Connecting in resettlement: An examination of social support among Congolese women in the United States

Abstract

This article examines how refugees rebuild social support in resettlement from the perspectives of women who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo and ultimately resettled in the U.S. The qualitative study involved in-depth individual interviews in 2016 with 27 adult women who lived in a mid-size U.S. town. The findings shed light on strategies women engaged to rebuild social support in a resettlement context. Using an inductive analytical approach, researchers identified five inter-related themes: (1) reconfiguring family support; (2) engaging multiple sources for practical support; (3) accessing mentorship; (4) attending places of worship; and (5) sustaining a relationship with God. Additionally, the analysis revealed crosscutting types and sources of social support women sought and valued in resettlement. Types of social support included emotional, informational, mentorship, practical, relational, and spiritual. Sources of social support included family and loved ones spanning local, national, and transnational geographies, God, neighbors, places of worship, and the resettlement agency. These findings contribute to developing context-specific conceptualizations of social support, with implications for research and practice.

Keywords

immigration women psychosocial

The systematic loss of social support due to war, displacement, and resettlement have significant consequences for refugees post-migration and particular gendered implications for women. Gender disparities in forced migration affect women’s access to protective, social, and material resources (Sideris, 2003). Forced migration can intensify women’s household responsibilities and associated support needs. The transformation of social support experienced by women who resettle to the United States (U.S.) as refugees can be dramatic and life altering (Wachter and Gulbas, 2018). Refugee resettlement refers to the selection and transfer of refugees from a state in which they have sought protection to a third state that has agreed to admit them with permanent residence status and an opportunity to naturalize (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 2011). This article examines how refugees rebuild social support in resettlement from the perspectives of women who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and ultimately resettled in the U.S.

In the past decade, people displaced from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have been a priority group for the U.S. refugee resettlement program. A colonial legacy and systematic extraction of natural resources contributed to decades of war, mass displacement, and political and economic instability in the DRC (Stearns, 2012). By 2017, 4.4 million Congolese were internally displaced and over 756,000 were registered as refugees and asylum-seekers (UNHCR, 2018). Since 2013, over 59,000 Congolese women, men, and children have resettled to the U.S. as refugees (wrapsnet.org).

The U.S. refugee resettlement program provides social services for refugees to help newcomers integrate and become economically self-sufficient (Office of Refugee Resettlement, 2012 [1980]). Resettlement agencies, through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. State Department, provide core social services to all incoming refugees through a nationwide network of affiliated offices. Federal funding prioritizes employment-related services, English language instruction, daycare for children, and cash assistance (Office of Refugee Resettlement, n.d.). The general length of core services ranges from the 90 to 180 days post-arrival, with the possibility of extension of some services for up to five years. Additional programs include an emphasis on health and wellness, microenterprise development, and youth mentoring (Office of Refugee Resettlement, n.d.).

Social support refers to resources available to people through their interpersonal networks. Cohen et al. (2000) defined social support as the social resources people perceive to be available and/or the actual resources provided by non-professionals in the context of informal helping relationships and formal support groups. Categories of emotional support, practical support, and informational support often serve to delineate the construct. Additional, less studied, dimensions of social support emphasise information for self-assessment and companionship. Perceptions of available support, actual support received, characteristics of social networks, and adequacy and directionality of support, are important considerations (Gottlieb and Bergen, 2010). Nevertheless, operationalizations of social support in research obscures the complexity of the construct.

Interdisciplinary research has shown how social support can improve health outcomes among people with chronic conditions (Uchino, 2009), decrease mental health problems (Lakey and Cronin, 2008), and operate as a protective factor among adults exposed to trauma (Ozer et al., 2003). In research with refugees in resettlement contexts, social support has been associated with better mental health (Ajdukovic et al., 2013). Studies point to the importance of positive spousal support in predicting both reduced depression (Birman and Tran, 2008) and women’s ability to cope with mental health problems (Donnelly et al., 2011). Research with Sudanese refugees in Australia highlighted people’s perceptions that separation from loved ones signalled a dramatic loss of a collective way of life and social support, with particular implications for women (Savic et al., 2013).

Studies suggest that many refugees find the resettlement process stressful, yet research has not sufficiently addressed community barriers and lack of social support issues (Agbényiga et al., 2012). Recent research highlights pivots in the internal and relational lives of women as social support systematically constricts due to forced migration and resettlement (Wachter and Snyder, 2018). Mainstream American values of independence, promoted by refugee resettlement policy, may serve to mask the social isolation women may experience in resettlement (Wachter and Gulbas, 2018). Indeed, women who originated from the DRC have expressed being alone for the first time in their lives in the U.S. (Wachter et al., 2016).

Where ample research highlights the importance of social support, the literature fails to provide substantive explanations of how women rebuild social support in resettlement. Studies with forced migrant populations generally lack a meaningful gendered analysis beyond assessing differences in mental health symptoms between men and women. Quantitative studies that conceptualize social support as a determinant of health neither attribute sufficient importance to the construct nor study it with sufficient nuance and contextual grounding. Moreover, the study of mental health has failed to sufficiently consider the effects of salient post-migration stressors (Carswell et al., 2011), such as the loss of social support. Traditional mental health interventions may not address pressing needs and preferred group-based modalities that foster social support among peers (Liamputtong et al., 2015; Mitschke et al., 2017).

Societal and cultural norms shape people’s needs for and expectations of social support (Stewart et al., 2008). Indeed, needs and avenues for rebuilding relational networks among refugees must be understood within specific resettlement contexts and take into account pre-existing meanings and expectations of social support. The nuances of social support shaped by gender, cultural values, geography, historical processes, and other aspects of lived experience are particularly salient in the lives of women who traverse international borders in the wake of war, persecution, and displacement. With the aim of informing current understandings of social support and expanding possibilities for social support-related research and practice moving forward, the current analysis sought to answer the following questions: How do Congolese women rebuild social support in a U.S. resettlement context? What types of social support do women seek and from whom?

Methodology

The current analysis forms a distinct component of a broader project that sought to explain how women who originated from the DRC and suffered the impacts of war and displacement rebuild social support in a U.S. resettlement context.

Recruitment

A refugee resettlement agency led recruitment efforts in a mid-size town in the U.S. in the South. A nonprobability purposive sampling approach focused on maximizing variation regarding primary language, marital status, and time in the U.S. resulted in a sample of twenty-seven adult women (n=27) who originated from the DRC and ultimately resettled to the U.S. as refugees. Recruitment procedures included informing each woman that they would receive $25 in cash for participating in the study.

Participants

All participants reported the DRC as their country of origin. The women who participated (n=27) were on average 35 years old and had approximately five and a half years of formal education. At the time of the study, 20 women were working outside the home, 17 of whom were working full-time. Women reported fleeing the DRC to Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria, Malawi, Burundi, Uganda, and Rwanda because of the long-standing armed conflict. Women reported, on average, spending 11.3 years (range: 2 – 22 years) in an African country of asylum prior to resettling to the U.S., and at least fifteen women had spent those years in refugee camps. The majority of participants (n=18) indicated that their primary language spoken at home was Kinyamulenge, Kinyarwanda, or Kirundi; seven women indicated Kiswahili, and two reported Lingala as their primary language. At the time of the study, the majority of participants (n=16) had been in the U.S. one to three years at the time of the study, seven had been in the U.S. more than three years, and three had lived in the U.S. less than one year. All women in this sample identified their religious affiliation as Christian.

Data collection

The first author conducted all interviews at the agency or in women’s homes based on participant preferences. Twenty-seven women participated, of which seven agreed to a follow-up interviews to continue the discussion. Each interview was approximately 60 to 90 minutes in duration. A professional service generated transcripts of the English language components of the interviews using audio-recordings, which the lead researcher reviewed for accuracy. A semi-structured interview guide that evolved over the course of the study queried women’s social support over time and in different contexts.

Data analysis

An interpretive thematic approach guided the current analysis, prioritizing the understanding and abstraction of meanings and actions from the perspective of the research participants (Braun and Clarke, 2006). Following each interview, the first author took notes to capture context and preliminary reflections on emerging themes. Then, researchers utilized a team-based approach to identify salient themes and limit the potential for individual bias during analysis. The team conducted first-cycle coding in Microsoft Excel and Word (2010) and used a data analysis software program (NVivo, Version 11) to manage data and conduct second-cycle coding (Saldaña, 2012). Researchers conducted additional analyses to refine themes through a process of notetaking, memo writing, and reviewing coded text. Peer debriefing facilitated our examination of dimensions and properties within categories and assessment of thematic saturation.

The study adhered to standards of rigor and transparency in qualitative research (Creswell, 2013). The first author built rapport with the recruiting agency, language interpreters, and participants, which contributed to rich descriptions of women’s perceptions and experiences. An audit trail detailed all major activities and decisions throughout the study. Moreover, as researchers committed to the practice of culturally sensitive research, the team employed several strategies to contend with their “outsider” status. The authors regularly discussed the ways in which their fields of study, previous experiences, and identities may have shaped the data analysis. The lead researcher worked closely with language interpreters as key informants throughout the data collection process to enhance understanding and ensure accuracy, and conducted member checking with “insider” experts and practitioners. The team presented and solicited feedback on preliminary data with diverse audiences, which included people who originated from the same region as the participants.

Ethical considerations

The University of Texas at Austin Institutional Review Board reviewed and approved the research. Approved guidelines informed how the agency recruited and protected the identity and well-being of participants. All women verbally provided informed consent to participate in the study and audio-record the conversation. The lead researcher conducted interviews in participants’ language of choice with the assistance of a trained language interpreter, all of whom originated from central Africa. One female interpreter assisted with the majority of interviews. Given inherent challenges associated with cross-language research (Squires, 2008), the first author discussed roles, data collection procedures, key constructs, and confidentiality in regular meetings with language interpreters who assisted with the study.

Findings

The thematic analysis revealed five specific strategies women implemented to engage various types of social support across multiple sources: (1) reconfiguring family support; (2) engaging multiple sources for practical support; (3) accessing mentorship; (4) attending places of worship; and (5) sustaining relationships with God. The findings also revealed crosscutting types and sources of social support women sought and valued in resettlement. Emotional support referred to confiding personal matters, providing comfort, and love. Informational support included advice and information sharing. Mentorship support was described as role modelling, guidance, coaching, and problem solving. Practical support included help with childcare, financial concerns, material needs, and transportation. Relational support involved feeling connected, a sense of belonging, and a sense of wholeness. Spiritual support indicated a sense of connection with God that offered meaning and comfort. Sources of social support included husbands, mothers, and other family members and loved ones spanning local, national, and transnational geographies; God; immigrant and U.S.-born neighbours living next door or in proximity; places of worship, in this case churches; and the resettlement agency as a whole, as well as individual staff and volunteers.

Reconfiguring family support

Participants described physical separation from nuclear and extended kin as one of the most profound experiences associated with resettlement. Adjusting to separation, and the limits of family support engendered by such separation, resulted in new ways in which family support was enacted (i.e., transnational connections) and conceptualized (i.e., symbolic family support). With varying access to communication-based technologies, such as phone and WhatsApp, nearly every participant attempted to maintain regular communication with family and loved ones, which helped to preserve important sources of support full of meaning and emotion for women in the resettlement context. Participants maintained close transnational connections with husbands, cousins, or close family friends who remained in the DRC or sought asylum elsewhere. Women expressed cherishing and holding onto those (now) transnational connections as a sort of lifeline.

Despite the geographical separation and low chance of reunification, ties to loved ones endured, fulfilling to some degree women’s needs for love, connection, companionship, and advice. Parents formed one of the most salient sources of transnational family support. Women frequently referred to mothers as their “best friends.” The value women placed on the counsel and guidance they received from one or both parents was evident. For instance, Solange described consulting her mother on specific topics. She said, “And for other things, I ask my mom because she has seen a lot before. She has a lot to tell me.”

Although participants reconfigured and maintained transnational connections to varying degrees through technologies, the lack of physical closeness was felt both emotionally and through the practicalities of everyday life. To go through life without loved ones physically by their side was to go through life incomplete. Marie Jeanne explained, “It’s my relationship that I had with my mom that is missing the most [from my life] … I was so good with having her close to me and now it’s almost gone. I feel that’s the main thing that is missing.” Gracia described losing touch with her mother when they fled the attack on their village, having only recently located and spoken with her. She dreamed about their reunification and what that would mean for her.

The absence of practical support they would have relied upon (e.g., childcare) had they not been separated because of war, displacement, and sometimes resettlement, served as a painful and daily reminder of loved ones now missing in their lives. Annette described her weekly calls with her mother, who was still displaced in Kenya.

We talk about many things. She asks me about her grandchildren, how they are doing, and how I am doing, how my husband is doing … I ask her how is life going, how is the process going, so many things about her life, how she’s feeling, so many questions … Every time I talk to her, I feel like I want to see her. I miss her so much.

The phone calls replaced the in-person experience and were crucial to maintaining the sense of mutual connection and exchange of support expressed through questions they asked of one another and advice they received. The calls sparked joy but also a sadness that came with the reminder of the distance that lay between.

New symbolic forms of family support emerged and supplemented, but did not fill, the void in women’s lives. Women described the resettlement agency as a primary and critical source of support in the U.S., particularly in the first year of resettlement. Through language that connoted familial and relational ties, women identified the resettlement agency as “the ones who welcomed us when we got here”, “those who received us”, and “those who brought me here to America.” For Sylvie, for example, the agency was the only support option available to her. In response to questions about whom she can talk to or ask for support, she explained, “I don’t have that person … Whenever I have an issue or a problem and I need a person to talk to, I go to [the agency].”

Ultimately, women considered agency staff among “the most important” in their lives in the U.S. They spoke (unprompted) about staff members and volunteers with whom they perceived more as surrogate family and less in terms of their professional roles. Women who had struggled in their first-year post-resettlement and had relied a great deal on the agency spoke in detail as to what staff and volunteers had done for them, whether it was enrolling children in school or teaching them how to navigate the bus system. Women expressed heartfelt appreciation for those who went out of their way to help them, such as taking time beyond fixed work hours to help with grocery shopping. These women referred to agency staff and volunteers as people they cared for, were fond of, were proud to know, and whom they considered an important part of their lives and resettlement experiences. Participants systematically attributed meaning, as well as roles and responsibilities, to the agency as a source of support that they would have previously ascribed to family and community pre-resettlement. As Alphonsine summarized, “We have a thing in our culture, if you have a big problem you just go in the family and you tell the family the problem. Here in America, whenever I get a problem, I go and report to [the agency].” In the absence of immediate and extended family, the agency assumed an important role in women’s lives, marking a transference of a significant source of support from family to the agency in the resettlement context, as well as a dramatic shift in women’s ability to engage organically and over the long-term with sources now embedded in organizational structures.

Engaging multiple sources for practical support

Through relationships with U.S.-based agency staff, neighbours, and church members, women engaged practical forms of support to help with daily life activities to varying degrees of success. Most often, this type of support manifested through financial assistance, transportation, or childcare. Women recalled the agency covering the cost of their housing for the first several months post-arrival, as well as the money the agency provided to help buy groceries, toiletries, and items for children. With some exceptions, women spoke about taking serious financial concerns to the agency, feeling heard, and receiving concrete assistance in resolving the problem. Women described the agency helping them to apply for a wide range of benefits associated with public housing, food assistance, and childcare. Women who were especially vulnerable due to a disability or as a single parent considered the agency as a place they could go to share difficulties they experienced with making ends meet, and receiving support to overcome those difficulties.

Both U.S.-born and immigrant neighbours, with whom participants shared and did not share a language in common, were important sources of practical support by helping women leverage what minimal resources they had to balance the demands of everyday life. In the U.S., where most study participants relied on formal employment as a means of economic survival for the first time, occasional and regular help with childcare was critical, and for the first time in their lives not easily sourced. In the absence of family and friends, Christelle summarised the role of neighbours in the U.S. context as follows.

There’s a saying in Africa that a good neighbour is more than a friend. I cannot say that I have a friend here. My friends are my neighbours because if I’m in trouble, I will not be able to call friends in Africa … So here, my neighbours are my true and real friends.

Indeed, the significance of support sourced through neighbours took on a starkly economic significance in the U.S. context. Alphonsine explained,

Having friends here in America is something special. The example I can give you is like this. If my neighbour had not gotten me to watch her kids, she wouldn't have been able to work. She approached me and asked me if it's okay for her husband to leave the kids here just for one hour before she gets back from work. I said that anyway I would be sitting home waiting for my kid. If I was not her friend or close by, she would have had to quit the job – just because of one hour.

Living in an apartment complex and having a shared experience of motherhood facilitated meeting neighbours and figuring out new sources of support. Elisée described how she met two women (one English speaking and the other with whom she shared a common language) she came to rely on in her apartment complex,

We came to know each other because the kids went to the same school and the kids know each other … and slowly we started going to see each other … They lived across from us. It was not very difficult because kids can make people meet.

Although women’s survival in the post-resettlement context was dependent on locating sources of practical support, women reported challenges navigating nascent social networks in a U.S. context in which individuals often keep to themselves. Furthermore, the support women could come to expect from neighbours was sometimes fleeting. For instance, when the initial lease the resettlement agency secured for them ended, Morisho moved to another part of town where the rent was less expensive. She shared, “the place where I moved to, I don’t have anybody I can just interact with.” Another participant, Patience, described, “When I needed a ride to go to the hospital, or go to the store for shopping, I had a neighbour who had a car. He used to give us a ride. But he moved and now I have to walk”.

Some women also experienced their place of worship as a reliable source of practical support. These women described receiving a wide array of assistance and offers of support from the churches they attended, including food, household items, and transportation. Solace described how her church helped her when her family went through serious hardships and she was unable to pay her bills or cover the rent. Solange described continuing to receive offers of practical support (i.e. transportation and household items) from the English-speaking church they first attended even after they switched to a language-specific (“African”) church. Solange went on to describe valuable support people from their current church provided by spending time with her husband who suffered from mental health problems. Honorine described “God as God” no matter the church, and shared her perception that attending an “American” church would be more beneficial to her in practical terms, for instance with finding employment. Other women did not receive or expect any practical or material support from their places of worship.

Accessing “mentorship”

Identifying a person who could serve as a guide or mentor was an important facilitator of social support. While participants (or language interpreter) did not use the term “mentorship” as such, they described the importance of connecting with other Congolese who shared similar immigration experiences with sufficient time in the U.S. to provide meaningful guidance to newcomers and who served as a role model. Some women described having an individual or family who functioned in this role for them and their families, which they deeply valued. These friends (or “mentors”) often originated from the same country or region in Africa and shared a common language, and brought their own immigrant experiences to bear in advising women and their families on common pitfalls to avoid especially during the first months and years in the U.S. This type and source of support was critical to those women who had it. Christine described,

This family is my model. Whatever advice they give me I just try to follow it. I see how they lead by example … .If we need any kind of advice we go to them because they have been here for a while, about 10 years, so they know what to do and they are acquainted with this kind of life.

Patience described a family who took her and her family under their wing, providing her a sense of security. She explained,

They keep encouraging me, telling me that this is life, and I have to be strong to live the life here in America … They always assure me that whenever I get a problem, I can call them, and they will come to help. I can complain to them or just express my fear that maybe the next month I won’t be able to pay the bills. These people helped me look for a job and to apply. The job I have now is thanks to them.

Women also described receiving from mentors informed guidance on how to plan financially for when their initial benefits ran out and to consider carefully what debt they accrued, as well as advice on how to live peacefully among neighbours and community. Additionally, women described a broader mentoring role that some agency staff, who shared similar backgrounds and migration experiences, played in helping them to adjust to life in the U.S. In describing her caseworker, Solace shared,

She been advising me with so many things. She told me about how life is here in the U.S. How I can live with others, how I can be aware that I don’t need to get into conflict with anybody, that I need to be nice to others. And she told me even how to read the bills. She taught me all of that.

Women expressed special appreciation for and a sense of connection with agency staff and volunteers whom they perceived as going over and above their minimum job duties to mentor them.

Attending places of worship

As well as being an avenue for practical support, attending church, worship, and prayer were sources of spiritual support that provided meaning, strength, and for some, belonging. While distrust, fear, and the logistics of everyday life precluded women from forming intimate ties with other individuals, church activities often provided women opportunities to engage in creative and spiritual activities in a social setting. For those who were not formally employed outside of the house, church marked a break in their isolation and an opportunity to be physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually active.

The sense of community and belonging women derived from attending church varied. Marlene indicated feeling a level of acceptance at her current church because the pastors and parishioners did not concern themselves with how she dressed as they had at her previous place of worship in the U.S. Morisho described in detail how churches could sow divisions or promote unity. In her current church, she described a sense of pride that diverse people were “coming together as one family” and that they were “people loving each other.” She went on to articulate the multiple, interwoven types of support that she found out church—material, spiritual and companionship:

This community, they helped me first with my soul, and they helped me with physical things … So, these are people who help each other in this community. And the big thing is, this one [pastor] is a Burundian, but he doesn’t worry whether I’m Burundian or Congolese. He’s fine with helping me because we are one person and we pray to one God.

Morisho’s experience suggests that religious leaders play an important role in supporting a multicultural church community. In contrast, Solange expressed disinterest in forming connections with people she only just met for the first time at church in the U.S. As she explained, this was because her primary interest and source of support was found in her relationship with God:

I go there more to worship. Not to meet people … I go there by myself and on my own. I go there to talk to God, to tell him my worries or to thank God for what he did for us … Because anyway all those people, I have met them here. I go there to talk to God.

Language was an important consideration for many women, and church was an opportunity to immerse oneself in a familiar language. Belinda indicated that the church had not assisted her with any practical support but that “when I go to church I feel happy, they speak the language that I hear.” Others also indicated that they chose their church or attended specific services based on language considerations. Cecile explained that after she and her family arrived to the U.S., they had first attended the same church denomination as they attended in Africa, but had struggled with the English and the fact that was located across town. As Cecile shared,

The English was really hard for us so that's why we found a church where they interpret and is close by. And the church helps us by giving rides there so that's why we changed churches.

Others, however, felt content to remain at an English-speaking church despite language barriers. Although not proficient in English, Solace shared, “When I go to church, I start being so thankful that I feel so happy. Even the teachings. The words they say there help me. They strengthen me.”

Sustaining a relationship with god

In addition to and sometimes overlapping with church attendance, as previously indicated, women described a direct relationship with God and spiritual practices, notably prayer, from which they drew strength, resolve, and comfort. Women described turning to God to help them cope with all that they had lost. When Elisée battled “getting lost in those thoughts,” which consumed her with sadness, she felt as if she had “no way out.” She shared a sense, though, that “There is a God who helps me. He knows that I’m alone and He sometimes is there for me. I pray so that God can help me out.” While Cecile described attending church because it felt good to pray with other people, she relied on praying alone to maintain calm and “to live with her situation.” Women referred to daily prayer, alone and/or with family members, to give thanks for what God had done for them, and described how the focus of their prayers had shifted since resettling to the U.S. Pauline distinguished between shared worship and more intimate everyday talking to God:

We go to worship in church, but I can say that prayer is for everyday … Before we used to pray to God asking him if he can give us a way out of those difficult times, but now, most of the time, we focus on thanking God for what he has done for us.

Grace described praying for God to reunite her with her mother before either of them died. Christelle described starting and ending her day in prayer. She shared,

Whenever I go to sleep, I ask God to forgive me all of the sins I have committed during the day … I know that God is there to forgive me. And when I wake up, I just thank him and just seek guidance for the day to come.

In contrast to their experience with people, women talked of being able to place their trust in God. Women frequently cited God, mothers, and husbands, as the only options available to confide very personal problems. Solange shared, “Any worry I have, I tell God first. Second, I tell my husband. And for other things, I ask my mom.” As such, women relied on enduring relationships with God as an important source of support in resettlement.

Discussion

Grounded in the perspectives of research participants, these findings point to context-specific dimensions of social support relevant to Congolese women in resettlement, which serve to inform understandings of social support important to the work of researchers and practitioners alike. Facilitated by access to technology, women reconfigured family support to obtain and provide emotional, informational, mentorship, and relational support from family and loved ones transnationally. Relationships with staff at the resettlement agency emerged as an important supplement, especially in the early months of resettlement, as women navigated daily challenges. Whenever possible, women sought practical support from neighbours whose presence took on new meanings in the resettlement context and proved essential to economic survival. Women sought mentorship and relational support from informal and formal networks to help navigate challenges and set themselves up for success in the U.S. Churches fulfilled unmet practical needs, and/or a sense of belonging for some. Women considered their relationship with God as an enduring, reliable, and trustworthy source of emotional, relational, and spiritual support, accessed through prayer and worship.

The analysis revealed three types of support that do not typically appear in social support research. First, although social support is inherently relational by definition, the literature has not recognized the connection itself as a source of support but tends, rather, to consider interpersonal attachments and their health benefits within the realm of social engagement (Berkman et al., 2000). Research has highlighted how belonging tethers individuals across interpersonal, social, and geographic spaces (Bhabha, 2009). Scholarship on refugee integration in resettlement contexts has highlighted how notions of nationhood and citizenship, and legal frameworks of rights and citizenship, shape understandings of ‘belonging’ (Strang and Ager, 2010). Considering our findings, which reflect micro-level lived experiences, there is a continued need to understand how belonging is not only integral to but also forms an important component of social support.

Second, women in this study consistently invoked spiritual forms of social support in response to questions asking who helped them at various points in their forced migration trajectories. Spiritual support indicated a sense of connection with something or someone, often God, beyond themselves and this world, which offered both meaning and comfort. The literature has long recognised spirituality as an important protective factor, particularly among refugees (Hasan et al., 2018). Religion and spirituality are important factors shaping health and wellbeing (Balboni et al., 2007). Indeed, current theories hypothesise that spirituality enhances social support through involvement in a religious community (Walker et al., 2012). Yet, in our study, women explicitly described God and their connections with God as a direct and potent source of support. Despite overlap between religious and spiritual activities, our findings suggest potential differentiation between the two constructs.

Third, although advice, information sharing, and guidance overlap with definitions of informational support employed in the literature, descriptions reflective of “mentorship” emerged in this study as a distinct type of social support women sought in the resettlement context. While research and practice address mentorship for young refugees and migrants in settlement contexts (Neuwirth and Wahl, 2017) and for immigrants in professional roles (Shan and Butterwick, 2017), the importance of informal mentorship among adults has been overlooked, especially for pre-literate women. A recent study conducted by a resettlement agency reported that many families expressed initial and continued interest in a family mentor over the course of two years post arrival to the U.S. (Shaw and Poulin, 2015). Forms of mentorship, as defined by diverse groups, may help to support long-term economic outcomes among refugees in resettlement, a primary focus of U.S. resettlement policies and practice.

Although U.S. resettlement agencies are widely recognized for providing formal support services that facilitate the resettlement of their clients, conceptualizations of social support do not necessarily recognize the informal support sought and provided from formal services as a form of social support (see Cohen et al., 2000). Women framed the agency as a whole in familial and relational terms and described connections with specific staff members and associated volunteers. This finding reflects similar results from studies in which agency staff represented a new family for refugees in early stages of resettlement (Agbényiga et al., 2012). In addition to the practical and informational support they received from the agency, women sought and valued mentorship and relational forms of support as well. Women’s heartfelt descriptions revealed an emotional attachment to caseworkers and volunteers that transcended mainstream conceptualizations of social service provider/client roles, and complicated rigid categories of professionals and friends.

In addition, our findings point to places of worship as salient sources of support. Participants indicated the value of religious congregations in helping them access practical support, engage socially, and for some, develop a sense of belonging. Given the women’s own religious identities and histories, and the context in which they resettled, this sample of women gravitated towards Christian churches. While few studies have explored the barriers to and benefits of incorporating religious congregations and communities more intentionally and systematically into refugee resettlement systems and processes (Adedoyin et al., 2016), our findings indicating the importance of religious activities to well-being suggest that there is considerable scope for further work in this area. This would be an interesting area for further research, because while resettlement agencies tend to operate practically as secular agencies, many have faith-based roots and supporters (Eby et al., 2011). A small number of participants alluded to the potentially ambivalent and/or oppressive role of religion, a point of concern among the U.S. resettlement practice network highlighted in previous research (Goździak, 2008).

Limitations

A number of limitations are important to note. First, these findings do not generalize to diverse Congolese groups and individuals who have resettled over time to the U.S., nor to other refugee groups who resettled in the U.S. or elsewhere. Instead, it is our hope that the analysis contributes to expanding the empirical knowledge base and to a broader conversation around priorities for social support research and practice. Second, the strategies, types, and sources of social support identified in this analysis are not exhaustive, warranting additional research. Third, the study relied on the interpersonal and linguistic skills of language interpreters, which added complexity to the data collection process and some variation in the quality of data the project produced. Finally, a degree of social desirability is an inherent limitation.

Conclusions

This analysis offers insights into the strategies this sample of Congolese women employed to build social support in the early phases of resettlement in the U.S. By highlighting types and sources of social support women valued and sought in resettlement, the findings offer contextual and cultural specificity and nuance to understandings of social support. As such, these findings contribute to laying the groundwork for ongoing efforts to reimagine how social support is framed, understood, and prioritized by those concerned with the wellbeing of women and their families who resettle to a third country as refugees.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

We thank the women who participated in this study and the language interpreters who facilitated our communication. Sincere thanks to SL for availing herself and resources in support of the study.

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Two dissertation research fellowships awarded to the first author supported this research, from the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health (Harry E. and Bernice M. Moore Fellowship for Doctoral Research) and the Institute on Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault, both located at The University of Texas at Austin.

ORCID iDs

Karin Wachter

Lauren E Gulbas

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