Browsing by Subject "refugees"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    How refugees in South Africa use mobile phones for social connectedness
    (2021) Vuningoma, Sarah; Chigona, Wallace; Lorini, Maria Rosa
    Background: Refugees find it difficult to integrate and assimilate in their host country because of a myriad of challenges. Mobile phones have become one of the main tools for promoting their wellbeing and supporting the integration of refugee communities on the margins of society. Mobile phones can contribute towards reducing isolation and loneliness, and assist in improving interpersonal relations and fostering processes of assimilation. The purpose of the research: The main objective of this study was to examine how the use of mobile phones by refugees in South Africa contributes to their social connectedness. To this end, the study discusses the role of mobile phones in the process of acculturation, in creating a sense of belonging, and in maintaining relationships. Design/methodology/approach: This research employed a qualitative method and an interpretivist epistemological perspective. A conceptual framework was developed on the basis of a literature review. Data was collected from semi-structured interviews and WhatsApp group chats, and analysed using thematic analysis. The interviewees comprised 27 refugees living in South Africa, and the WhatsApp group had 15 members. Findings: The findings demonstrate that the refugees face a multitude of obstacles, including language and culture barriers, the challenge of obtaining legal status, physical separation from their friends and family, and feelings of being judged, insecure, and excluded. Mobile phone usage offers refugees several benefits, especially through their affordances that include accessing information, pursuing economic and institutional opportunities, enabling communication, and developing linguistic and cultural knowledge of the host country. At the same time, mobile phones enable refugees to maintain connection with their country of origin. Refugees nevertheless considered it difficult to develop a sense of belonging through their use of mobile phones. Research contribution: This study adds to perspectives on utilising mobile phones to achieve social connectedness for two categories of refugees: newcomers and old-timers. The study contributes to theory by proposing a framework for understanding and analysing the relationship between social connectedness and mobile phones. The study contributes to knowledge through the investigative approach of using WhatsApp group chat to collect data. The findings can contribute to enabling non-profit organisations and UNHCR to develop strategies and processes for providing interventions for refugees.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    Open Access
    Intergenerational transmission of domestic violence in refugee families in Durban, South Africa
    (2025) Maksudi, Kassa; Hoosain, Shanaaz
    The World Health Organization in 2021 reported that 30% of women globally experience violence, with South Africa being infamous for particularly high rates of violence against women, including domestic violence. Despite this, domestic violence experiences and its intergenerational transmission among refugee women living in South Africa remain underexplored. Refugee women living in South Africa are a vulnerable and marginalised population with regard to domestic violence, as their refugee status and other risk factors disproportionately increase their vulnerability. This qualitative embedded single case study adopted an integrated conceptual framework that includes concepts from Heise's ecological framework, social learning theory, and attachment theory to explain the theory of intergenerational transmission. The study aimed to investigate how domestic violence is transmitted intergenerationally among refugee women from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo living in Durban, South Africa. A total of 30 mother-adult daughter pairs of refugee women from Burundi and the Democratic Republic of Congo were purposively sampled through focus group discussions and individual semi-structured interviews. Data was analysed using thematic and case study analysis. The findings revealed a complex interplay of psychosocial mechanisms, including internalisation, socialisation, silencing, re-enactment, guilt, and the influence of the family of origin, all embedded within multi-level risk factors. Some of these risk factors include exposure to domestic violence, lack of social support, refugee status, attitudinal acceptance, and gender norms, contributing to the transmission of domestic violence both within the first generation and from the first to the second generation. Findings also revealed potential protective factors that may be used in culmination with risk factors and psychosocial mechanisms of transmission, which could be critical for informing targeted responses to domestic violence within the study group, underscoring a critical need for targeted interventions. By elucidating specific factors and mechanisms influencing the intergenerational transmission of domestic violence among refugee families, this study enhances our understanding of how domestic violence can be interrupted across generations. It also guides research interventions and policy recommendations. This study also underscores the importance of religious, culturally sensitive, and context-specific approaches in addressing and preventing domestic violence and its transmission across generations in refugee populations.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Open Access
    Rewriting post-colonial historical representations: the case of refugees in Zimbabwe's war of liberation
    (University of Cape Town, 2020) Magadzike, Blessed; Field, Shaun; Mulaudzi, Maanda
    'Rewriting postcolonial historical representations: The case of refugees in Zimbabwe's liberation war' focuses on the historicisation of the experiences of people who were refugees during Zimbabwe's liberation war, fought between 1966 and 1980. It uses the narratives of former refugees from Mutasa and Bulilima Districts as a way of capturing their histories of the war period. When Zimbabwe attained independence in 1980, the country embarked on a historicisation project that was ably supported by a memorialization one. The aim of these twin projects was to capture the experiences of people who had either participated in the war or had been affected by it. Whilst all the other key players in that war such as the political leadership, the war veterans, the former detainees and even the ordinary peasants' experiences have been captured in these projects, there has been an absolute silence on those of people who were refugees. The same also applies to the omission of the refugee's voice in the continued regeneration of such histories that has been taking place since the year 2000 in Zimbabwe. Using the central question that asks about the experiences of displacement in Zimbabwe's liberation war, the research argues that we can only understand the totality of that war, the interactions that took place and the identities it created if the refugee figure and voice are represented on the historical record.