Resilience within Communities of Forced Migrants: Updates and the Path Forward

Abstract

We explore the current state of the principal literature relevant to resilience and vulnerability within and among communities of forced migrants. We highlight strengths, gaps, and weaknesses in these literatures, utilizing a case study to illustrate the importance of what we deem to be essential omitted variables. We make recommendations for moving these literatures—and their associated underlying conceptual frameworks—forward.

Social Consequences of Forced and Refugee Migration

“…Resilience is the inverse: a process that connects community resources and/or adaptive capacities to a trajectory of positive functioning and adaptation postcrisis (Beiser & Hou 2014, Norris et al 2008, Pickren 2014. Research on the Vietnamese American community's recovery after Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans (a twicedisplaced community) identified key gaps in research on vulnerability and resilience, including the role of community history and culture (for example, shared histories, previous displacements, collective trauma, social support, and capital); adaptation to a new normal, rather than a return to past circumstances; and longitudinal research focused on sequencing and long-term impacts of crises, employing methods such as life history calendars and rapid repurposing of ongoing data collection, which would provide analytic value (Pendley et al 2021).…”