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Editor’s Introduction

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Refuge and Resilience

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Migration ((IPMI,volume 7))

Abstract

Every year, a relatively small number of refugees are given opportunities through official channels to resettle in host countries that have agreed to provide a safe haven under international law. Though challenging to survive under these circumstances, many refugees do survive in their adopted lands, and many even thrive. What makes such resilience possible? This book is about solutions, not just problems. It is about what it takes for refugees to overcome loss and adversity and to stay psychologically healthy while they recreate their lives in new places. The editors of this book have assembled recent research on this topic to demonstrate the importance of those factors that restore refugee health, and to suggest how resilience can be promoted by health and social service providers and by communities in refugee-receiving societies.

“God, I thought, did I really have to choose between peace and sanity”. (“K’naan: An immigrant song,” The Globe and Mail, May 10, 2010.)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Migration Policy Institute 2012.

  2. 2.

    Women’s Refugee Commission 2011.

  3. 3.

    Excellent examples of these works include Beiser (1999), Ingleby (2005), and Miller and Rasco (2004).

  4. 4.

    Porter and Haslam 2005.

  5. 5.

    Simich 2003.

  6. 6.

    Simich et al. 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011.

References

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  • Simich, L., Pickren, W., Vasilevska, B., & Rouse, J. (2011). Resilience, acculturation and integration of adult migrants: Understanding cultural strengths of recent refugees. A final report to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, Ottawa.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Vera Institute of Justice, New York, NY, USA

    Laura Simich PhD

Authors
  1. Laura Simich PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Laura Simich PhD .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center on Immigration and Justice, Vera Institute of Justice, New York, New York, USA

    Laura Simich

  2. Department of Psychiatry Equity, Gender and Populations Division, University of Toronto Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Lisa Andermann

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Simich, L. (2014). Editor’s Introduction. In: Simich, L., Andermann, L. (eds) Refuge and Resilience. International Perspectives on Migration, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7923-5_1

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