War‐affected children's approach to resettlement: Implications for child and family services

Abstract

In Canada, the resettlement of thousands of war‐affected children every year poses new challenges to child and family services. Since young people arrive from multiple contexts either alone or accompanied by family or caregiver(s), after having endured significant trauma, stress, and adversity, conventional approaches to service delivery are seldom adequate. Drawing on anthropology of childhood literature, this paper calls for increased inclusion of young people's experiences and perspectives in reconfiguring psychosocial services. Interactive focus groups and in‐depth interviews with youth from war‐affected countries and service providers in Québec uncovered the ways that war alters family and how young people rely on both formal and informal support systems during resettlement. Young people and service providers reflected on inadequacies of current services in meeting the complex needs of youth while service professionals reported being ill‐equipped to support war‐affected youth. This paper posits that perspectives from the anthropology of childhood are critical in liaising between youth and professionals to provide services that build on a socioecological view of development, provide healing, and recognize the diversity of children and families’ kinship ties.