Expanding Our Community: Independent and Interdependent Factors Impacting Refugee Successful Community Resettlement

Abstract

Evidence suggests that despite the aid from resettlement agencies, many refugees find the resettlement process extraordinarily stressful and have reported significant negative mental and physical health outcomes. The literature on refugee resettlement often focuses on the challenges that these individuals encounter in their new environment. However, less research has focused on community barriers and lack of support issues that can prevent refugees from resettling in the U.S. Using qualitative data collected from Burmese and Burundian refugee groups, this article examines the impact of social structures on the resettlement process. Results indicate that gaps in service delivery such as employment and housing are affected by support from the resettlement agencies and the refugees’ social support network. Results of this study contribute to the knowledge based on how best to assist refugee families.

“The Pain of Exile”: What Social Workers Need to Know about Burmese Refugees

“…Refugees are unlike immigrants, who typically choose to relocate; they leave their homes with uncertain futures and little choice over where they will go. Unable to return home due to the risk of continued persecu-tion, refugees live in perilous situations, often with needs that cannot be addressed in their country of asylum ( Agbényiga et al, 2012).…”

“…Refugees flee Burma to escape human rights violations perpetrated by the ruling military junta, interethnic conflict, and religious persecution. Nearly 480,000 refugees have been displaced from Burma and granted refugee status ( UNHCR, n.d.) due to systematic and ongoing human rights abuses ( Agbényiga et al, 2012;Brough et al, 2013;Harkins, 2012); more than 245,000 Rohingya have been displaced from Burma due to severe legal, economic, and social discrimination ( UNHCR, 2015c; H. Res. 418, 2014).…”

“…Many have left in waves over the last several decades after a succession of violent crackdowns, often fleeing to refugee camps in Thailand and Malaysia. Burmese refugees often carry the consequences of traumas such as killings of family members; torture; forced labor, including sexual slavery and child soldiers; and destruction of homes, crops, places of worship, and their entire villages ( Agbényiga et al, 2012;Brough et al, 2013;Harkins, 2012).…”

“…When Burmese refugees fled to Thailand or Malaysia, they became unauthorized immigrants living on the fringes of local communities or incorporated into temporary transitional camps operated by the UNHCR. Confined to refugee camps in Thailand, Malaysia, India, and Bangladesh, Burmese face poor living conditions and a lack of basic human rights ( Agbényiga et al, 2012). Camp conditions are negatively affected by local contexts of poverty and lack of local capacity .…”

“…"But who that has not suffered it understands the pain of exile?" - Orwell, 1934, p. 163 F orced migration within and from Burma is an international social justice crisis resulting from ongoing human rights violations ( Agbényiga, Barrie, Djelaj, & Nawyn, 2012;Brough, Schweitzer, Shakespeare-Finch, Vronmans, & King, 2013;Harkins, 2012). Over 1 million people have been displaced within and from Burma, with nearly 400,000 internally displaced people within the country and more than 800,000 stateless people, or those not considered as a national by any state ( United Nations High Comm issioner for Refugees [UNHCR], 2015b); nearly half a million displaced people have fled the country and been granted refugee status by the United Nations ( UNHCR, n.d).…”