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The civil war prompted many Tamils to flee Sri Lanka as refugees. Several researchers have documented psychological distress and trauma among Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, but the literature lacks sufficient discussion of resilience among this population. Although Sri Lankan Tamil refugees have experienced conflict and loss, they have also demonstrated positive adaptation following these challenges. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

The present study used an ecological approach, in which the effect of the environment on a person is regarded as significant, to explore resilience among Sri Lankan Tamils living in refugee camps in India.

Through a qualitative investigation of refugee experiences of war and camp life, the authors developed a conceptual framework for understanding individual and collective resilience among refugees.

Additionally, the results of this study need to be interpreted with caution because participants were camp refugees, which may limit the applicability of these results with refugees who live in different settings.

The current research results show that intervention programs should have multiple components, including trauma intervention to address the individual and community psychological and psychiatric effects of war and migration experiences and psychosocial interventions to address individual, family, community dynamics and daily stressors.

The study participants stated that Sri Lankan Tamil refugees are using their resilience traits including will power, positive talk, practical solutions, social support, religion and social networks to remake their broken souls.

Future studies need to be conducted with other refugee group to validate the findings of the paper.

This review aims to examine the literature on refugees’ and asylum seekers’ resilience, its historical evolution, key principles, assumptions and recommendations, while focusing on the Canadian context.

A narrative literature review has been applied to this manuscript. This approach allows the integration of a wide scope of literature and perspectives, from academic literature to grey literature (e.g. governmental reports and dissertations). Nevertheless, the limitations of this type of review were also discussed.

In spite of the gaining popularity of the resilience lens, which emphasizes an individual’s ability to overcome adversities and stressful events, more work is required for its effective integration into health practice, programs and policies, particularly as it relates to refugees’ and asylum seekers’ mental health care.

Careful consideration of refugees’ and asylum seekers’ mental health needs and Canadian mental health service delivery and policies is a critical first step in reaching such a goal.

The purpose of this paper is to to understand Burmese refugees’ resilience in the USA, as well as to explore the potential contributions of arts- or movement-based interviews (movement elicitation (ME)) to the exploration of the immigration experience.

A qualitative case study was used for this pilot study (n=3), with verbal interviews combined with a ME procedure. ME is guided expressive movement that is engaged within verbal interviews. Utilizing ME involved probing interview responses to clarify and deepen the themes related to the resilience of Burmese refugees. Further, thematic analysis was conducted to identify themes within the interviews as related to the resilience of Burmese refugees.

Eight themes emerged from analysis of verbal interviews. Four themes pertained to adversities faced during the resettlement experience: financial and employment-based problems; racial issues and discrimination; challenges in adjustment and acculturation; and rough, unsafe neighborhoods. Four themes described the elements promoting Burmese refugees’ resilience: acquiring functional skills; drawing upon personal qualities; finding a sense of identity in family and beliefs; and accepting social support.

This study describes the resilience of refugees from Burma in the USA, with additional focus on how body and movement may serve as resources for coping, and thus provides information on the development of a framework for mental health assessment and intervention during refugees’ integration in their resettlement country.

Resilience is an increasingly important concept that contributes to sustainability and wellbeing of a community. Asset-based community development (ABCD) may offer promising approaches to boosting community resilience in Australia, especially within marginalised groups.

A scoping review was conducted to conceptualise existing literature on ABCD approaches to building resilience. Research databases were searched with relevant details.

Thirty-three sources were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria and were reviewed in terms of six themes: integration and identity, health, mental health, education, employment and community planning. Issues identified by the literature within these themes can be alleviated through asset-based approaches. Implications for planning of asset-based programs and policy change are discussed in light of the findings.

The results of this study provide several implications for practise, policy recommendations and future research into this area. Results suggest that increasing capacity around asset-based coping mechanisms, such as support networks through religious and cultural groups, would promote community development and foster resilience. Furthermore, policy on refugees in multiple areas, such as psychological service provision and employment, should be redesigned in a way that acknowledges their complex and diverse needs and facilitates their integration into the community. Though multiple ways to achieve this goal have been explored in literature, a sustained and broader approach is necessary to see widespread change. Further research and funding are required to explore and implement appropriate responses. Based on the findings and discussion above, the authors make the following policy recommendations. Service providers need to be aware of and incorporate culturally appropriate programs in the areas of mental health assessment and intervention, education and employment. The trauma-informed approach should be used when dealing with refugee groups and other groups who have faced hardships. Government policy should focus on improving community engagement to create and strengthen social networks, which are vital in boosting integration into the community and increasing health education and access to services. Government should focus on asset-based approaches in designing education and employment integration programs to promote social belonging and community engagement, and thus, community resilience, which will consequently have beneficial individual and group outcomes. The current governmental policy surrounding refugees should be overhauled with the goal of successful refugee integration in mind, such as incorporating the ability for refugees to access vital services such as employment and skills transferability programs. Due to current policy, these services are inaccessible to a large portion of refugees, hindering their integration. Government needs to create specific guidelines for the provision of psychological services to refugees to improve the quality of mental health services available to this group.

This paper comprises an original data analysis of the relevant existing literature by the project team. The process was rigorous, and no content of the analysis has been published previously except the material published by other authors. All previously published materials were duly acknowledged.

This paper explores social resilience through the lenses of migration. It specifically studies the role of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps which are human settlements characterized by a transient and heterogeneous community with unique vulnerabilities. These settlements are managed through exceptional governance arrangements between hegemonic and counter-hegemonic humanitarian organizations.

Empirical evidences are drawn from the Office of Displaced Designers (ODD), a design-focused creative integration organization active on Lesvos island. During one-month ethnographic research with ODD, empirical data were harvested through an extensive review of project archive materials including transcripts and audio files of interviews with project participants and collaborators conducted by ODD, architectural drawings and teaching materials, photo and video archives and administrative documents. The ethnographic research was complemented with semi-structured interviews with the founding members and former volunteers and partners of ODD; key site visits to the Moria Hotspot and the surrounding Olive Groves; as well as a desk study on European Union (EU) policies and legislative papers and legal information regarding the asylum seeker application procedure in Europe and Greece.

Reflecting on the potential and limitations of community architects in building socially resilient refugee camps, the paper concludes that in order for community architects to make long lasting improvements they must think holistically and design flexible structural solutions for the entire camp, leverage existing expertise within communities and assist other organizations through administrative, financial and design consultancy support. Community architects are also expected to take active roles in forming pro-equity governance structures and steering pro-resilient humanitarian trajectories by acting as mediators, lobbying their partners, advocating for inclusive practices and social spaces and documenting their projects to build an evidence base across practices and contexts and to strengthen their voice as a collective of community architects.

The role of community architects in building socially resilient human settlements in post-disaster place-based recovery processes has been widely discussed in the disaster scholarship. These studies have primarily emphasized permanent and in situ reconstruction efforts in disaster-affected areas. What remains limitedly discussed is the resilience-building potential of community architects in extraterritorial temporary human settlements characterized by displacement and temporality such as in refugee camps. In light of these observations, the aim of this paper is to push the boundaries of knowledge on post-crisis recovery by re-approaching the notion of social resilience from a migratory perspective and revealing the potential and limitations of community architects in fostering socially resilient refugee camps in new (national) territories.

Refugee and immigrant youth (RIY) experience multifaceted challenges, but also have the potential to become resilient. Most of the existing literature focuses on the challenges these RIY face with limited attention to their agency and resilience. This study aims to assess the factors that predict RIY’s resilience among refugee and immigrant youth in Montreal, Canada.

A sample of 93 RIY in Montreal was surveyed. A questionnaire consisting of validated scales was used for data collection.

The study found a positive correlation between educational level, personal resilience and relational resilience (p < 0.001). However, ethnicity did not have a significant correlation with the participant’s general level of resilience (p > 0.001). Cultural, religious, family, community ties, age and time lived in Montréal were found to be predictors of general resilience, relational resilience and personal resilience of the RIY (p < 0.001).

The study concluded that factors such as cultural, religious and community ties are major predictors of the resilience of RIY in Montreal. Hence, the need for mental health practitioners and resettlement organizations that work with RIY to focus on reconceptualizing resilience to incorporate the cultural, religious and community ties of RIY. This will help in developing services and programs that are culturally sensitive and effective in fostering the resilience of RIY.

The purpose of this paper is to address how young unaccompanied refugees in Norway actively engage in interpersonal relationships. It explores the significance of these relationships in doing well following adversity, according to the young people’s own perspectives.

This study is based on a qualitative research design. Data were derived through a combination of participant observation, interviews and research workshops inspired by participatory methods. In total, 12 young unaccompanied refugees, aged 15–20, residing in Norway, participated in the study.

Participants described actively searching for help and support in order to do well. In addition, they showed concern for others and often described an explicit intention of helping. They engaged in relationships of mutual support and helped others through acts of kindness or social involvement. Nevertheless, the relationships were not only a source of happiness, safety and well-being, but also of pain and worry.

Social workers who want to strengthen the resilience of young unaccompanied refugees should consider and build on the young people’s capacity for involvement and mutual support.

This study offers a unique analysis of young unaccompanied refugees’ engagement in relationships and the significance of these relationships in doing well following adversity.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and explore the concept of information resilience.

The concept of information resilience emerges from a qualitative study that explored the health information experience and information practices of resettling refugees. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were employed and the data collected were analysed using an grounded theory approach.

The present study describes information resilience as an outcome of information literacy practice. As an emerging concept information resilience has the potential to focus research attention towards the critical role that information and information practices such as information literacy have in supporting people whose knowledge bases, social networks and information landscapes have become disrupted during transition.

Public libraries role in support the development of information resilience is considered.

The paper draws from a study of the health information experiences of refugees during resettlement (Lloyd, 2014). The concept of information resilience emerges as an outcome of information literacy practice, for people whose knowledge base has become disrupted; and, who because of this disruption, must engage with new information environments and construct new information landscapes to rebuild social capital and bridge the transition into a new community.

Introduces the concept of information resilience as a focal point for investigating transition from an information studies perspective.

Since March 2020, the global COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted refugees by compounding preexisting and systemic health, social and economic inequities. In Canada, approximately 50,000 Syrian refugees arrived between 2015 and 2020 and were in the process of rebuilding their lives when the pandemic started. This study aims to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic for Syrian refugees in Canada and identify supports needed.

Drawing on frameworks for refugee psychosocial adaptation and social integration and a qualitative descriptive design, the study used thematic analysis to examine semi-structured interviews with 10 Syrians.

Findings indicated four themes that provide a snapshot of impacts relatively early in the pandemic: facing ongoing development, inequity and insecurity during integration; disruption of settlement, integration and adaptation due to the pandemic; ongoing adaptation and resilience during integration in Canada; and ongoing needs and solutions for integration and adaptation.

This study builds upon growing research concerning Syrian refugees and psychosocial adaptation, particularly during the pandemic. The findings highlight the impacts of the pandemic on a population already facing inequities in a resettlement country. While the findings emphasize the resilience of the Syrian refugee community, the study also demonstrates the need for ongoing supports and justice-oriented action to fulfill resettlement commitments, especially in the face of additional stressors like the COVID-19 pandemic. Implications for policy, practice and future research are discussed.

How can schools, specifically school leaders, be an integral part in helping students from refugee backgrounds build resilience in their new settings? The following literature review has been written to give a brief overview of the refugee-resettlement process in US history, how things have developed with the study of posttraumatic stress disorder, and how school leaders can work with students who may have suffered from traumatic experiences. It is concluded with some suggestions for schools and school leaders on how to work with refugee students and their families. With a refugee crisis around the globe, this study is part of a growing body of research regarding the issue of refugee resettlement; specifically, how school leaders can be involved in the resettlement process of refugee students. Continued research is needed that will continue to build on the current body of knowledge around this vital issue affecting so many today.