Post-migration Stressors and Educational Coping Mechanisms among Adolescent Refugees in Malaysia

Abstract

Refugees in Southeast Asian countries have commonly exposed to social and economic marginalization due to a lack of legal framework for refugee protection. Due to the complicated global issues, refuge problems have been escalating day by day. The focus of this study is to explore how the adolescent refugees build educational coping mechanisms in spite of encountering a wide array of stressors in the first country of asylum, Malaysia. This study is based on the qualitative research, case study approach, with a group of purposively selected nine Myanmar refugee adolescents (aged 12-17) from two faith-based learning centers under non-formal education in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This study has adopted an adolescent-centered research approach. The findings of the study reveal that education plays a key role in building a secured life conditions as well as the bridging mechanisms for their future for refugees. A model of educational coping mechanisms that is suitable for working with refugee adolescents is presented. This study highlights that education plays the key role in social stability for individuals from refugee background.