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University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building. / The purpose of this research is to examine the initial post-arrival process of recently arrived humanitarian entrants into Sydney, Australia from three non-traditional source countries, Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Resettlement was examined from social, economic and health perspectives, with the determinants influencing the settlement process being identified as a precursor to understanding the long-term adjustment process. A literature review on settlement adjustment from a multidisciplinary approach confirmed the dearth of research on early refugee settlement experience in Australia and overseas for groups other than the Indochinese. Such research has tended to concentrate on one of the specific aspects of settlement rather than attempting a holistic approach to understanding adjustment patterns. Subsequently, 44 key informants, representing over 25 different organisations providing services (both government and non-government) to humanitarian entrants, were individually surveyed to gather information on their clients' needs, perceptions and problems. Issues emerging from both the literature review and key informants' survey formed the basis of a survey of 172 recently arrived Bosnian, Iraqi and Afghan humanitarian entrants. Among the statistical tools used to analyse the entrants' surveys were Pearson's correlation coefficient, analysis of variance, Kendall's tau correlation, Spearman's rho correlation and Cronbach's alpha. Results indicated that during the initial settlement stage, the former socio-economic background of the entrants has little impact on their economic, social or health adjustment. Instead, the conditions of departure, such as the loss of property, long-term incarceration, torture and trauma, were found to have a far reaching influence on the entrants' social and health experiences in their new country; however, despite the variety of traumatic pre-departure experiences, the resilience of the entrants reinforced their determination to participate in the workforce. Although commonalities were found among the three groups in settlement outcomes, there were also distinct differences. The groups shared difficulties such as post-arrival unemployment, lack of suitable accommodation and family reunion concerns. However, the Bosnians, for example, experienced the greatest degree of health-related problems, the Iraqis expressed the greatest interest in sponsoring family members and the Afghans were the most well-adjusted of the three groups. Detailed policy implications are also presented; these emphasise that humanitarian entrants may experience adjustment difficulties qualitatively different from those of traditional migrants and argue for improved support services.

Recently Pittsburgh has experienced a noticeable increase in the number of incoming refugees, which has put added pressure on local service providers to develop more efficient resettlement practices. While female refugee's experiences have been largely ignored, this study attempts to better understand the gender-specific needs of female refugees who resettle and integrate into Pittsburgh. I used Ager and Strang's (2004) Indicators of Integration framework, with a focus on the indicators of "employment," "social bridges," "language and culture," and "rights and citizenship," and adapted it to a gendered perspective to analyze data from two focus group sessions with 11 refugee women from Liberia, Bhutan, Burma, Iraq, and Morocco. I used an exploratory, inductive methodology to identify common themes, including women's changing roles within families and the importance of social connections. A better understanding of women's needs will help inform the local refugee-serving agencies create more gender-inclusive services. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy / MA; / Thesis;

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Sociology. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 278-291). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR45990

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kentucky, 2000. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 49 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 41-46).

In recent years, many ethnic Armenians from Iran have come to the US as refugees, resettling in a diverse landscape that already includes large Armenian and Iranian diaspora communities. Soon after arrival, they also interface with US institutions in a home visit from a refugee resettlement case worker. In this thesis I adopt constructivist understandings of identity-in-interaction to examine the identity work that older Armenian Iranian immigrants do during these visits, reproduced here as life history interviews. I argue that Armenian Iranians use the home visit to discursively construct an Armenian Iranian identity that addresses the tension between institutional and community pressure to represent themselves as uniquely discriminated against in Iranian society while still identifying with an Iranian national identity. The more localized and temporary identities and interactional roles that speakers – including the researcher – adopt in the interviews also contribute to gender asymmetries in the interactions to the effect that men most often command the floor. Therefore, while the home visit format provides insight into the ways Armenian Iranians articulate an identity that is at least in part “Iranian” amidst normative pressures to do otherwise, it can also translate into an interaction that privileges men’s perspectives and allows them to largely determine its direction and content. / text

In the wake of massive displacement following World War II, the U.S. Congress passed the first U.S. refugee legislation, the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. In the years following 1948, the U.S. accepted refugees for resettlement through a patchwork of ad hoc policies. The cornerstone of the U.S. refugee resettlement program is the Refugee Act of 1980, the first legislation to define “refugee” and create a uniform procedure for admissions. Three agencies in separate federal agencies process participate in the resettlement program: the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration in the State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Services, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in the Department of Homeland Security. Refugee resettlement is further segmented between the federal and local level as local nonprofit agencies provide the direct services associated with resettlement. This report examines the need for reform in the U.S. refugee resettlement program, with a focus on structural concerns. In particular, this report probes the transition from programs providing services overseas to those providing services on the domestic level. This examination is conducted through a literature review developed from recent academic literature. Additionally, the report will incorporate program evaluations, relevant legislation, and regulations from mixed sources, including academic literature, governmental documents and other public records. / text

This dissertation is an exploration of the creative spaces often opened up by exile and forced migration, where Southern Sudanese negotiate and perform new forms of belonging and affiliation, while simultaneously (re)producing, ‘local’ practices in order to reaffirm and solidify existing relationships and identity categories. Through my examination of the creative spaces opened up by migration and exile, I also raise questions related to broader concerns in the field of forced migration and refugee studies regarding the need to problematize the often binary distinction between forced and voluntary migrants, which often places refugees in a category stripped of agency and choice. Based on 20 months of multi-sited field work in Calgary, Canada and Juba, South Sudan and exploring issues related community organization and shifting forms of affiliation, long distance nation building, transnational marriage and return migration, this dissertation demonstrates how settling-in and place-making involve both material and moral aspects of practice, and that refugees, regardless of the “forced” nature of their migration, are active agents in this process.

This dissertation is an exploration of the creative spaces often opened up by exile and forced migration, where Southern Sudanese negotiate and perform new forms of belonging and affiliation, while simultaneously (re)producing, ‘local’ practices in order to reaffirm and solidify existing relationships and identity categories. Through my examination of the creative spaces opened up by migration and exile, I also raise questions related to broader concerns in the field of forced migration and refugee studies regarding the need to problematize the often binary distinction between forced and voluntary migrants, which often places refugees in a category stripped of agency and choice. Based on 20 months of multi-sited field work in Calgary, Canada and Juba, South Sudan and exploring issues related community organization and shifting forms of affiliation, long distance nation building, transnational marriage and return migration, this dissertation demonstrates how settling-in and place-making involve both material and moral aspects of practice, and that refugees, regardless of the “forced” nature of their migration, are active agents in this process.

Through an in-depth study of the Canadian case, this thesis demonstrates how a loss of control over national borders can result from liberal-democratic state efforts to restrict the rights of non-citizens. It argues that the gaps created between certain fundamental due process and equality rights and state control practice increase the risk of policy failure by opening up avenues along which the authority and capacity of the state can be challenged effectively---by encouraging rights-based politics, irregular migration, and administrative inefficiencies. Part I provides an overview of recent international migration trends, followed by a detailed examination of the liberal-democratic control literature, identifying three biases---restrictionist, domestic-statist, and historical---that obscure the state's role in the creation and perpetuation of control problems. In response, this thesis employs an analytic framework rooted in the concept of the universe of political discourse to trace the evolution and interaction of two competing perspectives that have defined Canadian control policy debates and developments since Confederation, Liberal Internationalism and Liberal Nationalism, each of which posits a different relationship between the rights of non-citizens and the state. Part II presents a thorough account of Canadian control policies towards immigrants and refugees from 1867 to 1965, and reveals that the proposed link between rights-restrictive policies and control problems has deep liberal-democratic roots in Canada. Part III focuses on Canadian policies towards asylum seekers from 1965 to 1988, and demonstrates the central role that the state's rights-restrictive approach played in the creation, breakdown, and replacement of the country's first inland refugee status determination system. Parts II and III are based on an extensive examination of published Canadian government documents, and secondary materials from the fields of history, legal studies, and politics, among other sources. In a concluding chapter, it is argued that by giving greater conceptual and empirical clarity to control, the findings presented in this thesis are of continued relevance to the study of control policies---contemporary or historical---in Canada and other liberal democracies.