Doctoral Dissertation Research: Refugee Adaptation in the United States, Canada, and Italy

2011年3月开始的叙利亚内战导致近500万难民流离失所。这种流离失所造成了自第二次世界大战以来最大的国际难民危机。这些难民中只有1%被重新安置到他们可以重新开始生活的国家。本文通过比较美国、加拿大和意大利的难民安置经历，探讨叙利亚难民如何在安置国重新生活。战争不仅使本研究中包括的曾经的中等收入家庭流离失所，而且使其失去了身份。这些难民被重新安置到这些国家，尽管他们之前几乎没有任何联系，不懂当地语言，也没有与当地经济相匹配的技能。大多数关于移民的研究都是考察一批新移民抵达数年后的结果。相比之下，本研究侧重于出生后的前18-24个月。它考虑了叙利亚难民如何试图获得重要的技能，他们如何创建新的社区，以及他们的日常生活如何受到他们所登陆国家的政策背景的影响。这项研究对政策有直接的、可操作的影响，因为它选择了具有不同安置政策的国家进行比较，并审查了它们形成的不同适应过程。本研究考察了难民的适应过程，将其定义为新移民试图在新环境中调整家庭生活、建立社会关系和追求经济生计的策略。这涉及到难民作为家庭和新兴社区一起寻找新的做事方式，同时保留其身份的某些方面，从中获得自我意识。本研究探讨了在伊斯兰恐惧症加剧的政治现实中，以及在特朗普、特鲁多和教皇方济各时代，适应过程中的差异。本研究还着眼于具体国家的重新安置逻辑，不仅说明了难民得到的援助种类，还说明了谁从事重新安置工作，以及难民被重新安置的地点，靠近或远离同种族。本研究采用民族志观察与深度访谈相结合的方法。样本中包括康涅狄格州纽黑文的18个叙利亚难民家庭（n=81），安置在加拿大安大略省多伦多及其附近的5个家庭（n=25），以及安置在意大利城市罗马、托迪和博洛尼亚的6个家庭（n=22）。

Almost five million refugees have been externally displaced by the Syrian civil war, which began in March 2011. This displacement contributes to the largest international refugee crisis since World War II. Only 1% of those refugees have been resettled to countries where they can restart their lives. This dissertation asks how Syrian refugees make new lives in countries of resettlement by comparing the experience of refugees resettled to the United States, Canada and Italy. War has not only displaced but also declassed the once middle-income families included in this study. These refugees were resettled to each of these countries though they had few if any preexisting ties, did not know the local language, and had skills mismatched to local economies. Most studies of immigration examine outcomes of newcomers years after a cohort's arrival. By contrast, this study focuses on the first 18-24 months after arrival. It considers how Syrian refugees attempt to acquire the skills that matter, how they create new communities, and how their daily lives are shaped by the policy contexts of the countries in which they land. This study has direct, actionable, implications for policy due to its selection of countries with varied resettlement policies for comparison, and its examination of the varied adaptation processes they shape.This study examines refugees' process of adaptation, defined as the strategies by which newcomers attempt to adjust their family lives, form social relationships, and pursue economic livelihoods in their new setting. This involves refugees finding, together, as families and as an emergent community, new ways of doing things, while retaining aspects of their identity from which they derive a sense of self. This study explores differences in the process of adaptation across political realities of heightened islamophobia, and in the eras of Trump, Trudeau and Pope Francis. This study also looks at country-specific resettlement logics that inform not only the kind of assistance that refugees receive, but also who does the work of resettlement, and the locations where refugees are resettled, near or far from co-ethnics. For this examination, this study uses a combination of ethnographic observation and in-depth interviews. Included in the sample are eighteen Syrian refugee families in New Haven, Connecticut (n=81), five families resettled in and near Toronto, Ontario in Canada (n=25), and six families resettled in the Italian cities of Rome, Todi and Bologna (n=22).