‘I feel something is still missing’: leisure meanings of African refugee women in Canada

ABSTRACT

This research explored the leisure meanings of three African women, former refugees resettled in Canada. Using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, this study revealed that leisure meanings were tightly bound in the women’s Christian faith, church, and faith community in affording them solace, socialisation, and community bonding. Furthermore, learning for leisure emphasised leisure for educational advancement, self-improvement, and knowledge-gain, to keep busy, and for companionship. Physically active leisures afforded fitness and fun, while nature-based leisure, particularly with friends, family, and their ethnocultural communities were important for restoration, nurturing relationships, and fostering social networks. These leisures also served to mitigate traumatic memories and stress. Because of the prominence of their Christian faith and the church as central to these women’s leisure, collaborative efforts by faith-based entities, leisure and recreation organisations and practitioners, settlement agencies, and mental health bodies, are recommended to effectively address the challenges and aspirations of resettled African women refugees through leisure.

KEYWORDS:

• Faith-based leisure
• nature-relatedness
• post-traumatic stress
• refugee women

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Because we had developed a trusting relationship the women assisted me in recruiting a third woman. I recruited only women whose status in Canada was assured; they had had time to settle in and were living in a welcoming, safe homeland.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jane Hurly

Jane Hurly is a doctoral student in the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation at the University of Alberta. Her research interests lie in examining the role of leisure, and particularly of nature-based leiusure, on the well-being of refugees resettled in Canada; how leisure might foster a sense of belonging and resilience among traumatised refugees as they resettle far from familiar homelands, and encourage and ease their integration into the larger society.