Abstract
Refugee people experience many trials prior to arriving in Australia and face ongoing challenges associated with re-settlement. Despite facing such difficulties many refugee people demonstrate enormous strength and resilience that facilitates their re-settlement process. The authors’ experience however suggests that professionals working with refugee people tend to focus on the trauma story to the neglect of their strengths. At times this means resilience is overshadowed by a dominant Western deficits model that defines refugee people as traumatised victims. Pathologising the trauma story of refugee people may further alienate refugee people from full inclusion into Australian life by denying their inherent resilience in the face of extraordinary life experiences. This article reviews Australian and International literature to explore factors that contribute to refugee resilience such as personal qualities, support and religion. The review also identifies elements that may impede resilience including; language barriers, racism, discrimination, and labelling the trauma story. The literature suggests refugee resilience moves beyond the Western individualised notion of resilience to a more communal construction of resilience that includes refugee people’s broader social context. The literature highlights important practice implications and the authors respond to the findings by reflecting on their own practice
Highlights
This paper arose from the critical practice reflections of the first author and her concerns with the emphasis on the trauma experience of refugee people settling in Australia with little acknowledgement of the resilience and coping strengths demonstrated
It is suggested that the focus on trauma and trauma counselling at the expense of resilience and coping strengths may contribute to or prolong the alienation of refugee people and impede their inclusion into Australian communities
The literature review identified a number of factors that either build or impede resilience in refugee people
Summary
This paper arose from the critical practice reflections of the first author and her concerns with the emphasis on the trauma experience of refugee people settling in Australia with little acknowledgement of the resilience and coping strengths demonstrated. These concerns lead to an investigation of the literature and consideration of alternative approaches to working with refugee people. These discussions have a significant implication for the inclusion of refugee people into mainstream Australian communities. The reflections of the first author provided the impetus for this work and are presented below in the first person to maintain the reflective and interactive nature of this work
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