Holding hope and mastering the possible: mapping resilient moves of asylum-seeking and refugee families post arrival

ABSTRACT

Using in-depth interviews, this paper examines the performance of resilient practices by 17 asylum-seeking and refugee families (27 parents, 35 children) living in Belgium, and the ways in which such practices have been facilitated by social professionals (22) in various types of relationships to these families. Different from much research that studies how resilience can be ‘found’ through predictable relationships between pre-identified variables, the present research builds on a constructionist, emic approach that conceptualises resilience as a process that is perpetually unfinished and ‘made’ by negotiated relational practices or ‘resilient moves’. Moreover, although attention to refugee family resilience has recently increased, little empirical research exists that includes the voices of both parents and children of the same families, as well as the input from social professionals surrounding them. The findings suggest that refugee family resilience should be seen as relational behaviour between multiple agents in and surrounding these families. The research also underlines the importance of deconstructing the role of macro-level structures in facilitating or hindering resilient moves. Overall, the findings highlight that resilience is not opposed to vulnerability, but may exist next or through it. This suggests the need for a re-politicisation of resilience in social work.

SAMENVATTING

Deze bijdrage bestudeert de veerkrachtige praktijken van 17 asielzoekende en vluchtelingengezinnen (27 ouders, 35 kinderen), en de manier waarop deze praktijken ondersteund worden door omringende sociale professionals (22) aan de hand van diepte-interviews. Afwijkend van veel bestaand onderzoek dat kijkt naar hoe veerkracht ‘gevonden’ kan worden als uitkomst van een reeks identificeerbare voorspellende variabelen, schuift dit onderzoek een constructivistische, emische benadering van veerkracht naar voor waarbij veerkracht beschouwd wordt als een proces dat steeds onaf is en bestaat uit onderhandelde relationele praktijken of ‘veerkrachtige bewegingen’. Ondanks dat er recent meer aandacht is gekomen voor gezinsveerkracht bij vluchtelingen, bestaat er bovendien nog maar weinig onderzoek dat zowel ouders, kinderen als sociale professionals aan het woord laat. De bevindingen suggereren dat de veerkracht van vluchtelingengezinnen gezien moet worden als relationeel gedrag tussen meerdere actoren binnen en rondom vluchtelingengezinnen. Het onderzoek onderlijnt ook het belang van het deconstrueren van de rol van structuren op macro-niveau in het faciliteren of verhinderen van veerkrachtige bewegingen. Tot slot, tonen de bevindingen aan dat veerkracht niet tegengesteld is aan kwetsbaarheid, maar juist ernaast of zelfs door het uiten ervan kan bestaan. Dit vraagt om een re-politisering van het begrip veerkracht in sociaal werk.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• asylum-seeking and refugee families
• accompanied minors
• bonding and bridging
• disclosure and silencing

KERNWOORDEN:

• veerkracht
• asielzoekers-en vluchtelingengezinnen
• begeleide minderjarigen
• hechting en overbrugging
• onthulling en stilzwijgen

Acknowledgements

This research was approved by the Social and Societal Ethics Committee (SMEC) of the University of Leuven (approval code: G – 2017 12 1023), specifying the processing of data by the research team relating to: access to information, data processing at the team’s headquarters, security measures, and confidentiality. For these purposes, the researchers were required to keep all information strictly confidential and comply with all established technical and organisational measures to ensure information confidentiality and integrity. These obligations continued to apply even after the termination and expiration of the agreement. This information was given to all the participants.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data statement

Data not available due to legal restrictions.

Notes

1 Parts of this paragraph are based on Groeninck et al. (2019).

2 PRM is a structured questioning method that generates elaborative data on a central research question, after which the answers of the research participants are first ‘piled’ (P), than ‘ranked’ (R) in order and importance by them; a process through which ‘meaning’ is searched for and articulated (M) (Ager et al., 2011; Vindevogel et al., 2015).

Additional information

Funding

The project was financially supported by a grant for project-based scientific research (PWO) provided by the Flemish Government. (Vlaamse Overheid) fyi: Flemish governement - Vlaamse overheid is the funding agency and PWO is the name of the grant.

Notes on contributors

Kaat Van Acker

Kaat Van Acker is doctor in psychology, social worker and experiential psychotherapist. She obtained her PhD at KU Leuven in 2012 for a study on acculturation attitudes of Flemish majority members. Between 2013 and 2015, she worked as a social worker with asylum-seeking families in individual housing facilities. Since 2015, she joined Odisee University of Applied Sciences as a lecturer and researcher while she maintains a position at KU Leuven as a research fellow. Her current research primarily concerns refugee families, in particular refugee family wellbeing and reception infrastructures. As a psychotherapist, she also regularly works with refugees facing trauma and adaptation difficulties.

Mieke Groeninck

Mieke Groeninck holds a PhD in social and cultural anthropology from the KU Leuven. Her doctoral research focused on Islamic religious knowledge transmission for adults in Brussels’ mosques and Islamic institutes. She has published articles on the art of Quranic recitation, the history of the institutionalisation of Islam in Belgium, and pious epistemology and subjectivisation. She was the principal researcher on the research project outlined in this article. Currently, she is a postdoctoral researcher at KULeuven.

Dirk Geldof

Dirk Geldof is Professor in Sociology at the Faculty of Design Sciences at the University of Antwerp (Belgium). He is Senior-researcher at the Centre for Family Studies (Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Belgium) and Lecturer in the Social Work Programme at the Karel de Grote University College (Belgium). His research focuses on (trans)migrant-families, refugee families and the impact of ‘Superdiversity’ on social work. He published ‘Superdiversity in the heart of Europe. How migration changes our society’ (Acco, 2016).

Patrick Meurs

Patrick Meurs is Professor in Psychology at KU Leuven (Belgium), director of the Sigmund Freud Research Institute for psychoanalysis and its applications in Frankfurt (Germany) and lecturer at the Odisee university of Applied Sciences. His research focuses on emotion regulation with a focus on friendships and the ability to learn in childhood and adolescence, early development of children with a migration and refugee background with a focus on school and social participation, early prevention among families with a migration and refugee background, prevention in adolescence with a focus on radicalisation, psychoanalytic play and talk therapy for traumatised children and culture-sensitive prevention and therapy programmes.

Claire Wiewauters

Claire Wiewauters is educational scientist and therapist, and lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Family Studies (Odisee University of Applied Sciences, Belgium). She was the principal developer of the methodology that we used to interview asylum-seeking and refugee children. Most of her work focuses on children’s perspectives in the context of divorce and migration. In her research, she aims to include the voice of children as active, creative social agents who produce their own children’s perspective on the course of things, in accordance with their mental development.