La Trobe Refugee Research Centre Negotiating family, navigating resettlement: resettled young people with refugee backgrounds in Melbourne, Australia McMichael,

La Trobe Refugee Research Centre

Negotiating family, navigating

resettlement: resettled young people with refugee backgrounds in Melbourne, Australia

McMichael, C., Gifford, S. & Correa-Velez, I.Journal of Youth Studies

Vol. 14 (2), 2011: 179-195

Celia McMichael

Metropolis, 2011


The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) states:‘the family unit has a better chance of successfully . . . integrating in a new country than do individual refugees. In this respect, protection of the family is not only in the best interests of the refugees themselves, but is also in the best interests of States’. (UNHCR 1999, p. 159)


Australia’s Humanitarian ProgramCategory 2003-

04

2004-

05

2005-

06

2006

-

07

2007-

08

2008-

09

Refugee 4,134 5,511 6,022 6,003 6,004 6,499

Special

Humanitarian

8,927 6,755 6,836 5,275 5,026 4,625

Onshore Protection 788 895 1,272 1,701 1,900 2,378

Temporary

Humanitarian

Concern

2 17 14 38 84 5

Total 13,85

1

13,17

8

14,14

4

13,01

7

13,01

4

13,50

7

Source: DIAC (2009) Fact Sheet 60 – Australia’s Refugee and Humanitarian Program


A longitudinal ethnographic study that documents the experiences of 120 newly arrived young people from refugee backgrounds, during their first four years in Australia.

Developed and conducted by Prof. Sandy Gifford (La Trobe University) and Dr Ignacio Correa-Velez (LTU/Mission Australia)

Aims: to identify the psychosocial factors that promote

settlement and well-being.

to describe in depth, the contexts, settings and social processes that promote health and well-being amongst refugee young people over time.


Key research questions: How do adolescents with

refugee backgrounds negotiate the challenges of settling with their families?

What are their experiences of rebuilding family life?

To what extent does the family context promote wellbeing?

What are the effects of family separation and transnational families?


Family configuration All participants connected to family

members living in Australia. Few arrived as part of an ‘intact’

family– One third with both mother and father– One-third with mother but not father– 2.5% (n=3) arrived with father but not

mother– 30% with aunts, uncles, grandparents,

unaccompanied


Family configuration: fluid and transnational

Young people’s accounts of family life illustrate the fluidity of family composition, both prior to and post arrival.

Family separation/transnational families:– Guilt, concern about separation from relatives

who remain in difficult situations, powerlessness, provisions of remittances, efforts to sponsor relatives.

– Transnational family life characterised by loss, change, adaptation, worry.

– Calls into question the notion of home, family and identity as being rooted in place.


Family provides support/belonging

Family is pivotal to settlement; a key source of support.

Family described as providing a sense of belonging, shared understandings, guidance and designated roles:

I spend my spare time at home because my family is in there and I know that I belong to them. (Hakima, female, Afghani)


Challenges to family life during settlementQuantitative measures: Reduced trust (i.e. ‘My parents

trust me; My family trust me’) – high on arrival then decreasing

Reduced attachment – high on arrival then decreasing

Increased conflict in early years of settlement


Young people described challenges to family life: Fractured family networks and family separation. Their parents and families face difficulties of

forced displacement and settlement. Accumulated stresses can lead to reduced support.

Discord in relation to education/career aspirations.

Parents remain rooted in cultural tradition and values, but stated that they learn rapidly about Australia and absorb new values and expectations.


When we came to Australia because maybe she might worry because we are in a new country and new freedom, you know. That’s why she don’t want us to be like other people, like have a lot of freedom . . . I learn about Australia, I know, but she’s kind of like the old generation, you know. Her background is the old generation and now my generation is a new country, a new place, a new world. (Wan, female, Burmese)


Discussion Many circumstances induced by forced

migration are lived most intensely within the context of family (i.e. settlement).

Family is crucial source of support for people with refugee backgrounds (yet families fluid & transnational).

Nonetheless, image of family as site of unity increasingly questioned in migration studies: war, flight, displacement, death of and separation from relatives, and resettlement have profound impacts on the functioning and structure of families from refugee backgrounds


Conclusion This study has shown that for resettled young

people with refugee backgrounds, families play a central emotional, social and economic role, but there are challenges in remaking family life.

Supporting family is a key strategy for improving settlement outcomes for people with refugee backgrounds, and for supporting young people in particular

It is critical that (the Australian) humanitarian and refugee intake and family reunion programmes both have a broad and inclusive definition of family.


Documents

La Trobe Refugee Research Centre Negotiating family, navigating resettlement: resettled young people with refugee backgrounds in Melbourne, Australia McMichael,