Family relationships of Afghan, Karen and Sudanese refugee youth.
Hynie, Michaela ; Guruge, Sepali ; Shakya, Yogendra B. 等
Abstract
Research with immigrant and refugee families consistently documents
acculturation gaps and role reversals between migrant youth and their
parents. However, debate exists over whether these necessarily lead to
family conflict and distress. This question was explored in this
community-based qualitative study through focus groups and interviews
with 70 newcomer refugee youth aged 16 to 24 from the Afghan, Karen and
Sudanese communities in Toronto. Thematic analysis revealed that
youths' responsibilities increased following migration, often
involving service navigation, language interpretation, and providing
financial and emotional support, in addition to household chores and
pursuing education and employment. Several youth explicitly took on
parental roles in the absence of a parent. These changes did not
necessarily lead to conflict, and where family conflict and distancing
occurred, other factors such as lack of time together or low levels of
family support seemed to be the contributing factors. Youth were clearly
"resettlement champions" for their families, which increased
family-level well-being, often at the cost of individual-level
well-being. Policy implications are discussed.
Resume
Une recherche documentee sur les familles d'immigres et de
refugies montre de maniere consistante des ecarts dus a
l'acculturation ainsi que des renversements de role entre les
jeunes immigres et leurs parents, li y a cependant un debat sur la
question de savoir si ceci doit forcement mener a des conflits familiaux
et a une certaine detresse. Cette questiona fait l'objet d'une
etude qualitative realisee dans les communautes afghanes, karenes et
soudanaises de Toronto a partir de groupes cibles et d'entrevues
menees avec 70 jeunes refugies nouvellement arrives et ages de 16 a 24
ans. Une analyse thematique a revele que les responsabilites de ces
jeunesaugmentaient suite a l'immigration, souvent afin d'aider
les leurs a s'orienter dans les services, a leur servir
d'interprete et a leur apporter un soutien financier et emotionnei,
et ce en plus de tenir la maison, de continuer des etudes et de gagner
leur vie. Plusieurs d'entre eux ont pris explicitement le role de
parents en l'absence de l'un d'entre eux. Ces changements
n'ont pas automatiquement provoque de confiits sauf que, Ia ou li y
en a eu dans la famille ou qu'elle a souffert de distanciation,
d'autres facteurs tels que ie manque de temps en commun ou un bas
niveau de support familial semblent y avoir contribue. Les jeunes sont
clairement les <<champions du reetablissement>> pour les
leurs, ameliorant le bien-etre familial, souvent au prix d'un mieux
vivre individuel. Il s'agit donc de voir ce que cette situation
implique au niveau des politiques a leur egard.
INTRODUCTION
Immigrant and refugee families share many challenges in the process
of migration, such as learning a new "host" culture,
experiencing extended family separation, and difficulties in accessing
appropriate education and employment. Refugee families differ from
immigrant families, though, because they may not have chosen the time,
means or location of their migration, and often face unique challenges
in maintaining a connection with their country of origin and with family
left behind (Heger Boyle and Ali 2009; Williams 2010). The effects of
migration on intergenerational relationships in refugee families may,
therefore, differ from those in immigrant families in the intensity
and/or nature of the changes brought about.
Members of refugee families may have experienced a collapse of
social order, which can be mirrored in a collapse of ordered
relationships within families, and may have personally witnessed or
experienced war and violence (Boyden et al. 2002). In some cases,
military forces may have actively promoted intergenerational mistrust
and conflict as part of their assault on communities (Newman 2005).
Refugee families also often spend years in refugee camps prior to
migration, thus experiencing prolonged uncertainty and difficult living
conditions that can challenge family structure and relationships (Heger
Boyle and Ali 2009). As a result, their hopes, expectations and
experiences of migration and settlement may be very different from those
of voluntary migrants (Heger Boyle and Ali 2009; Williams 2010). The
goal of this paper is to examine intergenerational relationships from
the perspective of Afghan, Karen and Sudanese refugee youth (older
adolescents and young adults), in the first five years of their
settlement in Toronto, Canada, in order to gain a more in-depth
understanding of how their family roles and responsibilities change
during the process of settlement.
AFGHAN, KAREN AND SUDANESE REFUGEE COMMUNITIES IN CANADA
Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma; Karen refugees), and Sudan were
selected for the study as these three countries have ranked within the
top ten source countries for sponsored Convention refugees to Canada
since 2006. Census 2006 data show that there are currently 18,205 people
in Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) who were born in Afghanistan.
The majority of immigrants from Afghanistan to the Toronto CMA (75.8%)
came as 'protected persons' (sponsored refugees or refugee
claimants). Afghan people are a heterogeneous group comprised of many
ethnic groups including Pashtun, Tajik, Uzbek and Hazara. Most
immigrants from Afghanistan are Muslim, of whom 80% identify as Sunni.
Between 2000 and 2009, roughly 10,100 people from Sudan arrived in
Canada, of whom 2,707 settled in Toronto CMA. Two thirds of those who
settled in the Toronto CMA (66.2%) came as 'protected
persons.' Sudan is made up of over 570 distinct groups with more
than 100 different languages spoken in the country. This is reflected in
the Sudanese community in Canada, which comprises many ethnic groups
including Arab, Dinka, Beja, Nuer, and Nuba.
The Karen people are the largest of several minority ethnic
communities who fled their Karen state (Kawtholei) in Myanmar (Burma)
following increased persecution by the Myanmar military government from
late 1980s. Many have lived in refugee camps in Thailand for over 20
years. The majority of Karens are Bhuddist or believe in Animism while
30% are Christians. The two main Karen groups are the Sgaws (S'waw)
and the Pwos. Canada has only recently begun resettling Karen refugees;
since 2000, about 3,100 Karen refugees have resettled in Canada, the
majority of whom have arrived since 2006.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Research on family dynamics among immigrants and refugees tends to
focus on three areas of challenge for intergenerational relationships:
an "acculturation gap" that can occur between parents and
children, role reversals, and losses of intimacy and respect in
parent-child relationships. A fourth theme that emerges, not as a
challenge but a strength, is that migrant families are also a source of
tremendous support, co-facilitating the settlement and acculturation
process for one another. These themes are discussed in more detail
below.
The Acculturation Gap
Value conflicts are a normal part of adolescent-parent experiences
in North America (Laursen et al. 1998), but may be more intense between
immigrant adolescents and their parents (Kwak 2003) and greater in more
recent immigrant families (Chung 2001). Children have been found to
learn the language, navigate the systems and endorse the values of the
new culture more quickly than their parents (Birman 2006; Ho 2010; Lau
et al. 2005). These so-called "acculturation gaps" (Dennis et
al. 2010, but see Bhatia and Ram 2009 for a critique of acculturation
theories) are thought to underlie children's complaints that
parents place inappropriate restrictions on their behaviour, and
parents' concerns around children's excess freedom in the new
country, inappropriate behaviours around clothing and dating, and loss
of the language and values of their heritage culture (Birman 2006; Este
and Tachble 2009a, 2009b; Szapocznik and Williams 2000).
While larger parent-child differences have been associated with
more family conflict (Birman 2006) and poorer psychological outcomes,
such as parent and child depression (Hwang et al. 2010; Szapocznik and
Williams 2000), the findings are inconsistent and may depend on the
dimension of change being considered For example, Ho (2010) found that
among Vietnamese immigrant families in the United States, identity gaps
(but not behavioural or language gaps) influenced family cohesion. Other
researchers (e.g., Lau et al. 2005) have found no relationship between
the size of intergenerational differences and measures of family
conflict. In light of these contradictory findings, some researchers
suggest that what matters to family well-being are not actual gaps
between parents' and children's reported beliefs and
behaviours but perceived differences (Dennis et al. 2010; Mirali 2004).
Role Reversal
Other research suggests that it may not be differential changes,
but rather the resulting role reversal that determines family conflict.
Children typically learn the host language more easily and quickly than
their parents (Birman 2006). As a result, it is often children rather
than parents who negotiate with officials and bureaucracy, and who speak
for the family, thus taking on leadership roles in their family that
would normally be taken on by parents (McQuillan and Tse 1995;
Oznobishin and Kurman 2009; Puig 2002; Trickett and lones 2007; Walsh et
al. 2006). Hampshire and colleagues proposed that role reversals may be
even more prevalent in families that have negotiated war and armed
conflict, because youth are more adaptable to changes and more
resourceful in responding to them than their older family members
(Hampshire et al. 2008).
Role reversals have been associated with higher levels of
psychological distress and family disagreements (Oznobishin and Kurman
2009; Trickett and Jones 2007). Children and parents report feeling
embarrassed by the parents' problems negotiating their environment,
which can lead to rejection of parents by the children (Puig 2002).
However, the contribution that children make to their families have also
been seen as beneficial, not only to the family, but to the youth
themselves (Fuligni 1998; Fuligni and Pederson 2002). Participating in
meaningful work that benefits their families and communities is a
learning experience that can increase children's sense of
self-worth and competency (Orellana 2001), improve their language
learning, cultural knowledge and cognitive skills, and increase their
feelings of independence and maturity (McQuillan and Tse 1995). Trickett
and Jones (2007) noted that families in which youth engaged in more
cultural brokering reported increased family adjustment to their
environment, without any reported decreases in family-level cohesion or
satisfaction.
Relationship Deterioration
Migrant parents can report sadness and frustration at their loss of
respect in the family, and negotiating parental authority can be a major
area of conflict (Dennis et al. 2009; Dubus 2010; Hwang 2006; Puig
2002). For refugee families, parents' powerlessness to protect
their children from systemic violence and harassment can undermine their
authority in the eyes of their children (Boydon et al. 2002; Newman
2005), as can parents' relative inability to provide for their
families' material needs, both in refugee camps and following
migration (Hampshire et al. 2008). Some research suggests that parents
may try to compensate for their feelings of lost status by demanding
complete control over their adolescents (Newman 2005).
In contrast, Hwang (2006) suggests that differences in values and
language may challenge effective intergenerational communication, which
may, in turn, result in increasing distance and further erosion of
communication. This is consistent with the evidence, noted above, that
it is perceptions of intergenerational differences in beliefs, skills,
and behaviours, as well as value conflicts, that may be the best
predictors of family conflict (Dinh and Nguyen 2006). Relationships may
also be eroded by conflicting work and education schedules that prevent
children and parents from spending rime together, thus increasing the
psychological distance between them (Este and Tachble 2009a, 2009b; Puig
2002). Cuban refugees in Puig's (2002) study explicitly attributed
some of their family conflict and loss of connectedness with their
adolescent children to a lack of shared rime. Refugees' experience
of prolonged periods of separation in the family can also increase both
psychological distance and erosion of parental authority, as children
learn to cope and make decisions in their parents' absence (Este
and Tachble 2009b; Williams 2010).
Resources and Support
While intergenerational relationships may be negatively affected by
the process of forced migration, these relationships are also a source
of mutual support, resources, and strength (Whittaker et al. 2005). The
presence and support of family members is perceived as essential to
well-being by immigrant and refugee youth, and has been associated with
better mental health among them (Hampshire et al. 2008; Merz et al.
2009; Tempany 2009; Whittaker et al. 2005). The role of parents in
providing social support in migrant families may be particularly
critical because of elevated levels of stress and social challenges
brought on by migration. In a study comparing immigrant youth from the
former Soviet Union with non-immigrant Israeli youth, only immigrant
youth showed a positive relationship between the strength of their
relationship with their parents and their ability to cope with stressful
life events (Walsh et al. 2006). Similarly, Oznobishin and Kurman (2009)
found only immigrant Israeli youth who reported low (versus high)
support from their families showed a negative relationship between the
amount of language brokering they engaged in for their parents and their
perceived personal competence and agency (i.e., self-efficacy).
Youth benefit from the support of their families, but they also
make important contributions to the well-being of their family.
Youths' skill at mediating between their parents and others are
seen as improving the outcomes for the entire family by youth and
parents alike (McQuillan and Tse 1995; Orellana 2001; Trickett and Jones
2007). In his review of immigrant youth adjustment, Fuligni (1998) notes
that youth not only contribute resources to the family through chores
and assistance, but often through academic achievement, seeing their
academic success as eventually bringing benefits and resources to the
family as a whole.
The Present Study
The literature suggests that youth play an important role in
migrant families, largely because of their more rapid adaptation to
cultural systems and norms, and language acquisition. While this is well
documented, there is debate in the literature about whether youths'
faster rate of change comes at a cost, with larger intergenerational
differences in rates of change associated with increasing conflict and
alienation in the family and with the potential role reversals
disrupting family roles and authority. The present study explores
whether differential changes and role reversals result in negative
family outcomes in the context of newcomer refugee youth from three
communities: Afghan, Karen and Sudanese.
METHOD
Participants
Seventy participants were recruited using a number of strategies:
distribution of flyers to community centers and student associations,
presentations at schools with high numbers of newcomer youth students,
Facebook invitations, announcements at youth-focused events, word of
mouth, and face-to-face or telephone contacts. Potential participants
were youth 16 to 24 years old who self-identified as belonging to the
Afghan, Karen or Sudanese communities, and who had come to Canada within
the last 5 years as Government Assisted Refugees, Privately Sponsored
Refugees or through the in-Canada refugee claimant process.
We intended to conduct four gender-specific and age-specific (16-19
year and 20-24 year) focus groups per community. Only 10 of the 12 focus
groups were conducted; recruitment challenges made it impossible to
conduct focus groups with the younger Sudanese youth. Focus groups
included 4 to 7 participants (N = 57) and were facilitated by trained
peer researchers who came from the same community. Participant
characteristics for the focus groups are described in Table 1.
We also conducted 13 individual follow up interviews to explore in
more detail the issues that had been raised in the focus groups. The
interviews were with five Afghan youth (1 female, age 16-19; 2 male, age
16-19; 1 female, age 20-24; 1 male, age 20-24), five Karen youth (2
female, age 16-19 ;1 male, age 16-19; 2 female, age 20-24) and three
Sudanese youth (1 male, age 16-19; 2 female, age 20-24). Only gender,
ethnic group, and age category demographic information was collected in
the interviews.
Procedures
This community-based research study was a collaboration between
academics, community partners, and eight refugee youth peer researchers
from the three communities, who were equal partners in the design,
planning and analysis of the project, and partners and co-leads on most
academic and non-academic dissemination activities (depending on their
availability following project completion). An advisory committee
comprised of academics and community members who were knowledgeable
about the three communities provided guidance to the team regarding
participant recruitment, interview and focus group protocols, and the
study report. Ethics approval was obtained from the appropriate agencies
prior to study onset.
The focus groups began with participants drawing a picture of
themselves before and after coming to Canada, and listing their roles
and responsibilities both before and after migration. The pictures were
a starting point for a discussion of these responsibilities, and of the
supports and services they currently used, and those that they felt they
needed in order to meet their goals and responsibilities. All focus
group discussions were conducted in the participants' first
language except in the case of Sudanese participants, who participated
in English. All were audio-taped and, where necessary, translated into
English. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview
protocol that probed more deeply into these issues, and included
specific probes about gendered roles and responsibilities. Data were
analyzed in NVivo using inductive thematic analysis (Bryman 2001) by
reading and coding transcripts sentence by sentence, and by searching
for recurring themes in the data. A draft coding scheme was discussed
and developed by the entire research team and then applied to half of
the data. The team then reviewed the coding and additional transcripts
with the main coder and discussed changes or adjustments to the coding
scheme. The identified subcategories were compared and contrasted to
determine commonalities and variations, and to develop categories.
RESULTS
Three overarching themes emerged from focus groups in the
discussion of their relationships with their parents. These were: family
responsibilities; relationship conflict and deterioration; and social
support. These are discussed in detail below.
Family Responsibilities
Youth reported acting as interpreters of the new environment for
their parents and grandparents; of providing financial support to the
family; of having more work but the same kinds of responsibilities as
prior to migration; of achieving growth through increased
responsibility; and of providing emotional and moral support for their
family.
Interpreting the New Environment
Because of their greater facility with English, youth had
interpretation and system navigation responsibilities following
migration such as accompanying family members to medical appointments,
reading letters, banking, and otherwise taking on additional tasks as an
intermediary between their parents and grandparents and organizations
and institutions outside of the family, as is described in the quote
below.
Because in my particular case, when my father came here, he
doesn't know English and neither does my mother. Before, when we
were in another county, my father knew their language, and he was almost
responsible for everything. But here, because I and my brother know
English more and better than my father, then our responsibility
increases as well. We have to take our grandmother and our father to
doctors' appointments and also solve the problems at home. Here the
responsibilities fall more on the children because they learn English
much faster, that's why. (Afghan Female Focus Group, age 16-19)
Youth were aware that some of their increasing responsibility is a
product of being older. However, the changes were also due to their
greater understanding of the language and culture, and included tasks
that they would not have been expected to do if they had not migrated.
Youth also spoke of having to interpret technology for parents who were
unfamiliar with computers.
Providing Financial Support to the Family
One big difference youth noticed was the need to contribute
financially to the family. Many had been contributing to the family
prior to migration through other means, such as helping around the house
or, in the case of the Karen youth, collecting food and tending
livestock. In contrast, as one youth noted in the quote below, in Canada
youth had to work because their parents could not support the family
financially.
Huge difference because back home you tend to rely on your parents.
Don't have to think about your financials. Just school work. But
here you are not going to base everything on your parents because no
matter how educated your parents are there is no good jobs here compared
to how they used to work back home and bring everything in as a source
of income. Here they have to struggle on their own so we are not going
to sit backward and rely on them. So there is more responsibility here
than ever compared to back home. (Sudanese Female Focus Group, age
20-24).
Youth also spoke of sending money back to other family members, and
of the desire to send money back to the community they had come from in
order to help rebuild it. Several youth spoke about the role of being
the oldest male, in the absence of their father, and the
responsibilities that this entailed for them, including working to
secure a family income. These cases are the most consistent with the
notion of role reversal.
Same But Increased Responsibilities
Although many youth spoke of taking on new tasks, others reported
that they had the same responsibilities in Canada as they had prior to
migration, particularly with respect to helping their parents. In the
following quote from a Karen youth, she discusses how her
responsibilities are very similar in Canada, although her environment is
very different.
Before I came to Canada, I lived in Mae La Oo camp. In the morning
I woke up, cooked, washed clothes, cleaned house and went to school. In
the evening, came back home, read books and slept. After I came to
Canada, I now live in apartment. I go to school, also cook, clean house,
wash clothes. (Karen Female Focus Group, age 16-19)
Thus, while they might be busier in Canada because they had more
schoolwork or a part-time job, their responsibility to their family, and
in many cases their chores at home, remained essentially the same.
However, youth felt that they were busier. Often this was because before
migration they had done these tasks with their parents, whereas after
migration they did them on their own. Moreover, while responsibilities
may have been of the same kind, the social context in which they were
carried out was very different. As a result, the meanings and
definitions of success were radically altered and expectations
increased. As one youth remarked:
... the expectations are higher.... They expect me to provide more.
They expect me to ... do more than I was doing before. (Sudanese Female
Interview, age 20-24)
Positive Change
In many cases, the youth spoke of their added family
responsibilities and new roles as simply a fact of their present
circumstances, with no negative evaluation. One interesting but less
common theme was that these added responsibilities, both at home and
outside of the home, led to personal growth or greater feelings of
self-worth or competence. The following quote from an Afghan male
describes it well:
Well now like I feel I am more important to, like, my family and,
and everything and my brother and sister, 'cause I really help them
with, like, their homeworks and everything. So like I feel that I'm
more important for it. (Afghan Male Interview, age 20-24)
Other youth spoke of the importance of helping other newcomers,
refugees, and members of their community, and how positively they felt
about these activities.
Summary of Family Responsibilities
These findings highlight youths' agency and resilience in the
migration process. These youth are actively problem-solving for
themselves and their families, taking increased responsibilities in
accordance with their greater facility with the Canadian environment.
They are clearly taking leadership roles in their families, which
benefits the family as a whole. Some youth reported explicitly stepping
into parental roles, suggesting that role reversals were occurring. In
general, however, rather than speaking of these responsibilities as a
burden, youth seem to take them on as part of their growth into
adulthood and as a natural part of being in their family.
Relationship Conflict and Deterioration
A critical question is whether youths' leadership in the
family was perceived as a lack of respect for their parents'
knowledge and authority. While there was little frustration expressed
over the added roles and responsibilities these youth took on, there
were other challenges that came up in their relationships with their
parents. Two main themes emerged: a lack of connection between family
members; and disagreements about freedom and control.
Lack of Communication and Understanding
Difficulties in communicating with their parents could make it
challenging to solve problems or disagreements. Some youth reported that
their parents did not trust their ability to make decisions for
themselves, and did not understand their needs or intentions. These
issues came up most frequently among the 16 to 19 year-old female Karen
group. The youth attributed this problem to cultural norms about
parent-child relationships, which may have acted as barriers to families
openly communicating about intergenerational differences in
expectations, challenges and values, as noted in the quote below:
In the Karen culture, parents and children do not have a
relationship like friends. Mother is mother and child is child. This is
one of the barriers to communicate openly. When you try to speak and
make them know [some]thing, it look as though you ... try to show off
and teach them. (Karen Female Focus Group, age 16-19)
While some youth stated that their parents needed to be educated in
order to better understand their children, other youth located the need
for education in both the youth and their parents.
Youth from other communities noted that their relationships had
become more distant because of a lack of time to spend together. Family
members spent less time socializing and more time working, often
independently and away from home, and family intimacy suffered as a
result. There were other youth, however, who reported that their
feelings of intimacy and connectedness to their families remained the
same or even grew closer as a result of migrating.
Freedom and Control
As with most adolescents, a key area of disagreement was around
adolescent freedom and parental authority. Once again, this theme was
more prominent among the Karen youth group. The following exchange in a
Karen focus group highlights this challenge:
F1: How do you see the power of parents upon their children?
P2: I do not think it is good at all. They take too much power
beyond limit. Because you are their children, they want to control you
and exercise their power on you. When you challenge them, they will beat
you up because you are just their children. They take all the power.
F1: How do others see it?
P4: What she said is how I see it.
F1: Because you are their children, does that mean you have no
right at all?
P4: You have to do exactly according to their orders. If they say
black, you should be black and if they say white, you should be white.
(Karen Female Focus Group, age 16-19)
Some youth disagreed with their parents' authority and
defended their right to freedom. Youth from all communities also talked
about how children were more likely to resist their parents'
efforts at control in Canada than prior to migration. For example, youth
reported that other youth in their communities would threaten to call
the police if parents used corporal punishment as a form of discipline,
and youth could take advantage of their parents' lack of
English-language facility to avoid or reject their parents'
authority.
Some youth, particularly in the Afghan community, spoke of other
youth taking the "wrong path." They attributed this to
choosing the wrong friends, or the temptations and dangers of living in
a country that offers too much freedom. These youth spoke about the
negative consequences of not respecting parents' values and not
abiding by parents' authority.
Variability Within Families
A common theme was the acknowledgement that intergenerational
relationships varied widely from family to family within each community.
Youth in the focus groups compared their family relationships, rules,
responsibilities, authority, communication and connectedness and offered
examples of how their families differed. The breadth of difference
within these communities is demonstrated by the following exchange in a
Karen focus group about dating non-Karen boys, which most girls said was
forbidden.
P6: My parents give me full freedom. (Other participants were
laughing at her comment). I can do whatever I like. They say it is up to
me whether I want to love Karen and/or non-Karen guys. My parents give
me full freedom. The most important thing is LOVE and UNDERSTANDING in
our family, this is fine.
P3: As for my parents, they check our movement and forbid our
relationship if they know that that person is not suitable for us. If
that person is good for us but they still forbid, we explain to them and
they understand us. It is no problem. It is not that they abuse us or
anything. And we do not displease them either. (Karen Female Focus
Group, age 16-19)
Although this finding is not surprising, it is an important
reminder of the diversity within these communities.
Summary of Relationship Conflict and Deterioration
Some youth reported feeling more disconnected from their families
following migration, while others reported no changes, or even that
migration improved family dynamics and family connectedness. Where
family conflict occurred for refugee youth, it was associated with the
same kinds of variables that have been identified among non-refugee
youth, namely lack of communication and understanding, and struggles
over adolescent freedom from authority. However, it could be aggravated
by intergenerational differences in values and expectations. Conflict
was particularly salient among the Karen youth, who reported that their
parents' control might have been acceptable prior to migration, but
was less acceptable to them in Canada. Youth in the Afghan and Sudanese
focus groups and interviews reported that they them-selves accepted
parental control, and agreed that parental control was important for
youth well-being, but spoke of many other youth in their communities who
rejected their parents' values and authority.
Social Support
Support to Parents
Some youth expressed concern that their parents' sense of
self-worth was challenged by their difficulties in adapting to Canada,
and that not speaking English aggravated their parents' social
isolation. Youth were unsure how to help their parents in these
circumstances. In part it was because they felt unable to ease their
parents' loss, or did not have the time to spend with them. In
other situations it was because their efforts to help could be seen as
further undermining their parents' sense of self-respect and
self-worth. The following quote from a participant in the Karen focus
group reveals the difficulties that the youth faced in trying to help
their parents adapt.
If we try to teach them, they themselves do not feel good about
themselves. My father is exactly like that always. Whatever we tell our
father, he says that because he does not understand English, he.... I
don't know what to say. (Karen Female Focus Group, age 16-19)
Support From Parents
Youth also spoke about the role their parents played in providing
close emotional bonds and support. In many cases, this was in terms of
providing advice and helping youth with their decisions. Some youth were
clear that their parents were the most important source of advice and
emotional support for them. This theme did not come up as frequently as
expected, though, and other youth did not spontaneously offer
information about their parents as a source of support. When the
facilitator probed about support from family, participants offered
examples, but some seemed to feel that their parents' support to
them was limited.
The limited discussion of parents as a source of support is
interesting. It is not clear whether the questions about support led
youth to think of more formal sources of support, or whether older youth
turn more to peers for support than parents. It is also possible that
youth felt that parental support was so obvious as to not require
naming. Nonetheless, many youth were not as forthcoming with examples of
parental support as with other forms, such as support from peers or
school staff. It is possible that as youth take greater leadership in
their families, they begin to see themselves more as support providers
to their families than support recipients, which relates to the idea of
role reversals.
DISCUSSION
The results indicate that newcomer refugee youth played a vital
role as "resettlement champions" for their families in Canada.
Since youth generally acquired knowledge of the language and social
systems of Canada more quickly than their parents and other older family
members, refugee youth took on a number of resettlement
responsibilities, including serving as interpreters and system
navigators for their families. Also, because their parents often faced
acute difficulties in finding jobs, youth stepped in and entered the
labour market to support their families, sometimes suggesting role
reversals. The need for families to rely on youth for support is a
natural outgrowth of Canadian refugee policies which, apart from an
initial year of financial and settlement service support, do not address
the need to build educational, professional and political capacities
among refugees. Youths' leadership in resettlement, however, did
not have negative consequences for family relationships.
Consistent with other research on migrant family relationships
(Trickett and Jones 2007), for some youth, family conflict did seem to
arise out of differential acquisition of language, norms and values.
Similarly, and also consistent with some other North American studies
(Birman 2006), youths' competence in English, and with Canadian
culture more generally, was at times a source of tension in the family
since some youth attributed their own or other youths' rejection of
parents' authority to parents' lack of understanding of the
Canadian context. Parents, of course, may have perceived this
differently. It was also clear, however, that differential rates of
change and even role reversals did not necessarily lead to conflict.
Moreover, youths' interpreting the local social context for their
families did not necessarily lead to role reversals. Several continued
to rely on their parents for support and advice, and believed that
parents, and parental values, played an important role in guiding youth
in their community.
Some research suggests differential rates of change may only be
problematic when youth feel a lack of support from their parents, and
this may be tied to larger challenges faced by the families (Oznobishin
and Kurman 2009). For example, Su and Hynie's (2010) research
suggests that there is a relationship between stress and punitive (i.e.,
authoritarian) parenting. In the current study, the group that spoke
most about family conflict also reported more authoritarian parenting,
criticism from their parents, and the sense that their parents perceived
them as inadequate. The pattern observed in this group may have
reflected a dynamic whereby parents were more focused on controlling
their children in the face of greater stress, and inadequate resources
to cope with these stressors. This, in turn, may have led youth to
reject their parents' control, attributing it to intergenerational
differences in interpreting the cultural setting (cf. Newman 2005).
Many youth spoke positively about the leadership role they adopted
in their family and community. Moreover, these resettlement
responsibilities made important contributions to their family's
day-to-day well-being in Canada. However, while fulfilling family
obligations may contribute to a positive sense of self-worth and
self-efficacy (Fuligni and Pederson 2002), many youth talked about
having to juggle multiple resettlement responsibilities with educational
and other priorities that are common among those in their age groups
(Shakya et al. 2011). The challenge in these role reversals may not come
from restructuring family relationships, but the high levels of stress
placed on these youth.
This leadership role in resettlement that refugee youth are taking
on for their families treads a thin line between empowerment and
vulnerability. There is a need to acknowledge and build on this
leadership role of refugee youth and recognize youths' agency and
resiliency in the settlement process. However, the fact that refugee
youth end up taking on such significant responsibilities for their
families is indicative of major policy gaps in settlement and other
services. Refugee youth are being pressed to step in and take on tasks
and support for their families that should have been provided by
settlement or other agencies. These failures need to be urgently
rectified in order to empower refugee youth and their families. Some
differential changes in values and expectations, and even role reversal,
may be unavoidable, but need not be harmful to the family. However,
policy makers and settlement sector leaders need to provide adequate
professional support and implement capacity-building policies for
refugee families, so that youth are not forced to take on such heavy
roles and responsibilities, and we do not end up exploiting these
youths' resilience.
CONCLUSION
Youth from three refugee communities in Toronto all reported taking
on a large number of responsibilities in their families following
migration, many of which can be attributed to their faster acculturation
to the language and culture, but also to the challenges their parents
faced in achieving adequate services and employment. Nonetheless, most
youth did not report increased conflict or relationship deterioration
arising from these responsibilities. Where youth did report
intergenerational conflict, it seemed to occur in a context of greater
efforts at parental control and less support, which could have been the
result of greater stress for these families. These findings suggest that
refugee families and youth are resilient and resourceful, and play key
roles in family resettlement. However, the burden of these roles is
greater than necessary, and could be reduced through improved services
and policies for refugee families.
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MICHAELA HYNIE is a social and cultural psychologist in the
Department of Psychology, York University, and the Associate Director of
the York Institute for Health Research. Dr. Hynie conducts local and
international research on social support, community and social networks
as determinants of health and mental health, and on interventions that
build and strengthen interpersonal and community relationships. She also
studies the role of culture and migration status on mental health and on
health care access in immigrant and refugee communities in Canada using
mixed methods and community-based research approaches.
SEPALI GURUGE is Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at
Ryerson University. Using a number of approaches, including social
determinants of health, ecosystemic frameworks, and feminist theoretical
perspectives, Dr. Guruge's research focuses on immigrant
women's health. In particular, she examines violence against women
throughout the migration process (i.e., pre-migration, border-crossing,
and post-migration contexts). Presently, her program of research is
supported by a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of
Health Research. Dr. Guruge is editor (along with Dr. Enid Collins) of
the book, Working with Immigrant Women: Issues and Strategies for Mental
Health Professionals (published by the Centre for Addiction and Mental
Health, Toronto, 2008).
YOGENDRA B. SHAKYA is Senior Research Scientist at Access Alliance
Multicultural Health and Community Services, and Assistant Professor
(status only) at Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of
Toronto. Dr. Shakya's research focuses on examining the critical
determinants of health for newcomer communities (particularly
employment, education, discrimination, and access/ quality of
healthcare), racialized health disparities, and refugee mental health.
He is a recognized leader in implementing and promoting community-based
research practices and has led a number of multi-phase community-based
research projects on newcomer health.
TABLE 1. Demographic Characteristics for Youth in Focus Groups
Religion:
Mean Live Understand Muslim/
years in with English Christian/
Group N Canada family "very well" Buddhist
Afghan
16-19 F 7 2.4 7 3 6/0/0
16-19 M 5 1.0 3 4 5/0/0
20-24 F 6 2.5 5 3 6/0/0
20-24 M 6 0.5 2 1 6/0/0
Karen
16-19 F 6 2.5 5 0 0/5/1
16-19 M 7 1.8 6 0 0/6/1
20-24 F 5 2.0 4 0 0/5/0
20-24 M 5 1.2 4 0 0/4/1
Sudanese
20-24 F 4 2.3 4 3 2/2/0
20-24 M 6 2.8 2 4 2/4/0
Student at
High School/
Is a University/
Group Employed student ESL/College *
Afghan
16-19 F 2 5 5/0/1/0
16-19 M 0 5 5/0/0/0
20-24 F 0 3 0/0/3/1
20-24 M 1 4 1/1/3/1
Karen
16-19 F 2 6 6/0/0/0
16-19 M 3 4 5/0/1/0
20-24 F 2 5 2/0/3/0
20-24 M 3 2 0/0/4/0
Sudanese
20-24 F 2 4 0/3/0/1
20-24 M 3 6 0/6/0/0
* Some youth reported more than one place of current education.
