiences related to belonging in migrant and refugee youth (Caxaj & Berman, 2010), and experiences and emotions of combat exposure of U.S. military service members deployed during two separate Iraqi operations (Konovalov et al, 2010).…”

“…The studies which focused on youth, related to specific health issues, that is, sexuality (Valli & Cogo, 2013), mental health (Caxaj & Berman, 2010;Marcus et al, 2012), weight gain (Hebden et al, 2013), and cancer (Kim & Gillham, 2013). Health topics including allied health education (Wright & Lundy, 2012) and credibility of online health information (Hu & Sundar, 2010).…”