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Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal

BACKGROUND: Mental health and psychosocial wellbeing are key concerns in displaced populations. Despite urban refugees constituting more than half of the world's refugees, minimal attention has been paid to their psychosocial wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to assess coping behaviour a...

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Autores principales: Thomas, Fiona C, Roberts, Bayard, Luitel, Nagendra P, Upadhaya, Nawaraj, Tol, Wietse A
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3193811/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21943401
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-5-20
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author Thomas, Fiona C
Roberts, Bayard
Luitel, Nagendra P
Upadhaya, Nawaraj
Tol, Wietse A
author_facet Thomas, Fiona C
Roberts, Bayard
Luitel, Nagendra P
Upadhaya, Nawaraj
Tol, Wietse A
author_sort Thomas, Fiona C
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Mental health and psychosocial wellbeing are key concerns in displaced populations. Despite urban refugees constituting more than half of the world's refugees, minimal attention has been paid to their psychosocial wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to assess coping behaviour and aspects of resilience amongst refugees in Kathmandu, Nepal. METHODS: This study examined the experiences of 16 Pakistani and 8 Somali urban refugees in Kathmandu, Nepal through in-depth individual interviews, focus groups, and Photovoice methodology. Such qualitative approaches enabled us to broadly discuss themes such as personal experiences of being a refugee in Kathmandu, perceived causes of psychosocial distress, and strategies and resources for coping. Thematic network analysis was used in this study to systematically interpret and code the data. RESULTS: Our findings highlight that urban refugees' active coping efforts, notwithstanding significant adversity and resulting distress, are most frequently through primary relationships. Informed by Axel Honneth's theory on the struggle for recognition, findings suggest that coping is a function beyond the individual and involves the ability to negotiate recognition. This negotiation involves not only primary relationships, but also the legal order and other social networks such as family and friends. Honneth's work was used because of its emphasis on the importance of legal recognition and larger structural factors in facilitating daily coping. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how urban refugees cope by negotiating access to various forms of recognition in the absence of legal-recognition will enable organisations working with them to leverage such strengths and develop relevant programmes. In particular, building on these existing resources will lead to culturally compelling and sustainable care for these populations.
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spelling pubmed-31938112011-10-16 Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal Thomas, Fiona C Roberts, Bayard Luitel, Nagendra P Upadhaya, Nawaraj Tol, Wietse A Confl Health Research BACKGROUND: Mental health and psychosocial wellbeing are key concerns in displaced populations. Despite urban refugees constituting more than half of the world's refugees, minimal attention has been paid to their psychosocial wellbeing. The purpose of this study was to assess coping behaviour and aspects of resilience amongst refugees in Kathmandu, Nepal. METHODS: This study examined the experiences of 16 Pakistani and 8 Somali urban refugees in Kathmandu, Nepal through in-depth individual interviews, focus groups, and Photovoice methodology. Such qualitative approaches enabled us to broadly discuss themes such as personal experiences of being a refugee in Kathmandu, perceived causes of psychosocial distress, and strategies and resources for coping. Thematic network analysis was used in this study to systematically interpret and code the data. RESULTS: Our findings highlight that urban refugees' active coping efforts, notwithstanding significant adversity and resulting distress, are most frequently through primary relationships. Informed by Axel Honneth's theory on the struggle for recognition, findings suggest that coping is a function beyond the individual and involves the ability to negotiate recognition. This negotiation involves not only primary relationships, but also the legal order and other social networks such as family and friends. Honneth's work was used because of its emphasis on the importance of legal recognition and larger structural factors in facilitating daily coping. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding how urban refugees cope by negotiating access to various forms of recognition in the absence of legal-recognition will enable organisations working with them to leverage such strengths and develop relevant programmes. In particular, building on these existing resources will lead to culturally compelling and sustainable care for these populations. BioMed Central 2011-09-24 /pmc/articles/PMC3193811/ /pubmed/21943401 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-5-20 Text en Copyright ©2011 Thomas et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Thomas, Fiona C
Roberts, Bayard
Luitel, Nagendra P
Upadhaya, Nawaraj
Tol, Wietse A
Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal
title Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal
title_full Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal
title_fullStr Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal
title_full_unstemmed Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal
title_short Resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in Nepal
title_sort resilience of refugees displaced in the developing world: a qualitative analysis of strengths and struggles of urban refugees in nepal
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3193811/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21943401
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1752-1505-5-20
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