Refugee Support Research Articles

Enhancing mental strength support for refugees through social principal: A comprehensive review

Refugees experience physical problems and extreme psychological as well as emotional stress as a result of the trauma of relocation, loss and the uncertainty of their future. Neglecting refugees' mental strength and social assistance needs can have long-term consequences for the individuals and the host communities. This highlights the need for comprehensive assistance programs that include basic requirements along with mental health treatment, education, skill training and chances for social inclusion. For this vulnerable category, we have limited information regarding social principle interventions at the individual and community levels that support mental health with little scientific data about the effectiveness of such interventions. This systematic review examines 536 publications on social-principle-based treatments for improving the mental health of refugees, 14 of which were chosen for examination. The material from these 14 publications assessed the studies, considering qualifying circumstances. The research results concentrate on many major issues, including mental health measurements, which provide insight into the assessment and evaluation instruments used to evaluate refugees' mental well-being. In addition, we discuss the difficulties that refugees encounter in obtaining appropriate mental health care, the amount of monitoring and its influence on their mental health outcomes. The study emphasizes the significance of tailored treatment options since customizing treatments to individual refugee needs is critical for effective mental health assistance. Finally, we explore the relevance of community-based therapeutic options, highlighting the importance of community engagement and support networks in boosting refugee mental health and well-being.

Subjective health status and health literacy of African refugees and asylum seekers in Germany: a cross-sectional survey

PurposeMany refugees and asylum seekers in Germany experience a high disease burden and low health literacy. The current study aims to focus on assessing these issues among African refugees and asylum seekers in Bavaria, Germany. The authors evaluated their self-perceived health status and health literacy, and identified barriers and gaps in health care utilization, intending to improve health care services for this group.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study involving 69 refugees and asylum seekers from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Nigeria. The authors performed descriptive and exploratory statistical analyses.FindingsThe authors found a substantial disease burden in the early stages of resettlement in Germany, particularly mental health symptoms (53.6%) and musculoskeletal problems (47.8%). Challenges in health literacy were observed, such as difficulties in understanding health information and managing emergency situations. Access to interpreters was limited, and understanding treatment certificates was more challenging than using electronic health cards, with 18.2% of participants reporting denial of medical treatment.Practical implicationsThese findings highlight the need for early and tailored health support for refugees, with a particular focus on mental health. Efforts should be made to reduce language barriers and improve navigational skills within the health-care system, particularly in emergency situations. Addressing the restricted access to health care and bureaucratic obstacles is crucial for improved health outcomes among refugees.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is the first to specifically explore the self-reported health status and health literacy of African refugees and asylum seekers in Bavaria, Germany, providing valuable insights into the unique healthcare challenges of this often underrepresented and overlooked population.

Support for Ukrainian refugees after Russia's invasion of Ukraine: aid structure and resilience factors. Case studies of Lublin and Lutsk

ABSTRACT Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 triggered forced migration on a scale not seen in Europe since World War II. The city of Lublin (Poland), as the capital of the border region, has become both a destination and transit point for refugees, generating the need for both emergency and long-term assistance. Lublin Voivodeship is adjacent to the Volyn region with its capital in Lutsk, where the situation has also changed rapidly (an influx of internally displaced persons). The purpose of this article is to capture the overall picture of the response to war in regional urban centres with similar demographic, absorption and adaptation potential and to identify social resilience factors. We begin by describing the aid structure based on the concept of multilevel governance. We then identify three groups of social resilience factors in both cities: past experience in emergency response, the diversity of actors involved, and the way the work is managed (with professionalisation of volunteer phenomena). The article is based on data resulting from qualitative research in Lublin and Lutsk with the actors of the humanitarian aid.

Whether a religious group membership is shared and salient influences perceived similarity, political support, and helping intention toward refugees, but not charitable donation

AbstractThis research investigates the ways in which (un)shared religious group memberships contribute to individual helping responses through perceived similarity in the context of a refugee emergency. Across three studies (N = 762), we examined religious sub‐groups of British people's helping responses to religious subgroups of Syrian refugees, in quasi‐experimental and experimental designs. Overall findings suggest that sharing a religious group membership with refugee targets increases perceived similarity, political support, and helping intention, but not charitable donation—regardless of shared group membership being subtle or salient. However, when refugee targets' religious identity is that of a salient unshared group membership, not sharing a religious group membership reduces perceived similarity, political support, and helping intention, among those who are religious—with again charitable donation remaining unchanged. These results provide critical insights into developing more effective and unique strategies to promote and mobilize support for refugees among different groups of potential helpers.

A scoping review on the barriers to and facilitators of health services utilisation related to refugee settlement in regional or rural areas of the host country

BackgroundHealthcare access and equity are human rights. Worldwide conflicts, violence, and persecution have increased the number of people from refugee or refugee-like backgrounds. Because urban areas are already densely populated, governments have aimed to increase refugee resettlement in rural and/or regional areas. Because of the complex healthcare needs of refugees, this creates challenges for healthcare service providers. Identifying barriers to accessing healthcare in rural areas is therefore important to better inform policy settings and programmes that will provide culturally appropriate patient-centred care to the refugee community.MethodsThis review scoped 22 papers written in English between 2018 and July 2023 from five countries (Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Bangladesh, and Lebanon) in order to provide an overview of the barriers and possible solutions to facilitate refugees’ access to healthcare.ResultsThe reviewed literature summarised the perceptions of at least 3,561 different refugees and 259 rural health service providers and/or administrators and identified major challenges. These include communication (illiteracy in the resettlement country language and lack of a suitable interpreter), lack of cultural awareness of health services, discrimination, and access difficulties (transportation, availability of health specialist services, cost). As a consequence, it was identified that improving access to affordable housing, employment through credential recognition, competence-level education for children, facilitating language training, and adapting health information would increase resettlement and encourage access to healthcare.ConclusionsRefugees face significant barriers to accessing and engaging with healthcare services. This impacts their integration into rural communities and increases the prevalence of psychosocial issues like feelings of loneliness, low self-esteem, a lack of autonomy, and a lack of empowerment over informed decision-making, especially for women, jobless men, and the elderly. These findings support the need for additional support for refugees and healthcare providers to improve language proficiency and cultural competency. Policymakers need to improve the availability and accessibility of employment, housing accessibility, and service mobility. Additionally, more research is needed to assess the efficacy of emerging innovative programmes that aim to close the gap by delivering culturally appropriate patient-centred care to refugee communities in rural areas.

Jesus was a Refugee: Religious Values Framing can Increase Support for Refugees Among White Evangelical Republicans

AbstractWe consider how frames highlighting religious values shape opinion among individuals who may experience social identity conflict. White evangelical Republicans have ardently supported Donald Trump’s restrictionist stances towards refugees, yet those partisan policy stances exist in tension with evangelical Christian values emphasizing care for vulnerable strangers. Our pre-registered national experiment tests whether a religious message can move white self-identified evangelical Republicans’ opinions relating to refugees. The pro-refugee Christian values message increases favorable attitudes on some, but not all, measures. The effect is comparatively stronger among those who are more committed to their evangelical identity; unexpectedly, those who identify as strong Republicans are not more resistant to the message. These results demonstrate that moral reframing, which is known to shape attitudes in other domains, can affect self-identified evangelical Republicans’ attitudes on refugees, potentially shifting the national discussion of refugees in the U.S. The finding is all the more significant given highly partisan debates over refugees during the Trump presidency, which may have made partisans’ opinions especially rigid at the time of our experiment. Our results also speak to the relevance of identity strength in conditioning the impact of religious values frames.

The cross-border effects of the Ukrainian refugees’ crisis. Evidence from the Romanian side

The issue of refugees pertains to the permanent elements of historical reflection on the mass movement of people or the phenomenon of migration. The military aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine not only ignited a hot spot on the conflict map of Europe, but also triggered a cascade of events difficult to anticipate. A direct result of the conflict has been the mass exodus of Ukrainians and a promise of temporary protection by the European Union to those fleeing the conflict. According to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), on August 17, 2023, over 4.2 million Ukrainians crossed into Romania at the crossing points between Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova. The Ukrainian crisis offers the opportunity to take a closer look at the governments themselves. The Ukrainian citizens who remained in Romania received help both from the Romanian Government, and from the civil society (i.e., various NGOs, civilians, volunteers); from the first days of the invasion of Ukraine, Romanian society reacted swiftly. The study aims to emphasize the great importance of raising awareness and building solidarity and support in the receiving country in order to counterbalance, alleviate and eliminate the effects of the Ukrainian refugees’ crisis with respect to three main aspects: (1) the reloaded in situ effects, that is, the leading role of existing Romanian and, respectively, Ukrainian ethnic communities on both sides of the border in the prompt organization of humanitarian support for Ukrainian refugees; (2) the repetitive effects on the dynamics, such as the refugee flows and their territorial and time dynamic; (3) the long-term effects, i.e., the need to integrate the refugees in different fields of daily life.

“People are still living with pains of the war”: An assessment of long-term adjustment and consequences of war-related traumatic stress among Liberian refugees

A dearth of empirical research examines the adjustment and wellbeing of long-term refugees in the United States and globally. The goal of this hermeneutic phenomenological needs assessment study was to examine stakeholders’ perceptions of individual, relational, and community-level adjustment in one of the largest Liberian refugee communities in the U.S. Twenty 60–90-minute key informant interviews were conducted and analyzed using hermeneutic phenomenology coding protocols. Six themes emerged in key informants’ perceptions of long-term adjustment and wellbeing among war-affected Liberian refugees: 1) unresolved traumatic stress, 2) substance use, 3) mental health stigma, 4) adverse relational effects, 5) disrupted community dynamics, and 6) lack of access to culturally relevant services. This study expands on refugee and global mental health research by empirically documenting adjustment experiences in a long-term and underrepresented refugee community, which can inform prevention and intervention efforts with communities displaced from war. Clinical, research, and policy implications are also described alongside efforts to enhance support for refugees across their adjustment phases. (162 words)

On placemaking and wellbeing: Practitioner perspectives on third sector support for refugees and asylum seekers

Migration studies foreground ‘placemaking’ as key to the wellbeing of refugees and asylum seekers. In the absence of state support, third sector organisations play a significant role in supporting refugee placemaking and wellbeing. Yet very little is known about how third sector practitioners themselves conceptualise and support refugee placemaking and wellbeing on the basis of their own experiences in the field. This article responds to the gap in the literature by drawing on five semi-structured interviews with third sector practitioners who work with refugees and asylum seekers in southeast England. The research found that third sector practitioners conceptualise (and support) refugee placemaking and wellbeing in terms of ‘belonging’, ‘knowing’, ‘contributing’, ‘connecting’, and ‘remembering’. In sharing the perspectives of third sector practitioners, this research makes an original contribution to scholarship on placemaking and wellbeing in contexts of forced displacement.

Rohingya Crisis in Bangladesh and How to Solve It

The Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh, triggered by the mass exodus of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar due to violence and persecution, presents significant humanitarian and socio-political challenges. Bangladesh has provided shelter to over a million refugees, primarily in Cox’s Bazar, creating immense pressure on its resources and infrastructure. This paper examines the root causes of the Rohingya crisis, focusing on the historical and ethnic tensions in Myanmar, and explores the impacts on Bangladesh, including economic strain, social instability, and environmental degradation. Potential solutions are analyzed, including international diplomatic pressure on Myanmar, repatriation efforts under safe conditions, and regional cooperation for long-term refugee support. It also highlights the need for global partnerships, improved resource allocation, and the importance of addressing human rights violations. The study underscores that sustainable solutions require coordinated action, addressing both the immediate humanitarian needs and the underlying causes of the crisis.

Research on Ways to Ameliorate the Degree of Peoples Euroscepticism after the Brexit Referendum

After the Brexit referendum, some scholars predicted it could have a demonstration effect, leading to increased public skepticism towards the European Union (EU). In response to this challenge, EU countries have implemented a series of reform measures, which have proven to be effective, but with varying degrees of success. Previous research mainly focused on the impact of Brexit on the EU and the countermeasures taken by the EU, without a deeper study of which combination of reform measures is more effective. This paper conducts a qualitative comparative analysis of the various reforms implemented by EU member states. The results show that the most effective combination of measures consists of three parallel causal paths: effective promotion of EU citizenship, effective economic policy reform, and reduction of social welfare; effective promotion of EU citizenship, increased awareness of hate speech and other extremist discourse through education, increased support for refugees and ethnic minorities, and strengthened social media regulation; effective promotion of EU citizenship, promotion of cultural understanding through education, increased support for civil society organizations against extremism, and effective economic policy reform. Effective citizenship reform presents to be a necessary condition. The paths to reducing public skepticism towards the EU are diverse, and effective economic policy reform, strengthened social media regulation, and promotion of cultural understanding through education are all more effective in increasing public trust in the EU.

The challenges of encouraging refugee assistance: lessons learned from reframing the problem as one of within-group collective action and norm change

Cooperation across group boundaries presents special theoretical and practical challenges. Fostering altruism towards refugees magnifies these difficulties given structural inequalities between host communities and those in need of help. Nonetheless, countless organisations and grass-roots efforts provide critical and effective support for asylum seekers around the world. In this article, we analyse a case of a successful grass-roots effort to help a family of asylum seekers in Australia. We use this as a starting point to review the evolutionary social-science literature on cooperation and suggest ways that collective action in support of refugees can be promoted and maintained. The challenge can be reframed as one of achieving two goals: first, norm change; and, second, encouraging altruistic actions. The former requires convincing prospective hosts that refugee support is indeed a public good at the community level. The second goal requires encouraging cooperation within the host community. We have better evidence of what works for the latter than the former.

“The More Horrible the Thing was, the More They Laughed”: Laughter, Solidarity and Refugees’ Negotiation of Trauma during Resettlement in Postwar Queensland

ABSTRACT The role of laughter and its relevance within refugee studies and trauma recovery in European diasporas in Australia is understudied. The post–Second World War refugee crisis led to the largest mass refugee movement at the time. Officially classified as “displaced persons”, many of these refugees had experienced horrific violence and loss. Significant numbers of these families were resettled in Queensland, Australia, in locations of low cultural diversity and without pre-existing refugee support networks. This article provides a case study of Latvian, Ukrainian and Polish refugees in Queensland, and explores the vital role of laughter in their long-term recovery from trauma. The project on which this article is based included over 50 oral history interviews, files from over 10 archives, and more than 300 case studies of displaced families resettled in Queensland, an approach that has never been undertaken in an extensive study of refugee resettlement in Queensland. It establishes the importance of laughter during resettlement and shows how it intersects with shared community experiences that resonate for decades. Finally, it highlights the practical role of laughter for refugees’ trauma recovery, particularly for those without access to pre-existing support structures and migrant networks upon arrival.

SUPPORT FOR WAR REFUGEES FROM UKRAINE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE POLISH SOCIAL ASSISTANCE SYSTEM

In the last year in Poland a new legal model of social care for the support of foreigners – war refugees from Ukraine was created. The changes that have taken place in the field of social care resulted from both urgent need of particular protection and help given to foreigners by reason of war outbreak in this country. The purpose of the article is to present the system of support for war refugees from Ukraine from the perspective of the Polish social assistance system. The research proceedings focus on an analysis of the legislative solutions contained in the Law on Social Assistance and the Law on Assistance to Citizens of Ukraine in Connection with the Armed Conflict on the Territory of that State, and an attempt to assess the measures taken to support.The result of the conducted analysis show, that support provided through social care in favour of Ukrainian war refugees focuses on various actions oriented on providing needs of both individual and families that are affected by refugees problem. The catalog of social benefits due to the assistance given to Ukrainian refugees largely coincides the benefits that are granted to the citizens of Polish Republic.

Europeans’ support for refugees of varying background is stable over time

Protracted global conflicts during the past decade have led to repeated major humanitarian protection crises in Europe. During the height of the Syrian refugee crisis at the end of 2015, Europe hosted around 2.3 million people requesting asylum1. Today, the ongoing war in Ukraine has resulted in one of the largest humanitarian emergencies in Europe since World War II, with more than eight million Ukrainians seeking refuge across Europe2. Here we explore whether repeated humanitarian crises threaten to exhaust solidarity and whether Europeans welcome Ukrainian asylum seekers over other asylum seekers3,4. We conducted repeat conjoint experiments during the 2015–2016 and 2022 refugee crises, asking 33,000 citizens in 15 European countries to evaluate randomly varied profiles of asylum seekers. We find that public preferences for asylum seekers with specific attributes have remained remarkably stable and general support has, if anything, increased slightly over time. Ukrainian asylum seekers were welcomed in 2022, with their demographic, religious and displacement profile having a larger role than their nationality. Yet, this welcome did not come at the expense of support for other marginalized refugee groups, such as Muslim refugees. These findings have implications for our theoretical understanding of the drivers and resilience of public attitudes towards refugees and for policymakers tasked to find effective responses to the enduring stress on the asylum system5–8.

Between redemption and affirmation: German identity in affective narratives of the ‘refugee crisis’

The German ‘refugee crisis’ produced formidable levels of civil society assistance, involving citizens and locations with no previous experience in refugee support. Grounded in research with citizen volunteers in a rural region in southern Germany conducted at a time when rightwing populism gained strength, this article explores how volunteers reflect on their relations with refugees while negotiating distinctly German identities. Scholarship on volunteering in refugee settings has looked at the emotional aspect of this work largely for its political import. This article expands attention to emotions in volunteering from a form of political practice on the ground to a practice of narrative reasoning. In a close reading of interview-derived narratives as affective practices the relevance of locality, identity and history for refugee reception comes to the fore. Deploying the notions of ‘redemptive’ and ‘affirmative’ Germanness the article shows how volunteers draw on specific historical trajectories to produce moral arguments about the support and incorporation of strangers. This article argues that volunteers’ affective involvement with history and locality needs unpacking if their relations of solidarity are to be understood.

New development: From aid to empowerment—making refugee policy more sustainable

IMPACT Globally, refugee support has been rendered unsustainable by the contemporary pace and scale of human displacement. This article proposes that policy shifts towards greater opportunities for refugees and asylum seekers can complement humanitarian aid and ease the financial pressure building in the sector. This article examines what ‘opportunity-focused initiatives’ look like by focusing on refugee business support initiatives being piloted in several territories around the world. The authors consider the practical and policy implications of this shift and propose a research agenda to facilitate collaborations between public administrators, researchers, programme delivery bodies and refugee communities.

Кримінальна відповідальність за використання малолітнього мігранта для заняття жебрацтвом: національне та міжнародне законодавство

One of the key principles of the national foreign policy is to ensure Ukraine’s integration into the European political, economic and legal space with the aim of gaining membership in the European Union. This integration is of great importance for the development of the country, improving its economy, strengthening democracy and ensuring human rights. Ratification of international treaties and adoption of laws contribute to creating a legal basis for reforms and solving problems, in particular in the field of human trafficking. Conflict and war often lead to a significant increase in the risk of human trafficking, as they create a complex situation in which people can become vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation, which takes many forms. Therefore, the possibility of access to the labour market in European countries can really reduce the risk of their potential participation in human trafficking, while it is important to ensure adequate protection and support for refugees and migrants. According to a recent analysis by UNICEF and the United Nations Coordination Group of Agencies Against Trafficking in Persons (ICAT), 28% of identified victims of human trafficking worldwide are children. With regard to Ukraine, UNICEF’s child protection experts believe that children are likely to constitute an even greater proportion of potential victims of trafficking, 34% that they represent more than half of all refugees who have left the country to date. In the conditions of the formation of Ukraine as a legal state, the problems of child vagrancy and begging, as well as the involvement of children in anti-social and criminal activities, are particularly relevant. At the same time, the will, honour and dignity of the child, as well as his health, suffer the most. Modern society should pay more attention to the issue of protecting the child from the negative influence not only of others, but also of adults. State institutions and the public are obliged to actively develop preventive measures in order to prevent this negative phenomenon. As mentioned above, the field of crime prevention related to the use of a minor child for begging requires scientists to study not only the domestic experience of preventing such crimes, but also the analysis of effective foreign practices to overcome such a negative phenomenon as begging and the use of children for begging. According to the Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – the UN Agency for Migration in Ukraine, over 30 years, about 300,000 people have suffered from human trafficking in Ukraine. The key aspects related to the use of a minor child for begging in conditions of mass forced displacement of the population are outlined in this study, as well as the basic principles of solving this problem in both national and international legislation can become directions of scientific research aimed at the formation of effective strategies. Key words: war; migration; migrant; refugees; human trafficking; criminal responsibility; minors; begging

Homestay Accommodation for Refugees (in Europe). A Literature Review

In the aftermath of the rapidly increasing number of refugees arriving in Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, nonprofit organizations, private companies, and also public institutions have promoted homestay initiatives: That is, local households hosting refugees. In order to reflect on the political issues that homestay accommodation for refugees raises, the article charts and synthesizes the available research on homestay produced in 75 works written in English, French, German, and Italian, and with a particular focus on the European context. Most of those texts were published in the second half of the 2010s and focused on the homestay initiatives that developed in the context of the so-called 2015 “refugee crisis.” We analyzed this material by focusing on three different levels: First, hospitality as an inter-individual relationship within the domestic sphere (micro level); second, refugee homestay as diverse accommodation arrangements, implemented by informal groups, nonprofit organizations, and public institutions (meso level); and, third, the (non-) contentious dimension of homestay accommodation (macrolevel). The review also identifies theoretical, methodological, and empirical perspectives for future studies on homestay. We call for more attention to be given to the intersectional inequalities and power relations between hosts and guests; to the life trajectories of refugees; and to the interplay between homestay initiatives and political contexts. We argue that homestay is an exemplary case to reflect on the ongoing evolution of refugee support towards solidarity practices that ambivalently interact with border regimes.

Legal and Institutional System of Refugee Protection and Support in Poland after 1989

The aim of the article is to present legal and institutional solutions to support and help refugees in Poland after 1989. The article presents the rights and obligations of foreigners who have been granted refugee status or, in the case of persons who do not meet the conditions for granting refugee status, subsidiary protection. The system of support and protection of foreigners in Poland is shaped on the basis of international, EU and national law. Foreigners with international protection may receive: social, medical, material and integration assistance. The article characterizes each type of assistance that foreigners who have been granted international protection can count on. Today, Poland is increasingly becoming a destination for immigration and foreigners seeking shelter. As a consequence, the question arises – is the system of support and assistance for refugees in Poland sufficient? As indicated by the adopted solutions in this regard, in many areas such as material or integration assistance, the adopted solutions are insufficient.