‘The Golden Country’: Ex-Yugoslav and African Refugee Experiences of Settlement and ‘Depression’

Abstract

Depression and post-traumatic stress disorder are frequent diagnoses made of refugee clients by health professionals attempting to deal with patients having settlement difficulties. However, this focus on psychological diagnosis and intervention tends to ignore political, economic, cultural and racial aspects of the settlement experience which affect well-being. This paper reports the findings of two studies of ex-Yugoslav and Horn of Africa refugee settlement experiences in Perth, Western Australia, which demonstrate the links, in the perceptions of refugees at least, between well-being and two closely related factors: employment and ‘culture shock’. It reports data from questionnaires, interviews and focus groups with over 200 people from refugee backgrounds—including Bosnians, Croatians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese and Somalis—which indicate their perception that post-migration experiences are more important in undermining well-being than pre-migration physical and psychological trauma.

Keywords:

• Depression
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Refugees
• Mental Health
• Migration

Notes

1. The research—by a team from Murdoch University and the (then) East Perth Public Health Unit—was funded by a Healthway grant. Chief investigators on the project, entitled ‘Listening to Diverse Voices’, were Ilse O'Ferral, Mark Rapley, Alan Peterson and Renata Kokanovic; the author was Research Officer.

2. This project (2004–06) was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant and chief investigators were Val Colic-Peisker, Nonja Peters and the author.

3. Transcription conventions are as follows: … pause in talk; [] section of transcript deleted; [with text] words inserted by researcher to clarify meaning; (with text) transcriber's guess at a word.

4. This educated sample, who had been in Australia for at least two years, had adopted the ‘Western’ diagnosis of ‘depression’ as a way of understanding their distress.

5. Since the focus-group discussion was led using a series of questions designed to invite comment on issues causing severe distress, participants picked up the terminology of ‘depression’ very quickly, utilising it to frame their concerns in a way that produced their complaints not just as ‘troubles talk’ but as ‘depression-causing’ trauma (see Tilbury 2007 for further discussion).

6. It should be noted that employment was the focus of Study 2, and therefore this is not surprising. The important point is that participants linked un/underemployment to stress and loss of well-being.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Farida Fozdar

Farida Fozdar (aka Tilbury) is Senior Lecturer in Social and Community Development at Murdoch University