We Are Very Similar but Not Really: The Moderating Role of Cultural Identification for Refugee Resettlement of Venezuelans in Colombia.

Yarid Ayala,Mónica Ramos-Mejía,Jaime Andrés Bayona,Aysegul Karaeminogullari,Jesús Perdomo-Ortíz

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.569394

Yarid Ayala, Mónica Ramos-Mejía + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.569394

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Abstract

This study aims to test the theoretical model of career adaptability of refugees to investigate the dynamics of successful resettlement. The theoretical model is grounded on career construction and social network theory. We employ quantitative and qualitative methodologies to test the model in a sample of Venezuelans living and working in Colombia. The quantitative results provide partial support for Campion’s model. However, we test an alternative model and find that career adaptability has a direct relationship with subjective resettlement (i.e., life satisfaction and psychological health). In addition, cultural identification plays a buffering role on the harmful effects of discrimination on subjective resettlement. Qualitative results from eight in-depth interviews shed light on the process of refugee resettlement, thus revealing the role of social networks. Our study contributes to previous research on refugees by testing, adapting, and expanding a novel model of work resettlement and focusing on a group of refugees transitioning from one emerging country to another emerging country.

Highlights

An estimated 70.8 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee, 2019)
What barriers do they face? How do they cope with them? Do they depend on specific strategies? What factors significantly help them to improve their fit in their new environments in terms of objective and subjective resettlement success factors? Examining these questions in the case of Venezuelans who have settled in Colombia is distinctive from the vast majority of existing refugee studies given that our study addresses displacement across countries that share a common cultural heritage
The study found that social networks play a mediating role in the relationship between career adaptability and subjective but not objective indicators

Summary

Introduction

An estimated 70.8 million people have been forcibly displaced worldwide (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee, 2019). Many previous studies focused on refugees living in various countries, such as Austria, Germany, Turkey, United States, Greece, or the Netherlands (Baranik et al, 2018; EggenhoferRehart et al, 2018; Gericke et al, 2018; Knappert et al, 2018; Pajic et al, 2018; Wehrle et al, 2018) Such studies identified obstacles such as hostile labor markets, social rejection, exploitation legitimation, or long-term unemployment and suggested coping mechanisms, such as social capital, psychological capital, reflection–relaxation, or problem-solving, that hinder or assist refugees in navigating their careers and overcoming the associated work-related challenges. What barriers do they face? How do they cope with them? Do they depend on specific strategies? What factors significantly help them to improve their fit in their new environments in terms of objective and subjective resettlement success factors? Examining these questions in the case of Venezuelans who have settled in Colombia is distinctive from the vast majority of existing refugee studies given that our study addresses displacement across countries that share a common cultural heritage (e.g., both countries speak the same language and have strong historical and cultural communalities)

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