The meaning of resettlement: Burmese political refugees in Vancouver

The increasing number of political refugees to Canada has raised questions regarding their resettlement, adaptation, and mental well-being. Nurses and other health care and social service professionals do not know enough about the psychological adaptation of this refugee type. This may result in nurses and other health care and social service professionals planning and providing care that is not relevant to their specific needs, thereby increasing political refugees' risk of adaptation problems and poor mental health. Recognizing that refugee adaptation and mental health is affected by multiple interrelated factors including the way in which one perceives experience, the purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of the resettlement experience from the perspective of Burmese political refugees in Vancouver. Phenomenology, a qualitative research methodology, was used in this study. Data were derived through a series of in-depth interviews with five Burmese refugees and three key informants. Participants shared information of their past and present realities which provided a contextual basis for understanding their experiences. Participant observation data and reflection of the researcher's personal experiences working with Burmese refugees in exile reinforced the formal interview findings and provided a broader context for interpretation. Analysis of interview data reveal an experience that can be conceived of as one of both loss and reconstruction, challenges and opportunities. The participants mourn the loss of their identity, their culture, and the social, economic, and political status that they once commanded. They grieve the loss of family support. Factors such as past traumatic experiences involving violence and persecution, their identity as educated revolutionaries, occupational hardship, language difficulties, and isolation from a well-established ethnic community are seen as important influences on the participants' sense of loss. These factors are, in tum, influenced by international and national policies. While the refugees grieve for the multitudinal losses that their resettlement represents, they also rejoice in the opportunities that living in Canada is giving them. Resettlement to Canada means their future holds some form of hope. Resettlement is viewed as an opportunity to learn, to develop new skills, and, most importantly, to reestablish themselves as revolutionaries who will, one day, return to their homeland. This sense of opportunity provides the refugees with the strength to cope with the stresses of living in a foreign environment and allows them to rationalize the losses of the past. The participants' identity as political refugees is an important variable influencing this sense of opportunity and the larger meaning of resettlement. Understanding these meanings and the factors affecting them have implications for public health policy, nursing practice, research and education.