“Step by Step We Were Okay Now”: An Exploration of the Impact of Social Connectedness on the Well-Being of Congolese and Iraqi Refugee Women Resettled in the United States
Abstract
:1. Introduction
“Persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized border.”
1.1. Social Connectedness and Belongingness among Refugee Populations
1.2. Female Refugees and Social Capital
1.3. Critical Feminist Approach
“... new ways of inquiry, ones that move beyond the traditional ways of conceptualizing and operationalizing research... creat[ing] space for the exploration of how various dimensions of social identity, such as race, gender, and class, as well as education, citizenship, and geographical locations, intersect to influence the health of immigrant and refugee women”(p. 33) [13].
1.4. Congolese and Iraqi Female Refugees
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Purpose
2.2. Study Design
2.3. Sample
2.4. United States Political Climate
3. Results
3.1. Belongingness and Trust
“People in New York. People in Indiana [have moved elsewhere outside of [City] and they feel more welcomed]. Like some friends will meet them, but in Indiana they enjoy. If we tell them what we are facing, they are like just move”(COF3).
“You have come here, but you have not yet get any card. You only benefits is in Orlando. Its all America. They’re the same, but you be welcome in America. You have to wait until you get all those benefit. You’ve got the hospital. You work, and at least you have something for you to move”(COF3).
3.2. Bonding Capital
“Does she have any close relationship here with people that are not Kurdish? “No. Just only she has... She just comes to our home and goes to my sister’s home, that’s it. Her mother-in-law and sister-in-law and that’s it. She doesn’t have anybody just only us”(IJF4).
3.3. Bridging Capital
“One thing which I would say is making friends depends on someone. It depends on someone, how that person is, their personality, how they talk. Then what could be also to be challenge on the refugee women, most of them they don’t speak their language. How can you make a friend with someone? You can meet me but I want to become your friend. We don’t have the collaboration in language”(COF).
“Let me say it in general. Whites are not like us Africans. For us African we are kind of friendly. I hope you understand that, but Whites they have that kind of something which is kind of privacy but for us as we grow, as our culture, I can come to your house. I go there waiting for the food. I eat. Something like that but that is not of the Whites. I have to come at the right time, if I was invited”(COF).
3.4. Linking Capital
“They take money. We are from Africa. We don’t know. We don’t eat food. Then, they come. What do we eat? If they... a bigger thing for the [church support] and then they cannot put in the house. On the first day you come, and you don’t know anything. They will start counting even those thing food. We got this. We bought this. Only your money. We don’t even wait for you to come because they don’t know the food you eat”(COF3).
“One thing so far, why do they put their numbers in voicemail every time? Someone can have an emergency. You call them, maybe you have an emergency. I’m new here. I don’t want a policy like that”(COF1).
“If you go there [“charities”], they will make you sitting there. You wait for long time then they attend you. They say go back. I already made a client in the internet so if they answer I will call you. It’s just like that. Then you come, you sit, wait for even one month”(COF).
“The person who knocked called the police. They had a misunderstanding of the language. The police was asking, “What can I do?” Committed the kid to the hospital. The kid was hurt, the mother was crying, shaking. After a minute, and then someone came, “Those people they’re speaking like African language”(COF1).
“We’re running through that a lot, but the biggest concern I am having is the case specialists having too many cases to handle and they are dropping the ball on someone. All the agencies in town, yes”(COF).
“They have also called the food stamps. Then they know that she’s not working. The income of the two, its very low. In her age, she doesn’t know how to read. She doesn’t go to school. really the government, by the time they knew about her, about all the clothing she have. really is the government want just to leave her like that. Even the food stamp, it’s cut. Everything is cut”(COF3).
“They [friends] help us more than [refugee resettlement agency]. They take us to interview like Walmart, when we need something we told them, but [refugee resettlement agency] just bring us over here and take care of the people that’s it, but they [friends] help us a lot”(IJF4).
“You have to face that by yourself. Then once those people [social service providers] start to return to you, they will just tell you they have no solution. Your benefit got finished. They will just give you number to try to call the government and claim the government’s got to help. That’s what they do”(COF3).
“It’s also better you talk, and sometime when you feel like you want to cry, you cry. We hope one day a chance. Others which are coming behind will get a chance. Only because we are thirsty. We won’t get a chance. No, that’s... for us. We are fighting for those ones who are behind. Maybe the children of the children only... those”(COF3).
“You start working on the 17th. Then they tell we have let you go. You have to pay the rent. How can I pay rent when I start working on 17th? I have to wait that because when I’m working, they pay two weeks. I have to wait for those two week”(COF3).
“They give them the food stamps of the kid only thirty days for the whole month. They she’s working. They have to pay for housing. They have to pay for electricity. They have to pay everything”(COF3, emphasis added).
“The challenge which I know that they are facing is her with a daughter and a son, the income is very low”(COF).
“At least you know, “My child she’s on day care. It has worked peacefully. Let me go to work.” Other they’re failing to go to work because of the kids and then at the same time, if it does not work they cannot afford a house”(COF1).
“The good thing, it would be better if the husband is around because the husband could be also working. At least that’s more income they could be sharing and they share the bills. Now only two people in the house are working and then the income is very low”(COF).
“One month you are telling the landlord to wait at least, to hold on. You don’t have the money, but once you get your payment you pay that, but in America, it’s all like that. Once you given your purse on day, they challenge you for that. That one day. You have to pay a hundred and something”(COF3).
“They have an issue with like whether they’re working. Now where they are staying, the owner of the house want to sell the house”(COF3).
“When she failed to pay the rent, she has to go and take a credit. Then you have to take 500. You have to return that 555 dollar. Then after paying that... when you are getting 1200. Thats not just that passed into that check. Then you pay the tax. You are paying the house maybe 800 or 900. You have nothing put on food”(COF3).
“If she throws sick or go to the hospital, the bills do come very much. She doesn’t work. How is she going to pay them?”(COF3).
4. Discussion and Conclusions
4.1. Moving beyond Homogenous Identities
4.2. Belongingness and Trust
4.3. Social Capital
4.4. The Role of the Researcher
4.5. Limitations
5. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Demographics | Congolese | Iraqi |
---|---|---|
City of Residence | Orlando (n = 6) | Jacksonville (n = 6) |
Primary Language | French (n = 5) | Kurdish (n = 5) |
Swahili (n = 1) | Arabic (n = 1) | |
Secondary Language | English (n = 2) | English (n = 3) |
Lingala (n = 1) | ||
Kikongo (n = 1) | ||
None (n = 2) | None (n = 3) | |
Average age | M = 45.5 (SD = 14.511) | M = 32 (SD = 7.16) |
Average English comprehension (read and understand) | M = 2.5 (Slightly well–Well) | M = 2.17 (Slightly well) |
SD = 1.00 | SD = 1.34 | |
Marital status | Married (n = 0) | Married (n = 3) |
Separated (n = 1) | Separated (n = 1) | |
Widowed (n = 1) | Widowed (n = 1) | |
Never Married (n = 4) | Never Married (n = 1) | |
Employment | Not employed (n = 4) | Not employed (n = 3) |
Employed (n = 2) | Employed (n = 3) | |
Education | M = 8.8 years (SD = 3.56) | M = 3.4 years (SD = 6.29) |
Length (range) of time living in City | 2 months–8 years | 6 months–6 years |
Rent vs. Own housing | Rent (n = 6) | Rent (n = 4) |
Own (n = 0) | Own (n = 2) | |
Number of individuals in household (average) | M = 2.83 (SD = 0.90) | M = 4.17 (SD = 0.90) |
Total number of children (under 18 years old) in household | 2 children (n = 0) | 2 children (n = 1) |
1 child (n = 2) | 1 child (n = 0) | |
0 children (n = 4) | 0 children (n = 5) |
Belongingness and Trust | |||||
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Bonding Capital | Bridging Capital | Linking Capital | |||
Congolese and Iraqi | Congolese and Iraqi | Congolese and Iraqi | |||
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Congolese | Iraqi | Congolese | Iraqi | Congolese | Iraqi |
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Bletscher, C.; Spiers, S. “Step by Step We Were Okay Now”: An Exploration of the Impact of Social Connectedness on the Well-Being of Congolese and Iraqi Refugee Women Resettled in the United States. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20, 5324. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075324
Bletscher C, Spiers S. “Step by Step We Were Okay Now”: An Exploration of the Impact of Social Connectedness on the Well-Being of Congolese and Iraqi Refugee Women Resettled in the United States. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2023; 20(7):5324. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075324
Chicago/Turabian StyleBletscher, Caitlin, and Sara Spiers. 2023. "“Step by Step We Were Okay Now”: An Exploration of the Impact of Social Connectedness on the Well-Being of Congolese and Iraqi Refugee Women Resettled in the United States" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 20, no. 7: 5324. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075324