Resilience of African migrants: An integrative review

Abstract

African migrant women represent a rapidly growing cohort of new arrivals in many countries. Many of these women demonstrate strength and resilience throughout the stressful migration process. In this integrative review, we explore the literature on African migrants' resilience using an ecological framework. Nine peer-reviewed journal articles and six grey literature documents were reviewed. Key internal and external factors in achieving resilience were identified, discussed, and diagrammatically represented using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Framework under micro-, meso-, exo-, and macro-levels. Our findings show that the capacity for resilience demonstrated during migration could have implications for policy and practice.

Resilience, trauma, and hopelessness: protective or triggering factor for the development of psychopathology among migrants?

“…There are two formats, self-evaluations and clinical evaluations [ 34 ]. Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) [ 31 ] …”

“…Actually, emerging data over the past decades suggest that migration research could benefit from using a strengths-based approach, including the resilience construct, for a more thorough understanding of migrants' experiences [29,30]. Resilience may represent an essential element of epidemiological and interventional research aimed at improving mental health outcomes in migrants [3], because of its impact on how migrants adapt to the migration process and on the acculturation experiences in their host countries [1,2,31].…”

Resilience of African migrant women: Implications for mental health practice

“…Additionally, using stories allowed participants to give voice to their own experiences and provided them autonomy to choose what to discuss (East et al, 2010). This study utilised a strengths-based approach to build capacity, skills, knowledge, connections and potential in individuals and communities, rather than focusing on weakness and disease (Babatunde-Sowole et al, 2016;Brun and Rapp, 2001).…”

“…The understanding of resilience has evolved from investigating simple protective factors to include ecological and community factors (Panter-Brick and Eggerman, 2012; Ungar 2011). Socio-ecological approaches emphasise the vital role of environmental resources like support from family, friends, one's ethnic community (Babatunde-Sowole et al, 2016;Ungar 2011;Schweitzer, Greenslade and Kagee, 2007); and available services rather than individual traits or cognitions alone.…”

“…A strengths-based approach broadening the focus beyond problem-based research to more complete understandings is increasingly recommended. However, there are a lack of findings about African people, especially West African people living in Australia and their resilience (Babatunde-Sowole et al, 2016).…”