At the GPSC Student Showcase 2011, received 2nd place Graduate in the category of Public Health

Thesis advisor: Michael Malec / This study explores the resettlement experiences of twenty-one Bhutanese refugees in Laconia, New Hampshire and Chelsea and Lynn, Massachusetts. Its purpose is to determine if place significantly affects a refugee’s success and satisfaction, and to assess the differences between those effects in urban and rural locations. In addition, this study seeks to determine if one kind of place, urban or rural, is better for resettlement than the other. It draws on the theories of assimilation, social networks, and social capital, as it strives to enter the sociology of immigration discourse. This qualitative study employed a mixed-method approach in attempting to answer its research questions. Semi-structured interviews and brief surveys were conducted with ten respondents in an urban location, Greater Boston, and eleven respondents in a rural location, Laconia, NH. The samples were recruited through snowball sampling methods. This study finds that in the rural location respondents had extensive in-group and out-group network connections, developed social capital, and feelings of safety and security, but they lacked employment and consequently economic stability. In the urban location respondents had a higher rate of employment, developed social capital, and a formal in-group network, however they lacked out-group network connections and felt unsafe in their neighborhoods. Therefore, the study concludes that there are specific characteristics of urban and rural places that affect a refugee’s sense of well-being; however, the positive and negative forces of these characteristics balanced out to have an equal effect on overall satisfaction. Where it is best to resettle each refugee may depend on his or her personal values and cultural background. While resettling refugees in one location or another may not solve resettlement issues, this research suggests that there are many systematic improvements to be made to better help refugees adapt and succeed in the United States. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology Honors Program. / Discipline: Sociology.

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The recent trend of refugee resettlement in the U.S. has presumably shifted to a new and more hopeful life for refugees. However, refugees experience another phase of challenges once they resettle in the U.S. Their transition from a life of statelessness to that of the citizen in a developed country is a painful experience, yet life has improved economically, especially after years of living in poverty in a refugee camp. The fact that Bhutanese refugee parents choose to resettle in the U.S. is primarily motivated by their hopes for a better education for their children. The following qualitative research study strives to understand both the opportunity gaps and the challenges that Bhutanese refugee students experience. This study also helps to shift the narrative from the student being the problem to the school systems in place that maintains or ameliorate the gaps in opportunities for refugee students in higher education.

No description available.

No description available.

Increasing rates of overweight, obesity, and related metabolic diseases documented among refugee communities across the United States necessitate greater attention to how processes of integration impact refugee health. These nutritional health trends (e.g., increasing rates of obesity) suggest potential disconnects between refugees' past environments and their conditions after re-settlement, which may contribute to adverse changes in energy balance (diet and exercise). While Bhutanese refugees were among the largest refugee groups entering the US during the five years leading up to this research, very few studies have examined how they have responded to integration and the impact of this transition on their health. Grounded in human adaptability and political economic theories, and adopting a biocultural approach, this dissertation investigates how Bhutanese refugees in “Prospect City” (pseudonym) negotiate changing and unfamiliar structural and sociocultural conditions after resettlement and the consequences for energy balance and nutritional status. The results reveal high rates of overweight and obesity compared to US averages. Age and caste related differences in nutritional status were also found. High rates of overweight and obesity corresponded with an energy imbalance due to over consumption of energy dense traditional foods and limited understanding of the importance of regular exercise. Over consumption of energy dense traditional foods stemmed from several interrelated factors: the abundance of foods in the US, prior experiences with food deprivation, a history of political exile that reinforced desires to preserve cultural food preferences, and joint family efforts to accommodate work-related time constraints by increasing food production and availability. Decreases in exercise appeared to stem from more sedentary lifestyles in the US as a result of work environments and available transportation, coupled with a lack of health knowledge regarding health benefits of physical activity. This dissertation’s findings are being reported to Prospect City’s Bhutanese Community Organization to help develop strategies for improving nutritional health in the community.

Au Bhoutan, au Népal et au Québec, les religions minoritaires font l’objet de nombreux soupçons dans la population, par lesquels des acteurs de la scène publique et politique justifient leur encadrement, voire leur exclusion de l’espace national. Ces soupçons ne vont que s’amplifiant si la religion en question est étroitement associée à un groupe ethnique minoritaire. Ces craintes autour de la perception d’une élision ethnicité-religion perturbatrice de l’ordre social majoritaire reposent davantage sur des mythes nationaux construits autour de, et en réaction à certaines religions que sur une véritable contestation inhérente aux regroupements religieux. La contribution de la religion, particulièrement en contexte migratoire et minoritaire, à la participation pleine et active dans la nouvelle société-hôte a été amplement démontrée. La religion aide à faire sens des expériences migratoires, fournissant un ancrage notoire aux nouveaux arrivants dans leur milieu. Le groupe religieux fournit quant à lui aide matérielle, psychologique et social aux nouveaux arrivants. Cette étude, menée en région de Montréal, auprès de deux congrégations rassemblant des réfugiés Népalo-bhoutanais convertis au christianisme, fait la lumière sur le rôle de la religion en tant qu’espace de négociation entre les normes imposées – religieuses comme séculières – aux croyants et la subjectivité de leur expérience religieuse. En suivant le parcours migratoire forcé des Népalo-bhoutanais membres de ces congrégations, j’explore l’impact des impératifs d’intégration des localités, les environnements sociaux et matériels, géographiquement et historiquement situés, sur les négociations permises par la religion. Je fais voir que les tensions et les conflits qui peuvent émerger de ces négociations n’impliquent pas la fin de la cohésion sociale. Plutôt, ces négociations informent un vivre-ensemble caractérisé par une certaine convivialité. J’étudie deux manifestations de ces négociations et de leur impact sur le vivre-ensemble. La conversion au christianisme est la première de ces négociations. Performée en milieu hindou, elle fait voir comment la religion répond à un besoin de recomposition de soi à la suite d’expériences de souffrance, de perte de sens et d’exclusion. En dépit du défi qu’elle lance à l’ordre social hindou et du lot de conséquences qu’elle entraîne, la conversion permet de se projeter dans une identité dignifiée et un nouveau groupe de pairs. Performée en contexte québécois, la conversion est le point de départ d’une renégociation de sa lecture passée de la religion. Elle est l’occasion de réaliser un soi idéalisé, sans crainte de représailles sociales. Dans les deux contextes, la conversion constitue une négociation entre les impératifs d’intégration de la localité et les aspirations que le croyant porte. Le choix du groupe religieux, de la congrégation, est également le fruit de négociations. Les Népalo-bhoutanais chrétiens se rassemblaient initialement au sein d’une même congrégation multiethnique, l’Église Originelle. La majorité d’entre eux ont depuis quitté et fondé leur propre congrégation, Naya Mandali. Malgré le spectre ethnico-religieux qui plane sur cette décision en vertu de certains référents ethniques autour desquels s’est fondée Naya Mandali, ceux-ci n’expliquent pas à eux seuls le schisme. Le choix de langue, de style de célébration, et la division suivant les appartenances de jati recoupent effectivement des facteurs de divisions proprement sociologiques, tels qu’une transition de figure d’autorité, des styles de gouvernance préférés et des pressions d’acteurs extérieurs au groupe religieux. Des revendications proprement religieuses sont aussi évoquées, en dépit des référents ethniques. Ainsi, le choix du népali se veut davantage un outil facilitant la compréhension et la diffusion du message religieux. La langue vernaculaire de la localité ne s’en trouve pas pour autant évacuée de la présentation des cultes. La congrégation fait bel et bien de la visite de francophones une préoccupation. Ces visiteurs devraient pouvoir suivre minimalement le culte. L’objectif derrière la fondation de Naya Mandali est de s’actualiser en tant que chrétien bien plus qu’en tant que Népalo-bhoutanais. Chacune des congrégations issues du schisme traduit une façon de faire Église distincte. Plutôt qu’une menace à la cohésion de la société-hôte, la fondation de Naya Mandali est une manifestation des formes insoupçonnées d’incorporation permises par la religion. Fruit d’une des négociations entre les impératifs d’intégration inculqués par les sociétés-hôtes et les aspirations des croyants, la congrégation népalo-bhoutanaise a dû créer des contacts avec des chrétiens d’autres églises de la localité. Ainsi, ils ont tissé des liens avec des non-migrants qu’ils n’auraient autrement pas rencontrés. Par le biais de la religion, les schismatiques ont réalisé, de manière quelque peu subversive, différents impératifs d’intégration des localités traversées : l’autonomisation, la prise en charge et l’accomplissement de soi. / In Bhutan, in Nepal as in Quebec, minority religions are subjected to a number of suspicions justifying their regulations, if not their exclusion from national space. Those suspicions only increase if the religion in question is also closely associated with an ethnic minority group. Those fears concerned with a perceived ethnicity-religion elision disruptive of the majoritarian social order have more to do with national myths built around, and in reaction to, certain religions more than with any genuine contestation inherent to religious groupings. Religion’s contribution to, particularly in a migratory and minoritarian context, a full and active participation in a new host society has been amply demonstrated. Religion helps make sense of migratory experiences, contributing to a notable anchoring of newcomers to their surroundings. The religious group, for its part, contributes a material, psychological and social help to newcomers. This study, conducted alongside two congregations gathering Nepalo-bhutanese converts to christianity in a Montreal region, sheds light on religion’s role as a space of negociation between imposed norms – religious as well as secular – to believers and the subjectivity of their religious experience. By following the trajectory of the forced migration of the members of both congregations, I explore the impact of the integration imperatives of localities, the geographycally and historically situated social and material environnements, on the negociations enabled by religion. I show that tensions and conflicts which can arise from those negociations do not entail an end to social cohesion. Rather, they inform a vivre-ensemble caracterised by a certain conviviality. Two manifestations of these negociations and their impact on the vivre-ensemble are studied. Conversion to christianity is the first of them. Performed in a hindu context, it shows how religion answers a need for a recomposition of the self following experiences of suffering, loss of meaning and exclusion. Despite the challenge it levels at the hindu social order and of the consequences it carries, conversion enables to project oneself in a dignified identity and a new peer group. Performed in the Quebec context, conversion is the starting point of a renegociation with one’s past reading of religion. It is the occasion to realise an idealised self, without fear of social reprisal. In both contexts, conversion constitutes a negociation between the locality’s integration imperatives and the believer’s yearnings. The choice of the religious grouping, the congregation, is also the result of negociations. The Nepalo-bhutanese christians initially gathered in the same multiethnic congregation, l’Église Originelle. The majority of them have since left and created their own congregation, Naya Mandali. Despite the « ethnico-religious » spectre looming over their decision, the ethnic referents around which Naya Mandali was built cannot by themselves explain the division. Linguistic choice, celebrations’ style and Jati divisions intersect effectively with properly sociological divisive factors, such as a transition in authority figures, prefered leadership styles and pressure from figures external to the religious grouping. Properly religious claims are also made, despite ethnic referents. Thus, the choice of Nepali speaks more to the tools it represents in enabling a better understanding and transmission of the religious message. The locality’s vernacular language is not necessarily evacuated from the cult’s presentation for it, the congregation making the possibility of francophone visitors one of their preoccupation. The actualization of the self as a better christian is much more the objectif behind the creation of Naya Mandali than the actualization of a nepalese self. The two congregations that emerged from the schism translate a distinct way of doing Church. Instead of a meance to the host society,s cohesion, the creation of Naya Mandali is a manifestation of the unexpected modes of incorporation enabled by religion. The results of negociations between integration imperatives instilled by the host societies and the believers’ yearnings, the Nepalo-bhutanese congregation had to create contacts with the localities’ other christians. Thus, they established contacts with non-migrants who would have not met them otherwise. Through religion’s medium, the schismatics have fulfilled, in a somewhat subversive way, the integration imperatives of the localities they navigated across: autonomisation, responsabilisation and self-fulfilment.

Globally, twenty-seven countries have resettlement programs associated with UNHCR - representing commitments to the international refugee framework and domestic commitments to those refugees resettled. Since 1975, the US has resettled over three million refugees, including over 75,000 Bhutanese refugees since 2008 - more than all other countries combined on both accounts. The US Office of Refugee Resettlement has the mandate to 'make available sufficient resources for employment training and placement in order to achieve economic self-sufficiency among refugees as quickly as possible' (The Refugee Act of 1980). Nevertheless, their economic self-sufficiency and the intertwined ideas of employment and wellbeing remain little examined. A global systematic review of available high-quality evidence examined whether interventions affect resettled refugees' economic self-sufficiency and wellbeing. Although 9,260 citations were reviewed from a wide variety of academic, policy, and grey literature, no studies met inclusion criteria. This Campbell-registered systematic review concludes that evidence is insufficient to determine if programs affect resettled refugees' economic self-sufficiency and wellbeing. Subsequently, qualitative research explored existing interventions to improve the economic self-sufficiency of resettled refugees, their theories of change, and perceptions of effectiveness in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Program design follows a policy mandate and expects that initial employment leads to sustained self-sufficiency and wellbeing, albeit without measuring these outcomes or providing long-term assistance. The findings serve as a basis for future research and reveal programming implications for the Bhutanese refugee community in Pittsburgh and broadly for refugee resettlement. Next, a cross-sectional survey of 145 randomly selected Bhutanese refugees in Pittsburgh (a response rate of 92.9%) was conducted to provide groundbreaking demographics, rates of economic self-sufficiency, and correlates with improved outcomes. The population was overwhelmingly low-income with high usage of certain assistance such as food assistance. Both bivariate relationships and predictive models for employment, gross income, wages, assistance usage, and having 'enough' money to pay the bills were examined. Overall, these paint a complex picture, including the potential importance of neighborhoods, household size, and religious affiliation as well as a more typical picture of the importance of gender, education levels, and time in the country for certain measures of employment, earnings, and household self-sufficiency. The evidence-based perspective on the economic self-sufficiency of resettled refugees shows that little is known globally, including the potential for interventions to cause harm or success. Understanding the employment services and perspectives of economic self-sufficiency and wellbeing for the Bhutanese population provides a lens to view not only the challenges and successes of this population, but also national and international obligations. As one focus group participant stated, 'Government should understand the nature of the refugees arriving and put us with jobs that ... allow the life to sustain.'