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Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / Recent times have seen the world fall far short of its responsibility to protect and support refugees in crisis. Recognizing this reality, policymakers and scholars are beginning to push for a reassessment of the traditional solutions to refugee crises implemented by states, the United Nations, and non-governmental organizations. This manuscript aims to shed light on how these policymakers can coalesce around more effective solutions in the future. To do so, it will analyze three case studies of refugee crises in Jordan: the Palestinians, Iraqis, and Syrians. The cases will seek to answer how and why Jordan chose to “solve” each crisis in the ways that it did. It will then assess how various “solutions”—meaning policies, programs, or partnerships aimed at improving the livelihoods of refugees—have affected each group of refugees differently. The effectiveness of these solutions will depend on a number of factors which constrain or enable Jordan’s ability to support refugees. Ultimately, the findings reveal that some solutions will remain unattainable to refugees in the near future. Others solutions, however, are evolving in ways that open doors to new, alternative solutions which possess significant potential to deliver the rights and meet the needs of the world’s refugees more effectively. In a world fraught by the persistence of global refugee crises, it will offer a few reasons why we should believe current United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, when he says there is “some hope.” / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Scholar of the College. / Discipline: Political Science.

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Background: Since 2011, there has been ongoing conflict in Syria, resulting in the displacement of over 11 million people. Over 40,000 Syrian refugees resettled to Canada and of that, 52% were under the age of 19, falling into the adolescent age group. Adolescence (ages 10-19) is a critical stage for physical, psychosocial and cognitive development. As a result, mental health challenges often first emerge during adolescence. Refugee adolescents are a particularly vulnerable group, as normal adolescent stress is compounded with resettlement stress. Further research is needed to understand how Syrian refugee adolescents conceptualize mental health so that their needs can be better addressed. Methods: Data was collected using semi-structured interviews with older Syrian refugee adolescents (n=7) and service providers (n=8) in the Greater Toronto Area. Interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was guided by grounded theory. Results: The findings indicate that conceptualizations of mental health are highly dependent on how the concept is framed. The term mental health was poorly understood amongst Syrian adolescents. However, when different terms were used to describe mental health, including stress, pressure and comfort, it was clear that adolescents had a much deeper understanding of the concept. Once appropriate mental health framing was employed, adolescents were able to identify factors that they believed influence mental health status. Factors identified by adolescents and service providers included individual, social and system-level factors. Conclusions: Syrian adolescent perspectives are crucial in fully understanding their conceptualizations of mental health. The comparison of adolescent and service provider perspectives allowed for a comprehensive understanding of adolescent mental health, while identifying differences in perspectives between the two groups. This study recommends future strategies for policy makers, service providers and researchers to effectively address Syrian adolescents’ mental health. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

After relocation to the United States, refugees are often assisted by community volunteers in the process of resettlement, which frequently includes navigating the financial and social aspects of life in the US. However, the medical and health aspects of resettlement, and particularly how volunteers are involved in those aspects, have gone unexplored, leading to tensions within volunteer-led resettlement groups as they attempt to negotiate the limits of volunteer involvement. To investigate how volunteers understand a process of health resettlement, their role(s) within the process, and how they rhetorically position their relationship with resettling clients, this study uses interview data from a local, volunteer-run community resettlement organization to provide a rhetorical examination of health resettlement. An analysis finds that in both contrast and response to a rhetoric of self-sufficiency established by state and federal policy, resettlement volunteers understand health resettlement through a rhetoric of responsibility. This rhetorical framework constitutes volunteers' role as proxy agents in the process of health resettlement. Additionally, volunteers use a gathered ethos approach within this framework, drawing from community networks in order to facilitate persuasion of resettling clients toward desired health outcomes. Ultimately, recommendations are made for community sponsorship and volunteer approaches to health resettlement for refugees in the United States. / Doctor of Philosophy / After relocation to the United States, refugees are often assisted by community volunteers in the process of resettlement, which frequently includes navigating the financial and social aspects of life in the US. However, the medical and health aspects of refugee resettlement, and particularly how volunteers are involved in those aspects, have gone unexplored. This study uses interviews with resettlement volunteers to understand how volunteers perceive their role within the health resettlement process, how they position themselves in relation to resettling refugees, and how they expect refugees to navigate health communication scenarios. It finds that volunteers feel a tension between a rhetoric of self-sufficiency that is established by policy and a rhetoric of responsibility that is established by humanitarian narratives. This tension motivates volunteers to act as communication intermediaries, performing health communication tasks on behalf of refugee clients while also attempting to persuade clients toward particular healthcare decisions. Recommendations are made for community sponsorship and volunteer approaches to health resettlement for refugees in the United States.

In 1997, the Virginia Refugee Health Program coordinated a protocol and reimbursement structure to encourage health departments to perform initial health screenings on refugees settling in the Commonwealth by establishing four recommended levels of assessment. This thesis is concerned with these initial health-related services provided to refugees by Virginia's health departments, the quality of these services, and how they vary from one district to another. For this study, I interviewed health department staff representing 13 of Virginia's 19 districts that rendered health screenings in 2000. Information such as the level of assessment provided, and the types of procedures and services offered were the main foci of the interviews. I found that of the 13 districts, three (the cities of Alexandria and Virginia Beach, and Prince William County) offer only the required minimum to refugees. The variations I discovered in the services that health districts provide suggest, conceptually, the workings of both "structure" and "agency." Each health department is formally and informally structured in terms of staffing, services, and resources in accordance with its individual needs and initiatives. The structure of current funding at both the state and local level acts to inhibit some health districts from providing all four levels of assessment. In addition, human agency in the form of personal interest in meeting refugee's health needs as well as district collaboration with local resettlement agencies, also plays an important role in the extent of refugee services rendered. / Master of Science

Communities affected by climate impacts, political or cultural conflicts and rapid demographic shifts are the most vulnerable to the effects of poverty, disease and communal violence. Addressing their needs through appropriate architectural responses can help them to recover social, economic and environmental well-being. This thesis defines strategies to address the challenges involved in the design of spaces after three causes of forced migration: natural disaster, conflict and urban development. The methodology is based on literature review which served as theoretical background to work in three design competitions related to shelter after natural disasters, refugee camps and slums. The need to provide accommodation after a natural disaster is essential. Therefore, a shelter that can be transported and deployed quickly and effectively, and that contemplates the uniqueness and complexity of the event, is studied in this thesis. Refugee camps have become the protective and safe place that provide shelter, food and health safety to all kinds of survivors and refugees. Due to the complexity of the problems related to this forced migration situation, the presence of refugee camps tends to be longer than the expected. Therefore, a design that contemplates this duality of time and that addresses peoples' needs and rights is part of this research. Slums are often related to deprivation and socio-spatial exclusion and due to the lack of security of tenure, they are vulnerable to evictions caused by redevelopment pressures, gentrification processes and episodes of ethnic cleansing. Therefore, a neighborhood's transformation with cohesive public spaces and incremental housing prototypes is proposed in this thesis. Through the study of architectural responses to natural disaster, refugee camps and slums design considerations related to the site, the culture and the urban context are established as guidelines. In addition, a time-based design strategy, a dual design approach and a multiple scales design strategy are defined as essential to give an architectural response to forced-displaced communities. / Master of Architecture / Devastating effects of natural disaster, political conflicts and demographic changes are experienced everyday worldwide. People who have faced them long for protection, safety and peace to have the strength to start again. Therefore, this thesis proposes some possible architectural solutions for situations where entire populations have lost their homes or have been displaced. Temporary shelters provided after a natural disaster was the first theme studied. The research was complemented with the design of a shelter for a rural community in Ecuador which was devastated by the 2016 earthquake. Research and design demonstrated the need to design a structure aligned with the features of its context and that could be easily and quickly transported and deployed. Thousands of people are forced to flee every day due to political and social conflicts. The second design that was part of this thesis was for Mosul, one of the cities that had been destroyed due to the conflicts in Iraq. The aim was to provide shelter for people that want to return to this city during its reconstruction. Through the design and research, it was defined that it is important to integrate the temporary camps in the reconstruction plan of the city to obtain a more appropriate approach towards the refugees’ needs and values. Neighborhoods wrongly categorized as slums are exposed to human displacement due to real state pressures, urban interventions and social reforms. The third and last project that was part of this thesis looked for a response to this problem in a neighborhood in Mumbai. Several projects were reviewed and diverse sources were consulted leading to the conclusion that public space should work in these neighborhoods as the meeting point of different groups of people and activities. In addition, it was established that affordable housing solutions should respond to economic situation of the dwellers and their future needs. The importance of understanding the site, the culture and the context of every scenario was established essential to formulate an accurate solution for people that seek shelter after a natural disaster, armed conflict or eviction. In addition, considering different design scales and providing spaces with diverse uses and with the possibility to change through time was defined important to develop these projects.