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Social Support in Refugee Resettlement

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Book cover Refuge and Resilience

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

Abstract

Refugees face challenges in resettlement countries, including language difficulties, acculturative stress, societal prejudice, and loneliness that jeopardize their integration. They have been exposed to violent conflicts and acute traumatic incidents, including forced separation from family members. Social support has the potential to decrease refugees’ isolation and loneliness, enhance their sense of belonging and life fulfillment, mediate the stress of discrimination and facilitate integration into a new society. Differences among refugees reinforce the need to elucidate the role of ethnicity in the design of culturally-relevant social support interventions. The studies described in this chapter explicate African refugees’ support needs, support resources and preferences for ethno-culturally based support interventions and their impacts.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Nursing, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada

    Miriam J. Stewart

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  1. Miriam J. Stewart
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Correspondence to Miriam J. Stewart .

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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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Stewart, M. (2014). Social Support in Refugee Resettlement. 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_7

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