Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Art Therapy And Emdr Help Asylum Seekers And Refugees Move Towards Healing Trauma: A Literature Review, Anna Mogilevsky

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

In the past ten years, there has been a significant rise in the number of asylum seekers and refugee populations worldwide (UNHCR, 2022). Displaced individuals are extremely vulnerable to mental illness because of the compounded trauma experienced in their countries of origin with the stress of immigration, asylum seeking, culture shock, and language barriers. PTSD is affecting 500 million individuals globally, and refugees are especially susceptible to having these symptoms (Farrell, 2020). Art therapy and EMDR are identified as the most promising modalities for treating such trauma.

This literature review examines the various ways EMDR and art therapy have been …

Crafting Lives: Experiences Of Ethiopian Refugees In Cairo, Nayrose S. Abd El-Megid

Theses and Dissertations

There has been an ongoing influx of refugees for years driven by political instability, famine, and prolonged conflicts in the region, leading many individuals to seek sanctuary in other countries. Egypt has become a host country for many years, whether for settlement or transit, for various populations from different nationalities hoping to find refuge. However, amidst this influx, Ethiopian refugees often find themselves overlooked or usually associated on the sidelines with other African nationalities; their stories and struggles are marginalized in broader narratives of displacement. The experience of Ethiopians is heterogeneous and multidimensional in terms of their intersectional identities of …

Unhcr Egypt's Impact On Refugees And Asylum Seekers: 2000-2020, Abdallah Bahar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the shifts in UNHCR Egypt’s practice and policy and their impacts on refugees and asylum seekers in Egypt. It focuses on procedures of reception, registration, refugee status determination (RSD), and resettlement. It also examines the changes in services provided to refugees and asylum seekers, such as health care, education, residency permits, and future change. In addition, the study explores the major reasons for these shifts and whether they are stimulated by the global refugee regime or other factors such as domestic legislation. The thesis attempts to answer the following two questions: 1) what are the shifts in …

Memory And Identity: Inter-Generational Resilience And Construction Of Diasporic Identities Among Somali Refugees, Hamida Dahir Sheikh Ahmed

Master's Theses

The violence and displacement many refugees face often create a lifelong trauma that manifests in many ways within themselves, their families, and communities. The Somali refugee community in the United States is no different. Since their resettlement in America started in the 1990s following the civil war, the community has struggled with different manifestations of that trauma; substance abuse and gang violence among the youth, prominence of depression and suicide rates, rise of domestic violence, as well as other direct and indirect results associated with mental health. This is the reality of many refugee and immigrant communities, coming directly from …

The Role Of Nations-State In Protecting And Supporting Internally Displaced Persons, Daisy Byers

Master's Theses

The rising increase of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has become a global problem. There are over 40 million internally displaced people globally, and 15.9 million are displaced in Africa. These displacements come into place due to war/conflict, corruption, massive human rights violations, natural disasters, urban renewal projects (at the hands of powerful nations such as America, China, France, UK, etc.), and large-scale development projects. According to UNHCR, refugees are people who have international cross-border. In contrast, internally displaced persons must stay within their own country and stay under the protection of their government, even if the government is the reason …

Untwining Threads: Second Wave Hmong Parents’ Conceptualizations Of Ways To Support Their Adolescent Children’S Education, Mao Sea Lee

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This research identifies the support systems for adolescents’ education within the second wave Hmong refugee family setting. The study examines the parents’ perspectives on their own support systems for their adolescents’ education. The work focuses on studying both the instrumental support and psychological care these parents provide their teenage children and interprets why these parents choose to provide these resources. Studying these parents’ ways of supporting their adolescents provided a more in-depth understanding of why these recent refugee parents choose to invest of their resources to their adolescents’ education and, subsequently, what education means to them. The research also brought …

Long-Term Implementation Of Temporary Immigration Policy On The Security And Integration Of Liberians In The U.S., Glendaly Sanchez-Alicea

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Immigration policies such as temporary protected status and deferred enforced departure can serve as suitable humanitarian solutions to help displaced individuals. Notwithstanding, when implemented in the course of many years, the uncertainty and stress of living in limbo can pose significant challenges to beneficiaries and create a multifarious scenario for government leaders. This qualitative study examined the experience of Liberians, a group designated with temporary immigration protection in the United States since 1991, who have consequently formed lives in the United States while in temporary status. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the effects of temporary immigration …

Lived Experiences Of Congolese Women Refugees Living In Indianapolis: Voices Of Women, Nyangau Jane Mokaya

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been at war for decades. Since its self rule in 1960, the country has been dealing with civil war, and has the largest number of refugees from Africa to the United States. Mineral wise it is the richest country in Africa, and yet it is the poorest in the standard of living. In this dissertation, I sought to research the lived experiences of Congolese women refugees settled in Indianapolis, Indiana. The purpose of this study was to explore, through their own voices, the challenges these women face as they resettle in a new …

Media Framing Of Refugees In The United States And Canada, Janine Allwright

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The ongoing war in Syria and the subsequent refugee crisis has brought the need for refugee resettlement to the forefront of policy debates. Canada and the United States display stark differences in the outcome of their refugee policies. Canada continues to welcome Syrian refugees, whereas the United States has become less willing to engage in resettlement. The purpose of this study was to use Entman's conceptualization of framing theory to compare media framing of refugees in Canada and the United States to deliver insight into the different policy outcomes. Data were acquired through a content analysis of 850 newspaper articles …

Beyond Vulnerability: Refugee Women’S Leadership In Jordan, Widad Hassan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While both men and women are affected by conflicts and humanitarian crises, 80 percent of the world’s refugees and internally displaced persons are women and children, indicating that women experience conflict and war differently. The emphasis on women’s vulnerability during conflicts and humanitarian crises leads to their exclusion from leadership roles and decision-making on humanitarian programs and issues that impact them. Though women experience numerous socio-cultural barriers to exercising leadership in humanitarian settings, they have taken on important roles in emergency response and in refugee camps. This paper traces the progress of UN and humanitarian agencies recognition and development of …

Negotiating Identity, Home, And Belonging: Understanding The Experiences Of African Women Refugees Resettled In The United States, Consolata Nthemba Mutua

Communication ETDs

The purpose of this study is to examine how former African women refugees negotiate their identity, sense of belonging, and home in the context of transnational displacement. To explore this topic, I conducted in-depth interviews, participant observation, and focus group interviews with African women who came to the United States as refugees and who now live in two cities in the Southwestern and Midwestern United States. The resulting data was analyzed using both thematic and narrative analysis.

For this study, I recruited through a snowball/network sampling strategy a total of 20 former African women refugees and conducted 15 in-depth interviews, …

Cameras As Weapons Of Resistance: Refugees Disrupting The Colonial Narrative Through Photography, Shannon Elder

Cultural Studies Capstone Papers

This project analyzes the photography project “#RefugeeCameras”, where German photojournalist Kevin McElvaney gave disposable cameras to refugees to document their own experiences. The project includes close examination of the photography collection and considers the photographic depiction of landless people by other landless people in juxtaposition to the concept of the refugee as a ‘terrorist’. The examination of these images will reveal how photographs become a tool that can disrupt ideological stances that harm innocent people such as Islamophobia and fear mongering towards refugees that are deemed a threat by the Trump administration’s Executive Order, “Protecting the Nation From Foreign Terrorist …

Higher Education: The Impact On Bosnian Women Who Came As Refugees To The United States, Belma Sadikovic

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact college education has on Bosnian refugee women who resettled to the United States. The research findings help us better understand the effect higher education has on female students who came to the United States as refugees, their self-sufficiency and their overall integration into their new society. Using Kunz’s refugee theory and Bourdieu’s theory on social and cultural capital as a theoretical framework, the study explores socio-cultural factors that enable and constrain the ability of Bosnian women to navigate the facets of higher education, and how those factors affect their self-sufficiency and overall integration. The participants …

Paese Di Accoglienza: Il Successo Di Un Modello Innovativo Di Accoglienza Dei Richiedenti Asilo In Italia, Isabela Arena Secanechia

Senior Capstone Theses

This work discusses Italy's migrant reception system including its flaws and their effects. Furthermore, this work explores an alternative, sustainable model of migrant reception created in Riace, Calabria, that has been successful in varying towns across Italy. Ultimately, this work argues that this system, which is beneficial to both Italians and incoming migrants — specifically asylum seekers — can and should be implemented nationally to counter the current flawed system.

The Smiling, The Sick, The Suffereing: Snapshots Of Syrian Displacement, Karlee Anna Bergendorff

Honors Theses

Photographic images of Syrian refugees - smiling, sick, or suffering - on the news and in the ads of human rights organizations have been employed to mobilize governments, armies, or businesses. These images are effective in mobilizing various forms of support or intervention because they have a strong emotional impact on the mass public. The emotionally driven connection between spectator and refugee, however, raises some troubling questions about whose interests the images serve, and how they are used for various efforts. Is it possible to depict the suffering of Syrian refugees without violating their dignity, agency, and autonomy? I argue …

German And The European Migrant Crisis: An Exploration Of German National Identity, Sarah Pollack

Honors Theses

Since 2014, conflicts in North Africa and the Middle East have brought large inflows of asylum-seekers streaming into Europe. Germany has not only accepted the greatest number of these asylum-seekers, but it has additionally pushed for other European Union member states to accept more asylum-seekers as well, thereby earning an international reputation as a leading proponent of human rights in the European Union. While images of German citizens crowding train stations in Munich and other cities to welcome refugees have dominated news cycles, there is an increasing anti-immigration sentiment in Germany, which at its most extreme has manifested itself in …

A One Percent Chance: Jabotinsky, Bernadotte, And The Iron Wall Doctrine, Andrew Harman

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis is an examination of the long historical processes that have led to the Israel/Palestine conflict to the contemporary period, focusing mostly on the period before Israeli independence and the 1948 war that created the Jewish state. As Zionism emerged at the turn of the twentieth century to combat the antisemitism of Europe, practical and political facets of the movement sought immigration to Palestine, an area occupied by a large population of Arab natives. The answer to how the Zionists would achieve a Jewish state in that region, largely ignoring the indigenous population, fostered disagreements and a split in …

Best Practice Methods For Social Work With North Koreans, Bethany Johnson

Selected Honors Theses

The people of North Korea are in deep need of social work aid. This systematic literature review highlights key best practices for working with North Koreans, both in and out of their home country. Areas of work highlighted included addressing mental illnesses, specifically PTSD, reintegration into South Korea and other neighboring nations, advocating for international human rights policies, and humanitarian aid. Specific best practice suggestions are made for each section. In addition to this review, interviews were conducted with two expert professors in order to gain greater insight on the topic.

Into The Red: A Look Into The Reasons Why Refugees Decide To Flee, Settle Or Migrate To And From Morocco, Fadeelah E. Holivay

Master's Theses

This research paper explores some of the main reasons why refugees and asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan African countries, embark on a journey and decide to settle, flee or migrate to and from Morocco. Because of this phenomenon, Morocco has seen a 96% increase of refugees migrating to the borders of Morocco each year for the past three years. Many say that this astonishing increase of migrants choosing Morocco is due to such factors as: wars breaking out regionally across central African and Middle Eastern countries causing them to flee; Morocco being a culturaly diverse francophone country whose laws and …

Interpreting, Stephanie Jo Kent

Doctoral Dissertations

What do community interpreting for the Deaf in western societies, conference interpreting for the European Parliament, and language brokering in international management have in common? Academic research and professional training have historically emphasized the linguistic and cognitive challenges of interpreting, neglecting or ignoring the social aspects that structure communication. All forms of interpreting are inherently social; they involve relationships among at least three people and two languages. The contexts explored here, American Sign Language/English interpreting and spoken language interpreting within the European Parliament, show that simultaneous interpreting involves attitudes, norms and values about intercultural communication that overemphasize information and discount …

Emissaries Of Literacy: Refugee Studies And Transnational Composition, Michael T. Macdonald

Theses and Dissertations

"Emissaries of Literacy: Refugee Studies and Transnational Composition" uses qualitative research in refugee communities and textual analysis of stories written by and about refugees to argue that the experiences of resettled refugees, as well as the experiences of the volunteers, aid workers, tutors, and teachers who work with them, do not fit neatly within composition's current paradigms for studying literacy in global contexts. Refugee identity and experience shows a complex link between literacy and citizenship which is complicated by the economic and geographic histories of linguistic imperialism. Refugee perspectives, and more precisely the challenges they pose, can help composition scholars …

Tamil Asylees And U.S. Social Workers : Intercultural Communication In The Context Of Refugee Services, Emily Josephine Hagadorn

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

This research study explored how intercultural communication factors such as values and communication styles might affect the interaction between Tamil asylees and their U.S. social workers. For this qualitative study, I interviewed 11 Tamil asylees and conducted a focus group with 3 U.S. social workers at an agency serving the Tamil participants. Based on the findings of this research as well as the literature review, this thesis reveals culture-specific information about Tamil asylees and highlights the implications of the research to the fields of intercultural communication, refugee studies, and social work. Findings revealed the following: culture general assumptions overshadow the …