*Article* **African Refugee Youth's Experiences of Navigating Different Cultures in Canada: A "Push and Pull" Experience**

**Roberta L. Woodgate 1,\* and David Shiyokha Busolo <sup>2</sup>**


**Abstract:** Refugee youth face challenges in navigating different cultures in destination countries and require better support. However, we know little about the adaptation experiences of African refugee youth in Canada. Accordingly, this paper presents the adaptation experiences of African refugee youth and makes recommendations for ways to support youth. Twenty-eight youth took part in semi-structured interviews. Using a thematic analysis approach, qualitative data revealed four themes of: (1) '*disruption in the family,'* where youth talked about being separated from their parent(s) and the effect on their adaptation; (2) *'our cultures are different,'* where youth shared differences between African and mainstream Canadian culture; (3) *'searching for identity: a cultural struggle,'* where youth narrated their struggles in finding identity; and (4) '*learning the new culture,'* where youth narrated how they navigate African and Canadian culture. Overall, the youth presented with challenges in adapting to cultures in Canada and highlighted how these struggles were influenced by their migration journey. To promote better settlement and adaptation, youth could benefit from supports and activities that promote cultural awareness with attention to their migration experiences. Service providers could benefit from newcomer-friendly and culturally sensitive training on salient ways of how experiences of multiple cultures affect integration outcomes.

**Keywords:** youth; refugee; qualitative research; adaptation

#### **1. Introduction**

Refugee youth form a considerable proportion of the migrant population and their adaptation to the Canadian society is crucial. In 2016, 1.2 million new migrants had settled in Canada in the preceding five years and refugee youth made up 12.4% (approx. 150,300) of them [1]. Migration and the resultant acculturation can be stressful and result in poor psychological and socio-cultural adaptation [2].

Refugee youth arrive in Canada with their own cultural norms and beliefs and often struggle to blend in with the culture in Canada [2–4]. The youth experience challenges with education [5], careers [6], legal, and employment system [7]. They must work at finding a balance between the culture from their country of origin and the mainstream culture of Canada. To navigate different cultures, refugees may utilize acculturation processes of integration, assimilation, marginalization, and separation [8]. With integration, certain facets from the heritage and mainstream culture are adopted [2]. Assimilation involves immigrants and refugees seeking distance from their heritage, while placing effort into blending into the mainstream culture. Marginalization involves situations where immigrants and refugees may not want to associate with either the mainstream, or their heritage culture. Separation on the other hand, refers to circumstances where newcomers seek to stay with people from their culture while avoiding the mainstream culture [2].

Studies of migrants at their final destination countries report that the type of parental support and practices, language proficiency, cultural distance, and experiences with dis-

**Citation:** Woodgate, R.L.; Busolo, D.S. African Refugee Youth's Experiences of Navigating Different Cultures in Canada: A "Push and Pull" Experience. *Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health* **2021**, *18*, 2063. https:// doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18042063

Academic Editors: Lillian Mwanri, Hailay Gesesew, Nelsensius Klau Fauk and William Mude

Received: 26 January 2021 Accepted: 15 February 2021 Published: 20 February 2021

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crimination can shape youth's adaptation experiences [2–4,9–14]. For instance, harsh parenting and a lack of parental support for unaccompanied refugee youth leads to adaptation difficulties such as lack of positive supportive relationships [9,10,12]. A notable cultural distance between youth's home country and country of resettlement is associated with an increased likelihood of experiencing poverty, discrimination, and poor mental health [3,15–17]. However, having a strong foundation in one's original culture and identity can help to navigate the challenges related to cultural distance [10,16,18].

To overcome acculturative stress and struggles, research reveals that refugee youth in general can benefit from reshaping their identities and engaging in meaningful activities, as well as having social support, positive emotions, and friends [19–22]. Research specific to African refugee youth in final destination countries found that they manage acculturative stress by a number of strategies including relying on religion [23,24], maintaining a sense of collectivity and communal support, relying on their families, heavy alcohol use, making sense of the challenges, cultural orientation and focusing on positive thoughts [16,24–27]. Other African newcomer youth manage acculturation stress by maintaining their heritage such as eating food from their African countries of origin and speaking dialects from their African countries of origin [28]. In addition, African newcomer youth have been found to adapt by learning about new cultures, changing their habits, suppressing their thoughts and memories of past struggles, and becoming self-reliant even when support is available [27–29].

In a meta-ethnography by Kennedy and MacNeela [21] that examined the acculturation experiences of youth who immigrated from Asia, Middle East, Africa, and the Americas, most of the reviewed studies involved youth who moved to United States. Findings from this work revealed that youth made sense of acculturation based on their life worlds, pre-immigration experiences, cultural identities, and aspirations as shaped by the life domains of family, school, and peers. Youth experienced changes in the role and relationships within their families. When it came to school environments, youth had mixed experiences of receiving support and felt excluded because of language, religion, and skin complexion. Youth adapted to acculturation by keeping ties with peers from their ethnic communities but also found distance between their groups because of divergent beliefs and lacking financial resources.

Refugee youth usually come with a history of living in refugee camps or within informal settlements that can affect how they adapt to their acculturation in their final destination countries [30]. Influencing their acculturation and adaptation experiences are socioeconomic factors, poor access to education, insecurity, policies, and gender divisions that can lead to discrimination, poor health and settlement challenges. While research exists about refugee youth's adaptation experiences including the way they navigate different cultures in their final destination countries, it mainly involves quantitative methods and non-African youth with a focus on second-generation migrant or refugee youth [21]. Research that examines the adaptation experiences of newly arrived African refugee youth in Canada is critically needed. Such research is crucial in understanding youth adaptation experiences in their destination country. Gaining an understanding of these youth's experiences can help to inform and improve adaptation and settlement support programs specific to youth. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to present research findings that depict the adaptation experiences of African refugee youth in Canada.

#### **2. Materials and Methods**

#### *2.1. Design*

In order to arrive at an understanding of youth's adaptation experiences, a qualitative research study approach was used [31]. A qualitative approach that was cross-sectional in nature helped to ensure a richness of data by affording youth the opportunity to express their migration experiences in ways that are meaningful to them and present their authentic accounts of navigating and adapting to different cultures.

#### *2.2. Ethical Considerations*

Prior to collecting data, we took steps to ensure ethical considerations were maintained. First, we obtained ethical approval to conduct this study from the Education and Nursing Research Ethics Board at the University of Manitoba. Second, we obtained consent from youth who were at least 18 years old while we obtained assent from youth who were 17 years old and younger in addition to consent from their parents.
