The Identity of Displaced Christian Karen in the Context of Resettlement

Abstract

More than 200,000 displaced Karen from Burma have been “warehoused” in displaced persons' camps on the Thai-Burma border for more than 20 years. Recently, the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) has embarked on the durable solution of resettlement to third countries for these people. In this paper, the experiences and perceptions of resettlement of Christian Karen are explored through the findings from two focus groups with recently arrived refugees, augmented by contextual discussions with Christian Karen community leaders in Australia. Focus group participants displayed a strong and overt sense of identity, both as individual Karen and as part of the Christian Karen community, locally and trans-nationally, indicating that Christian Karen identity remains intact during displacement and strongly influences the resettlement experience for this group.

Key words:

• resettlement
• displaced persons
• Karen
• identity