Refugee wellbeing
New Zealand accepts 1,500 refugees a year under the United Nations' Refugee Quota Programme, providing a new home for people who cannot live safely in their home country. The decision to flee is followed by transition period that can be lengthy. On arrival in New Zealand, support services are provided to help refugees to settle successfully. How well do we meet refugees' needs?
Raja Subramanian, at Ara Institute of Canterbury | Te Pūkenga, and collaborators at the University of Canterbury undertook a systematic literature review of research about the services provided to refugees, in order to identify themes and gaps in the research to be addressed. They identified and reviewed 102 relevant journal articles, covering research from many different countries that were published or available online from 200 to 2020. Ten themes were identified and organised using the phases of the refugee service journey. These included health care, education, employment, and housing.
One concern identified is that most of this research focused on services provided to refugees in Western host countries. More research is needed about the delivery of refugee services in developing countries such as Sudan, Bangladesh and Uganda, where there are high numbers of refugees.
A large proportion of the research used interviews to gather data about refugee services. It is suggested that large scale surveys in the languages of the countries of origin, and methods such as observation and ethnography, could provide valuable insights that are currently missing.
There is also a need to translate the research into practice. This may be hard to achieve in some contexts but is necessary if research is to result in improved service provision and better outcomes for refugees at every stage of their journey from homeland to host country. Communities of practice may be useful for the sharing of knowledge, ideas and experience as well as research, to find ways to make practical changes on the ground.