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 …

Refugees Or Migrants: Polish Reception To Ukrainian And Syrian Refugee Crises (2015/2022), Emily M. Friedman

Senior Theses

After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, millions of Ukrainians fled the country as refugees. The majority of which settled in the neighboring country of Poland, where they were greeted with open arms both by the government and the public. However, Poland’s kindness towards Ukrainian refugees was an outlier: during the Syrian refugee crisis in 2015, the Polish government and citizens adamantly opposed accepting refugees from Syria or other Middle Eastern countries. Their initial refusal meant they were woefully unprepared for the two million Ukrainians who chose to remain in the country both due to a lack of updated …

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 …

“We’Ll Offer Asylum Just So Long As…” The Discrimination Of Poc And Lgbtq+ Refugees In Ongoing Refugee Crises, Faith N. Schaefer

Undergraduate Honors Theses

An ongoing refugee crisis is apparent in global politics and foreign relations. Still, the way receiving countries regard certain communities in this critical period has brought to light the inhumane discrimination solely based on one’s skin color and/or sexual identity. Despite the “open arms” policy that most nations tend to project, there is an unwritten protocol along borders that some states have chosen a “pick and choose” approach when it comes to People of Color (POC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other gender non-conforming (LGBTQ+) individuals who are fleeing their country of origin. Any such prejudice and inequity …

Help-Seeking Behavior Among Resettled Refugee, Mahfoudha Sid’Elemine

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The refugee resettlement process is a huge part of refugees’ journeys in their new countries that has a lasting impact on their long-term integration. The literature highlights the importance of trust for successful refugee resettlement. This dissertation, however, challenges assumptions about the primary importance of “trust” and argues that the importance of trust is relative and can depend on the nature of the resettlement program and the perspective and background of refugees. In other words, there is not a one-size-fits-all of trust building in the context of resettlement. For certain resettlement programs trust building can be counterproductive when resources are …

Learning To Fly While Staying Grounded: How Forcibly Displaced Individuals Develop A Sense Of Belonging In Disempowered Cities, Janina L. Selzer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Despite a growing interest in belonging, immigration and urban scholarship has yet to develop an empirically grounded, spatially sensitive, and complex theorization of the concept itself. Drawing on a comparative case study of two disempowered cities – Bielefeld, Germany, and Detroit, US, – this dissertation analyzes how and to what extent forcibly displaced Yazidi and Chaldean Iraqis develop a sense of belonging. By triangulating data from semi-structured interviews, ethnographic observations, as well as a discourse analysis of policy documents, the following pages trace how politics of belonging are continuously produced, reproduced, and challenged through a spatially mediated and often contradictory …

Syrian Refugee Place Attachment And Place Making In Ottawa, On, Kiran Va Unger-Basappa

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How can Syrian refugees’ feelings of attachment towards places and spaces in Ottawa, ON be used to indicate their own sense of integration into Canadian society? Exploring research participants’ place attachments to the city of Ottawa enables a greater understanding of their lived geographies that either hinder or elevate their integration experience. The mixed-method data collection used in this research study include an online qualitative survey, in-depth interviews, and a mental mapping exercise. The analysis of the data is based upon five factors of place attachment used to define integration. These are comfort, security, relationships, involvement, and rootedness. …

The Sidelined Front-Liners: Eritrean Cbos In Greater Cairo, Nada Hegazy

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the recognition of the important role that community-based organizations play, among international actors concerned with refugee issues, as well as UNHCR’s adoption of a community-based approach to protection; community-based organizations continue to be sidelined by these actors. This thesis explores the role that Eritrean CBOs play in improving the lives of Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers living in Greater Cairo. It also investigates the challenges that they face while trying to operate in Egypt. Using a multi-scalar lens, the research examines the relationships between Eritrean CBOs and Eritrean refugees and asylum-seekers, the State, UNHCR and its partner organizations, in addition …

Teaching About The Global Refugee Crisis, Melissa Kafer

Honors Projects

Around the world, there are more than 30 million refugees (UNHCR, 2023) facing language barriers, cultural differences, prejudice, racism, and xenophobia. The number of admitted refugees in 2022 has more than doubled since 2021 (Duffin, 2022), and yet, many Americans do not know or understand the global refugee crisis. There are misconceptions in America that cause lack of empathy, bias, and prejudice towards refugees. Through the creation of four lesson plans, this research project aims to discover Americans’ misunderstandings regarding refugees and teach them about the crisis to remedy the misconceptions. This study includes a literature review detailing appropriate teaching …

Partnership Between Iraqi Families With Refugee Backgrounds And School Professionals, Ashraf Alamatouri

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Research shows that partnerships between families and school professionals can be an important factor in student educational outcomes and that such partnerships exist less for families with refugee backgrounds than for native-born Americans. There are gaps in the literature around linguistic factors and advocacy styles that could influence the relationship between families with refugee backgrounds and school professionals, especially for Arabic speakers. The purpose of this study was to deeply analyze one Iraqi family’s interactions with school professionals in the U.S. to answer the following research question: What linguistic factors and advocacy behaviors facilitate and impede the formation of a …

Refugees As Discursive Others: (Re)Producing State Power And Acting As Citizens At Berlin’S Oranienplatz, Elena Rose Paz Thompson

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

The Second Watcher At The Gate: Local Newspaper Framing Of Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Immigrants, And Migrants At The Border In The Age Of Covid-19, Gabriel Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a repeat of a historical association between migrants and disease with the re-activation of Title 42, which gave the federal government the power to bar and expel migrants and asylum seekers without the opportunity to contest their expulsion, under the basis of public health. Based on a content analysis of the frames employed in the coverage of the pandemic by five newspapers located on the southern U.S. border for the period of 2020 to 2021, this study explored how these English-language newspapers gave priority to as sources, how they framed immigrants and immigration issues during the …

Understanding Transitional Mental Health And Interpersonal Needs Of Newcomer Youth During Resettlement: Seeking Guidance To Strengthen Mental Health Programming, Anjali Ruparelia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the supports that newcomer youth may need to promote positive well-being and foster healthy relationships during early resettlement. This study employed qualitative methodology using semi-structured interviews with four newcomer youth between the ages of 14 and 21 years old who have been in Canada for at least two years. Interview data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis (RTA). The results indicated that newcomer youth experience significant resettlement challenges and barriers including language barriers, culture shock, and feeling lonely and isolated within their new environments. However, newcomer youth participants also reported that they found various strengths and resources …

The Effects Of Trauma And Statelessness On Refugee Employment Outcomes, Seth Hershberger

Theses and Dissertations

An empirical study, this paper examines the relationship of pre-resettlement refugee characteristics on their respective economic outcomes post-resettlement. In particular, it places special focus on the correlation that a refugee’s level of trauma and duration of statelessness, or time spent in a temporary country of asylum, have with that refugee’s real wages, probability of being employed at 180 days post-resettlement, and duration of initial unemployment in the country of final resettlement. Through the development of three sets of models, this paper finds a quadratic relationship between the length of a refugee’s statelessness and real wages post-resettlement, where increases in duration …

Making Mindfulness Matter With Arabic Speaking Families: A Process Evaluation Study, Amal M. Baobaid

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Arabic-speaking refugees experience a significant amount of trauma in their pre-and post-migration journey in Canada, which can negatively impact their well-being. Mindfulness programs have demonstrated wide-ranging benefits for children and youth, but there is a gap in the literature on providing culturally based mindfulness programs to refugee families. The present study conducted a process evaluation for the culturally adapted version of the Making Mindfulness Matter (M3) program (an 8-week concurrent parent and children mindfulness intervention), to assess program successes and challenges with families. Three groups were run, and a total of nine families recruited from the Muslim Resources Centre for …

Body-Based Activism And Embodied Protest Art, Community Engagement Project With Karen And Karenni Young Adults, Ivy I. Kuhn

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

This paper explores body-based activism and embodied protest art as a means to connect to others and participate in social activism. It serves to identify embodied and body-based practices that allow individuals to settle in their bodies to be present and in connection with others in order to feel empowered and motivated to sustain social activist movements. The author further identifies how community arts-based projects help give voice to marginalized, refugee communities that can often feel isolated or voiceless in their displacement. The author engaged in a community engagement project with a group of Karen and Karenni young adults to …

More Than Just Virtual Communication: Examining Canadian Volunteers’ Virtual Contact Experiences With Refugees, Maria Besselink

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Canada plays a key role in addressing the ‘global refugee crisis’ as it accepts more refugees per capita than any other country. Although Canadians increasingly view support for immigration and multiculturalism as integral components of their national identity, the number of immigrants and refugees Canada accepts yearly is an increasingly polarized issue. In line with the Intergroup Contact Hypothesis, the current study investigated how Canadian volunteers’ repeated virtual contact experiences with refugees affected their generalized attitudes towards refugees over time. Our findings did not suggest that the quality and quantity of participants’ virtual contact experiences affected their attitudes. The findings …

The New Solar Kiosk Model: A Sustainable Solution To Address The Uptake And Access Of Renewable Technologies To Create Energy Kiosks That Improve Women’S Income In Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement, Kiryandongo District, Northern Uganda., Musiimenta Joy Kellen

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This thesis was carried out in the Kiryandongo Refugee Settlement in Northern Uganda to test a new model to improve access to clean energy technologies in the refugee settlement. The settlement hosts more than seventy-five thousand refugees, including the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the Bududa landslides in Eastern Uganda. The literature review shows the challenges faced in the humanitarian sector. The challenge is met in providing lighting and improved cooking technologies to all refugees in settlements and camps globally. The refugees tend to cut down trees in the surrounding forest, and the wood is used for firewood to cook …

Factors Contributing To Feelings Of Inclusion And Exclusion Among Swahili-Speaking Refugees In Lexington, Kentucky, Aaron Lankster

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Swahili-speaking refugees’ feelings of inclusion and exclusion through focus group interviews. We hypothesized that language, tangible aid, and social interactions would be related to feelings of inclusion and exclusion in the host society. We also examined demographic moderators of these associations. The 9 refugees, all first generation, who participated were from 3 different countries (DRC, Kenya, and South Sudan). There were 3 males and 6 females between the ages of 18 and 28. Findings indicate that experiences related to social interactions were cited most frequently as causes of feeling included or excluded. Individual interactions were more likely …

Facing The Mass Exodus: Reconsidering The Moral Responsibilities For And Obligations Toward Large Numbers Of Refugees In An Age Of Global Crises, Muhammet Ali Asil

Dissertations

The global refugee crisis has revealed an essential moral question regarding helping the forcibly displaced persons in protracted refugee crises: how do we determine if our community has done “enough” for a particular refugee group? Different answers have been provided to this question. This dissertation takes up this question from a normative standpoint. It develops an ethics-based burden-sharing model, that is, a “meaning-based model,” as a method to determine our political communities’ moral duties toward different refugee groups in various refugee crises. The model challenges the conventional wisdom by claiming that not every community has the same moral obligations toward …

Working With Families With Refugee Experiences In The United States: The Impact Of Forced Displacement On Parent-Child Relationships After Resettlement, Sakshi Kapur

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Refugees resettled in high-income countries like the United States have a unique set of challenges ranging from great psychological disturbance to acculturation challenges. With recent changes to policies related to immigration and refugee resettlement in the United States after the 2016 presidential elections, the refugee diaspora was left with resettlement services focused more on ensuring national security and economic independence rather than services that catered to re-integration beyond economics like acculturation stress, family functioning, and cultural adjustment. This systemic literature review explores the impact of forced displacement and migration on individuals, with an emphasis on family systems and parent-child relationships. …

Giving Birth At A Critical Time: Assessing Perinatal Depression Among Syrian Refugees In Low Resource Settings, Nada Alnaji

Theses & Dissertations

Refugee mothers are at an increased risk of suffering from stress and mental health conditions during the first year after giving birth to a child. The objective of this study is to enhance the early identification of treatable mental health conditions among perinatal women living within humanitarian settings. The central hypothesis is that a culturally specific approach can be helpful for the long-term success of mental health efforts. In this study, we use qualitative interview methods to understand the cultural paradigms and predisposing factors for perinatal depression related to being a Syrian refugee in Lebanon during the COVID-19 pandemic. In …

Refugee Social Relations: The Development Of Social Ties Among Burmese And Congolese Refugees In West Michigan, Diane M. Roushangar

Dissertations

Refugee resettlement has been studied extensively in the academic realm. Yet, an area that is less understood is among Burmese and Congolese refugees and their adaptation processes in the United States. This study focuses on the development of social relations within these two groups as they navigate interactions within their ethnic group and with the native-born community. Examining the process of how social relations are constructed, this study reveals the nuances of how Burmese and Congolese form close social ties by focusing on four distinct social domains. Illuminating how social relations are formed and maintained within the ethnic community, church …

Crisis, Cooperation, And Coercion: Migration Diplomacy In Europe, 2014-2017, Jessica L. Jones

Political Science ETDs

In this dissertation I ask when and how states employ migration diplomacy – and its coercive and cooperative variants – during the European Migration Crisis, 2014-2017. I argue that states use migration diplomacy to minimize the costs of migration crises and are more likely to use migration diplomacy when either the incurred or anticipated costs of migration crises are greater, when they are less powerful, and when anti-migrant domestic political pressures are higher. I use a multimethod approach to answer my questions. Results from my multivariate logistic regressions support my expectation that states are more likely to engage in migration …

Documenting The Undocumented: Experimenting Europe At The Biometric Migrant Archive, Romm Lewkowicz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The dissertation is a critical ethnography of the biometric governance of asylum seekers and illegal migrants in the European Union, an integral apparatus for the policing of border-free Europe. Interrogating the paradox of how ‘undocumented migrants’ have been—and are—the most documented subjects in Europe today, the research explores how this documentation assumes the form of biometric technology and its relation to the postwar eradication of Europe’s internal frontiers. At the center of these processes and my research object is Eurodac: a pan-European apparatus for the biometric documentation and regulation of Europe’s paperless migrants and asylum seekers. By attending to both …

Lina Saadeddin_Supporting Transition Resilience Of Newcomer Groups (Strong) - Examining Impact Of Strong On Youth, Feasibility Of Community Implementation, And Parental Engagement, Lina Saadeddin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the feasibility of virtual Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups (STRONG) delivered through a community agency. STRONG is a Tier-2 intervention developed to enhance resilience and coping among newcomer youth. Ten youth participants from two STRONG groups completed pre-and post-surveys and participated in a focus group to describe their experiences. Parent sessions were added to STRONG programming. Five parents completed a satisfaction survey and a focus group to share their feedback. Two clinicians and one community manager provided feedback on the implementation in two focus groups. The study used a mixed-method approach. While there were no significant …

Triumphing Over Trauma: Addressing Past Experiences And Mental Health Following Resettlement In The United States, Tyler Greenwood

Honors Theses

Refugee populations are exposed to an unusually high number of traumatic events in their lifetimes that have the potential to cause long-lasting psychological harm. Millions of people are forcibly displaced by international conflicts, ethnic genocide, targeting of political dissidents, climate disasters, and countless other traumatic events. For the small fraction of refugees who are resettled in wealthy nations such as the United States, they are fortunate to leave behind the harmful and often violent places which they are fleeing from, but they are also leaving behind their families, friends, homes, and traditions. During and following resettlement, refugees continue to face …

How Are Refugees Depicted In The Amarillo Globe-News?, Shannon Reimers

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research uses media analysis to ask how refugees in Amarillo, Texas, are portrayed in the Amarillo Globe-News from 2002 until January 2021. Amarillo, Texas is a small, conservative city with a long history of refugee resettlement. Researching one town, over an extended period, tells a rich story of how refugees are depicted in the local media. This research is important because while the United States takes in refugees on a national level, the local level is where they settle and become long-term members of a community. It shares what a community resettling refugees has to say about them. In …

The Insertion Of Syrian Refugees In The Egyptian Labor Market: With Special Focus On Food And Restaurants Sector, Mai Ali Hassan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is about the insertion of Syrian refugees in the Egyptian labor market. It specifically focuses on this insertion in the food and restaurants sector. It reviews the theoretical literature that tackled the economic integration of refugees and asylum seekers. It also examines the legal framework governing refugees in Egypt as well as the legal apparatus provisions related to their employment. Both are factors determining the access of refugees to the Egyptian labor market. The thesis finds that other economic and social factors also determine and facilitate the access of Syrian refugees to the Egyptian labor market. In the …

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 …