Author:

Keywords:

Social Sciences, Social Work, Resilience, asylum-seeking and refugee families, accompanied minors, bonding and bridging, disclosure and silencing, CHILDREN, STRESS, NEED, WAR, PDMT1/21/009#56335153, 1607 Social Work, 4409 Social work

Abstract:

Using in-depth interviews, this paper examines the performance of resilient practices by 17 asylum-seeking and refugee families (27 parents, 35 children) living in Belgium, and the ways in which such practices have been facilitated by social professionals (22) in various types of relationships to these families. Different from much research that studies how resilience can be ‘found’ through predictable relationships between pre-identified variables, the present research builds on a constructionist, emic approach that conceptualises resilience as a process that is perpetually unfinished and ‘made’ by negotiated relational practices or ‘resilient moves’. Moreover, although attention to refugee family resilience has recently increased, little empirical research exists that includes the voices of both parents and children of the same families, as well as the input from social professionals surrounding them. The findings suggest that refugee family resilience should be seen as relational behaviour between multiple agents in and surrounding these families. The research also underlines the importance of deconstructing the role of macro-level structures in facilitating or hindering resilient moves. Overall, the findings highlight that resilience is not opposed to vulnerability, but may exist next or through it. This suggests the need for a re-politicisation of resilience in social work.