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...Central themes included participants' language and employment struggles, social support networks that included Americans, congregational sponsorship, and participants' faith in their belief that they could fully belong in American society. Implications included reevaluation of American resettlement policy regarding language and employment, formal support for sponsorship, and an inclusion of refugee voices in planning and implementing resettlement programs.
Resume
Cet article decrit l'experience de 24 refugies bosniaques reinstalles aux Etats-Unis, et examine comment la realisation de l'integration se rapporte au contexte et aux programmes de la politique des Etats-Unis en la matiere. Juxtaposant les points de rue des refugies et hi politique officielle, le "vecu" a ete compare a la politique telle qu'enoncee dans les textes. Les themes centraux abordes comprennent les difficultes qu'ont connues les participants avec la langue et l'emploi, les reseaux de soutien social-qui incluaient aussi des Americains-le parrainage par les congregations, et la foi des participants dans leurs croyance qu'ils pouvaient faire partie integrante de la societe americaine. Les implications comprennent une reealuation de la politique americaine de reinstallation des refugies ayant trait a la langue eta l'emploi, le soutien formel au parrainage, et l'apport des refugies dans la planification et la raise en application des programmes de riinstallation.
Background
Approaches to refugee (1) resettlement are shaped by national policy contexts and ideological traditions. Resettlement is conceptualized at the federal level as economic self-sufficiency consisting of short-term assistance implemented locally. With a singular focus on refugees' economic participation, there is little understanding of the complexities of long-term economic stability. Restrictive government policies regarding foreign qualifications and language instruction in resettlement contribute to refugees being funnelled into low-wage jobs or the public welfare system. This article examines Bosnian refugee integration taking into account the American residual approach to resettlement. For this study, integration is defined as a refugee's social, economic, cultural, and political participation in a host country while maintaining a relationship with the country of origin. (2)
The study focused specifically on refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina (hereafter referred to as Bosnia). As the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia disintegrated in the early 1990s, civil war in Bosnia produced more than one million refugees. Refugees from Bosnia were chosen as a case study group because they were one of the largest groups recently resettled. Their memories of home were relatively recent yet they had had at least three years of resettlement experience. Issues central to all resettling refugees, such as language proficiency, employment, education, health, and acculturation have been found to be central to Bosnian refugees as well. (3) This article draws on qualitative data to explore Bosnian refugees' experiences with resettlement. Data from twenty-four refugees from Bosnia were drawn from data collected from a larger comparative study of resettlement in Denmark and the US in 2003. The purpose of the larger study was to explore Bosnian refugees' resettlement experiences in Denmark and the US and how these experiences fused with structural factors to shape integration.
There has been limited exploration of the ways in which a state's social protection and welfare systems shape resettlement policies and how those policies in turn affect refugee integration. Recent studies have provided insight into resettlement challenges, including the examination of cross-ethnic networks and their roles in refugees' economic and educational integration. (4) Eastmond explored the ways in which practice and discourse contribute to the formation and illumination of refugees' lived experience and identity. (5) The trend, however, has not been to link resettlement challenges to specific resettlement policies and programs together with targeted recommendations for improvement. Moreover, traditional examinations of refugee resettlement have focused on single areas, such as employment, through a quantitative lens, (6) producing a fractured picture of resettlement. (7) Valuable monographs have recounted Bosnian refugees' experiences (8) although there has been modest research on the resettlement challenges Bosnian refugees face with refugee-voice-grounded policy recommendations. This study addresses this gap by focusing specifically on the resettlement challenges that refugees confront with policy recommendations grounded in the voices of those most affected.
The first section of the paper describes the resettlement context and conceptual framework for analyzing resettlement. In the second section, methods and the study's qualitative approach are discussed. The third section presents the findings that illustrate challenges found in resettlement. The final section includes a discussion of resettlement policy and programming and an identification of implications for policy and practice.
Resettlement Context
American social welfare policies tend to be evaluated and supported based on their ability to enhance personal independence in the form of individual economic self-sufficiency and to reduce dependence on public assistance. Assistance provided by the state for people in need, aside from being thought of as the last resort (after family and the local community), is believed to encourage dependency and be detrimental to both recipients and society. State-provided assistance must be kept less than market wages to ensure a greater attachment to the workforce than to aid receipt. (9)
Social welfare critics contend that support to refugees discourages long-term self-sufficiency and will only serve to smooth their transition from resettlement program benefits to public assistance, (10) A host country's social values greatly influence public and private attitudes toward the receipt of public assistance needed by refugees, particularly during the period of transition into the host country.
Conceptual Framework
Recent analyses highlight the inadequacy of traditional conceptualizations of migrant adaptation and acculturation processes. (11) Traditional adaptation research is based on the assumption that increased participation in the host culture requires detachment from the culture of origin. (12) In contrast, Berry's acculturation model addressed this host country-centric flaw by placing the refugee in an active role in the acculturation process. He delineated four acculturation modes: marginalization, separation, assimilation, and integration, two of which--separation and integration--incorporate the culture of origin. Valtonen adapted Berry's model to create a framework for refugee integration in resettlement. Reshaping resettlement to incorporate structural as well as individual factors, Valtonen transformed Berry's acculturation modes into refugees' resettlement outcomes. Based on her resettlement studies, Valtonen conceptualized integration as refugees' participation in all host society areas while preserving a sense of "ethnocultural integrity." (13)
A holistic approach addresses the person in context as well as the strengths and stressors in the refugee experience. Two theoretical frameworks that may best exemplify this holistic approach are Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory...
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