Abstract
Although refugees who are accepted for resettlement in a third country are guaranteed certain rights and experience safety from war and persecution, they face many mental health challenges. Using qualitative methods and constructivist grounded theory, we explored culturally specific perspectives on trauma and recovery among Burundian, Congolese, and Iraqi refugees resettled in the USA. Eighteen semi-structured interviews provided extensive data on the meaning of productivity and work, the ways in which they index normalcy and self-sufficiency, and how they create security that facilitates the healing process. Our inductive analyses revealed that participants emphasized the relationship between productivity and healing when they described recovery from trauma. Participants also discussed individual and structural facilitators and barriers to work. Finally, prominent themes emerged around gendered roles and expectations and the ways these function in refugee resettlement contexts that are shaped by policies that demand rapid economic self-sufficiency. Taken together, these findings suggest that policies that promote underemployment and foreclose opportunities for education and professional development may contribute negatively to refugee mental health, as well as keep refugees in poverty.
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Acknowledgements
We wish to acknowledge the contributions of our community advisory council members (Jerome Ndabirorere, Freedance Nibakiza, Mohammed Alkwaz, Sulaf Alkawaz, Seyyed Qasim Sadat, Sadiqa Sadat, Hala Al-kurdi, Muslim Al-kurdi, Jean Paul Ninziza, Nina Nahimana, Marshall Jenson, Kiri Mathsen, Kresta Opperman, Ngerina Nyankundwakazi, Danielle Parker, Mandy Ortaa, and Azhar N. Al-Jarry), interviewers/interpreters (Ebtisam Ali, Ahmed Mashhadi, Cynthia Mfurakazi, Martin Ndayisenga, Sanaa Yaqoob), and all of the research participants.
Funding
This study was funded by a grant to the senior corresponding author from the National Institute on Minority Health & Health Disparities (R01MD007712).
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Hess, J.M., Isakson, B.L., Amer, S. et al. Refugee Mental Health and Healing: Understanding the Impact of Policies of Rapid Economic Self-sufficiency and the Importance of Meaningful Work. Int. Migration & Integration 20, 769–786 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0628-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0628-3