Lisa Maree Joyce & Pranee Liamputtong (2017) “‘When you wear that jersey you feel like a family’: Community participation, social capital and the settlement of young refugees in regional Australia”

Purpose

Each year, young refugees make up seventy percent of Australia’s humanitarian intake. A growing number of these young people are settling in regional areas of Australia. The services and social support available to refugees in regional areas differ to that found in metropolitan areas. In this paper, we examine the social experiences of young refugees in regional Australia. Specifically, we explored the role of social capital and its impact on regional settlement experiences for young refugees.

Design/methodology/approach

Qualitative in-depth interviews and photo elicitation methods were conducted with sixteen Congolese young people with refugee backgrounds living in an Australian regional town. Thematic analysis method was used to analyse the data.

Keywords:

Congolese, Young refugees, Regional settlement, Social capital, Community participation

Feature image taken by Flickr under Creative Commons Licence – the original can be accessed here.

To read the article in full please follow the link or see below.