Pathways to Resilience IV: Global South Perspectives

Symposium Summary
Promoting resilience of ‘South-in-the-North’ communities
Presenters: Marguerite Daniel, Hilde Liden, Masego Katisi, Fungisai Gwanzura Ottemöller 
Refugees and asylum seekers from countries in the Global South who end up in Europe can be described as ‘South-in-the-North’ communities. They face loss, uncertainty and new languages, cultures and social expectations. This symposium explores resources they draw on and their pathways to resilience

Symposiuym Abstracts
Promoting resilience among unaccompanied minors – lessons from Norway 
Presenter: Hilde Liden (Institute of Social Research, Oslo, Norway)
Introduction: In 2015 5300 unaccompanied minors, mainly from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria, applied for asylum in Norway. Nine tenths were boys, one fifth were 14 years or younger. The paper discusses resilience strategies among unaccompanied minors staying in a reception centre in Norway, waiting for their asylum proceedings to be concluded. 
Methods: Data collection includes interviews with 32 minors, including PhotoVoice; and interviews with staff in reception centres, schools, organisations, child welfare services and immigration authorities. Data explore the living conditions in reception centres for unaccompanied minors, and the experiences of minors who have been exploited in human trafficking on the way to Norway. The transition period, about a year, may have a substantial impact on their health, aspirations and integration strategies. They have to cope with loss of their family and uncertainty about their future. Further they need to adapt to new languages, social expectations, and unfamiliar cultural and legal frameworks.  
Findings: Resources they use for resilience are their individual guts to adapt and turn their aspirations into reality and to finish education, their ability to form social relations, and to use new social networks. Also significant is access and orientation towards new knowledge, understandings and skills to cope with new challenges. 

Exploring refugee children and youth’s social ecology of resilience – the case of Norway
Presenter: Masego Katisi (Ark & Mark Trust, Botswana)
Co-Authors: Ragnhild Hollekim, Zebib Tesfazghi
Introduction: Refugee children and youth (unaccompanied minors) from the South now living in the North (Europe) experience a dual cultural context. This paper uses social ecology of resilience to examine unaccompanied minors’ resilience pathways navigating and negotiating this dual cultural context in Norway. 
Methods: Unaccompanied minors are identified as the most vulnerable group of refugees because of their susceptibility to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse; trauma, poverty and starvation; and expectations that they are young enough to weather adversity on their own. We conducted four focus group discussions: Afghan unaccompanied minors, Eritrean unaccompanied minors, ‘successfully’ integrated Afghan youth and ‘successfully’ integrated Eritrean youth. Discussions explored aspirations, responsibilities, competencies, aspects that promote a sense of belonging in Norway, and cultural values and practices that contribute to integration. Data were analysed using thematic network analysis. 
Findings: The focus on risk factors only, misses the existing use of wider socio-cultural resources with its powerful positive effect on the realisation of resilience.  

Immigrant parents’ perspectives on the cultural strategies that families and communities use to strengthen children in Norway
Presenter: Fungisai Gwanzura Ottemöller (University of Bergen, Norway)
Co-Author: Marguerite Daniel 
Introduction: Many refugees and asylum seekers from countries with different value systems and cultures travel from the Global South to Europe. Children and young people who migrate may face challenges. Successful settlement requires understanding what strengthens children in their native cultures in order to meet them in culturally appropriate ways.  
Methods: This study explored the strategies, customs and values that parents use to strengthen their children in Eritrean and Afghani communities. It explored how these strategies were used to meet the particular challenges children face in new environments. The study took place in Western Norway. We conducted three focus groups with 18 parents from Eritrea and Afghanistan living in Norway:  one mixed group of Eritrean parents, one with Afghani fathers and one with Afghani mothers. We developed a vignette illustrating the situation of an immigrant child in Norway to help facilitate group discussion. We analysed the data using thematic analysis. 
Findings: Conceptualizations of what strengthens children may be influenced by cultural and religious norms and beliefs. It is important to respect and acknowledge cultural strategies and resources that support children. These should be utilized to strengthen and help children to successfully negotiate and navigate Norwegian society.