TY - JOUR
T1 - A qualitative study of resilience among asylum seekers from Darfur in Israel
AU - Lavie-Ajayi, Maya
AU - Slonim-Nevo, Vered
N1 - Funding Information:
Following Peled and Leichtentritt (2002), we believe that ethical consideration should extend beyond the prevention of harm and include research-related beneEts for participants and for their community. Hence, following the interviews, we invited 100 asylum seekers detained at the time in Holot, to participate in university courses developed by university staff for them. A group of asylum seekers from Holot participated in the planning and the execution of this program. The program ran for two months and offered eight courses taught in English, including philosophy, psychology, computer literacy, and Hebrew. We also provided transport from Holot to our university and lunch. This program was supported by the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, CIMI (The Center for International Migration and Integration), the European Union, and ‘‘Negev Refugees Center.’’
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This study was supported by a grant to the second author from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016, © The Author(s) 2016.
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - We know more about the experiences of trauma, despair, and abuse of asylum seekers and refugees than we do of their resilience, strength, and active struggle to survive and succeed. This article explores stories narrated by asylum seekers from Darfur, Sudan, currently residing in Israel, to learn about their forms and sources of strength, resilience, and coping mechanisms. In-depth, semi-structured group interviews were conducted in Hebrew and in English with eight single men, aged between the ages 27 and 38, who had lived in Israel for between four and seven years. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the data analyzed by analytic induction and constant comparison strategies. Six factors were identified, from the interviewees’ perspective, as contributing to their resilience: cognitive coping strategies, behavioral coping strategies, the ability to work, the ability to study and educate oneself, the support of family and friends, and social and political activism. This study corroborates existing literature by identifying personal strategies and social support as important to resilience of refugees; however, and unlike other studies, we did not find religion as an important factor from our interviewees’ perspective. We have thus expanded the existing literature by identifying the ability to work and the ability to study as important factors contributing to the resilience of refugees.
AB - We know more about the experiences of trauma, despair, and abuse of asylum seekers and refugees than we do of their resilience, strength, and active struggle to survive and succeed. This article explores stories narrated by asylum seekers from Darfur, Sudan, currently residing in Israel, to learn about their forms and sources of strength, resilience, and coping mechanisms. In-depth, semi-structured group interviews were conducted in Hebrew and in English with eight single men, aged between the ages 27 and 38, who had lived in Israel for between four and seven years. The interviews were recorded and transcribed, and the data analyzed by analytic induction and constant comparison strategies. Six factors were identified, from the interviewees’ perspective, as contributing to their resilience: cognitive coping strategies, behavioral coping strategies, the ability to work, the ability to study and educate oneself, the support of family and friends, and social and political activism. This study corroborates existing literature by identifying personal strategies and social support as important to resilience of refugees; however, and unlike other studies, we did not find religion as an important factor from our interviewees’ perspective. We have thus expanded the existing literature by identifying the ability to work and the ability to study as important factors contributing to the resilience of refugees.
KW - Asylum
KW - coping
KW - refugees
KW - resilience
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85032479072&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1473325016649256
DO - 10.1177/1473325016649256
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85032479072
SN - 1473-3250
VL - 16
SP - 825
EP - 841
JO - Qualitative Social Work
JF - Qualitative Social Work
IS - 6
ER -