Refugees resettled in the U. S. have received little attention from the academic community. This research study seeks to address this gap by looking at an especially vulnerable refugee group, the Somali Bantus, recently resettled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and the public health significance of their long-term integration in the wider American culture. Oppressed for centuries, treated as third-class citizens, forced to flee their homes and condemned to live in refugee camps for ten to twelve years because of international events, Somali Bantus qualify as a uniquely disadvantaged refugee population. For this study, interviews were conducted with Somali Bantus and service providers in Pittsburgh to assess their experiences of resettlement. Somali Bantus have a history of being oppressed and discriminated against. Using the qualitative grounded theory approach the exploratory research here shows, the history of discrimination the Somali Bantus have experienced has long-term impacts on individual Somali Bantu's sense of personal agency. Additionally, the enormous need of the Somali Bantu community created conditions in which service providers competed with one another, rather than collaborating. This lack of cooperation among providers and the system of resettlement in the U. S. that encourages refugees to work as soon as possible, regardless of language ability, further hindered the ability of the Somali Bantus to exercise personal agency after arriving in the U. S.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-04132007-105441 |
| Date | 27 June 2007 |
| Creators | Taylor, Leah Margaret |
| Contributors | Michele Garrity, Patricia Documet, Martha Ann Terry, Carol McAllister |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-04132007-105441/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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