Exploring integration experiences of adolescent Bhutanese refugees in Tasmania, Australia
Creators: name: Mudwari, Nabaraj
Publisher: name: University of Tasmania
Year: 2024

description: Adolescent refugees face multiple integration challenges that differ from those of adult refugees due to their developmental stage. Research on this population is crucial to gain a comprehensive understanding of their unique needs and challenges, but, despite the need, there has been limited research attention to this point. This study aimed to address this gap by focussing on the experiences of a group of sixteen adolescent Bhutanese refugees as they navigate the complexities of a new culture and integrate into Australian society.<br>Most studies that have examined the integration of adolescent refugees have focussed on their school experiences. While important, school is only one facet of their lives and experiences outside school also need to be investigated. This study aimed to examine the participants’ integration experiences more broadly, using a conceptual framework based upon the extant literature. Previous research has shown that translocality, gender, and social capital can have an impact on integration experiences of refugee adults, but the collective influence of these three constructs has yet to be explored. Hence, this study draws on the intersection of translocality, gender, and social capital, to provide insights into the adolescent refugees’ integration experiences. The overarching research question was: How do translocality, gender, and social capital influence each other and collectively influence adolescent Bhutanese refugees’ experiences of integration in Tasmania, Australia?<br>The study employed qualitative research methods to investigate the integration experiences of sixteen adolescent Bhutanese refugees aged fourteen to eighteen. Data were gathered using “draw and tell” and “photo elicitation” as visual methods, as well as semi?structured interviews to better capture the experiences and perspectives of adolescent refugees. The data underwent extensive analysis through a hybrid approach, employing both inductive and deductive methods, using thematic analysis. The initial coding process, which was deductive and guided by the conceptual framework, provided a structured approach to analysing the data. Subsequent analysis employed an inductive approach, revealing themes related to integration experiences.<br>Findings drawn from both deductive and inductive analysis suggest that integration experiences are complex, multi-faceted, context-dependant, and full of contradictions. More specifically, the main tensions for the participants lay in finding a balance between their old and new worlds as they managed their need to establish themselves and create new identities in Australia. Translocality, gender, and social capital, individually and collectively, influenced how they navigated tensions related to both past experiences from their old world and present experiences in their new world (<i>merging worlds</i>). These tensions included adopting certain Australian values such as gender equality and managing family power dynamics in the changed context. Support from families, communities, schools, and translocal networks helped the participants to overcome these tensions to build their new worlds in Australia. Findings also demonstrated that participants adapted in their social and educational spheres. These adaptations played an important role in facilitating both bonding and bridging social capital within these spheres, as the mutually reinforcing interplay between bonding and bridging.<br>The participants’ adaptations in their social and educational spheres demonstrated the dynamic nature of their integration experiences, where they navigated tensions between their old and new worlds to establish themselves and create new identities in Australia. In this context, the study challenges Putnam’s binary distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, as it recognises the important role of bonding in forming bridging social capital. By shedding light on the multi-faceted and multi-layered process of integration, including the establishment of translocal connections, this study offers a more nuanced understanding of social capital generation. These insights not only contribute to social capital theory but also hold vital importance for policy makers and service providers in supporting adolescent refugees as they shape their relationships and social networks to facilitate their integration into a new society.