Description
Discussion 1: Bicultural Adaptation Theory
Qin et al. (2015) used two theories—bicultural adaptation theory and the theory of emerging adulthood
—to support their study on Sudanese young adult refugees and their adaptation to life in the United States. They observed that many studies have explored how refugee youths adapt to their new life with parental support, but they could not find any studies on those refugees who came to the United States without parental accompaniment (p. 214). For the PhD student, this represents a gap in the empirical literature; therefore, a PhD student may make a claim that their dissertation study would fill this gap. For a DSW student, this observation could lead them to explore the social work practice implications of the effects of refugee youths leaving their native homelands and adapting to a new environment without their parents. Remember, a PhD dissertation is designed to address a gap or an area that has yet to be addressed in the social work body of knowledge. A DSW capstone project’s purpose is to inform and/or improve social work practice.
In exploring how these Sudanese emerging adults adapt, Qin et al. conducted a study with interpretivist epistemological underpinnings. In this Discussion, you have the opportunity to review the themes (qualitative findings) they extracted from the interviews (pp. 223–232) and their write-up of these themes in a narrative that tells a story of these youths’ experiences.
As you review the study’s findings for this Discussion, keep in mind the axiological assumption of interpretivism and how the researchers’ own experiences, biases, worldviews, and beliefs would influence how the data is analyzed and interpreted. Because of the subjective nature of research studies facilitated by interpretivism, the trustworthiness of the data is always a concern (pp. 221–222).
To prepare:
Read the following article listed in the Learning Resources: Qin, D. B., Saltarelli, A., Rana, M., Bates, L., Lee, J. A., & Johnson, D. J. (2015). “My culture helps me make good decisions”: Cultural adaptation of Sudanese refugee emerging adults. Journal of Adolescent Research, 30(2), 213–243. doi:10.1177/0743558414547097
By Day 3
Post:
- Summarize the assumptions of the bicultural adaptation theory in 1–2 sentences.
- Describe two qualitative findings from the study and explain how the findings align with bicultural adaptation theory. Provide specific examples of the findings and the pages from the study where you obtained the findings.
- Describe one qualitative finding from the study and explain how it aligns with the theory of emerging adulthood. Provide a specific example of the finding and the pages where you obtained this finding.
- After reviewing the findings and in light of bicultural adaptation theory, recommend one social work practice implication. This social work practice implication should be guided by bicultural adaptation theory. It should also be sensitive to the needs of emerging adults.
- Identify one bias or personal assumption that may have influenced your interpretation of the findings and explain how this might impact your social work practice recommendation.
547097
research-article2014
JARXXX10.1177/0743558414547097Journal of Adolescent ResearchQin et al.
Article
“My Culture Helps Me
Make Good Decisions”:
Cultural Adaptation
of Sudanese Refugee
Emerging Adults
Journal of Adolescent Research
2015, Vol. 30(2) 213–243
© The Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0743558414547097
jar.sagepub.com
Desiree Baolian Qin1,
Andy Saltarelli2, Meenal Rana3, Laura Bates1,
Jungah Ah Lee4, and Deborah J. Johnson1
Abstract
The last two decades have witnessed growing research on the experiences
of children and youth after migration or resettlement. However, nearly all
of this research focuses on children and youth who arrived in the country
with their parents. We know little of the unique experiences of refugee
youngsters who came to this country without parental company. How do
they negotiate the different cultures in the absence of parents? In this article,
we draw on in-depth interview data with 19 Sudanese emerging adults who
came to the United States as unaccompanied refugee minors to examine
issues of acculturation and adaptation. Our findings show that having a strong
root in their native culture and identity helped them make good choices,
maintain focus, and avoid distractions associated with negative aspects of
the U.S. youth culture. Our participants also discussed the importance of
learning the new ways. As a result, those who maintained their native culture
1Michigan
State University, East Lansing, USA
University, CA, USA
3Humboldt State University, CA,USA
4PCCPJ, South Korea
2Stanford
Corresponding Author:
Desiree Baolian Qin, Michigan State University, 103A Human Ecology, East Lansing, MI 48824,
USA.
Email: dqin@msu.edu
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Journal of Adolescent Research 30(2)
and combined it with the positive aspect of the U.S. culture were the ones
who did best in their adaptation. Our research confirms previous findings on
immigrant and refugee youth with parents that a bicultural orientation is the
best for adaptation. Our findings also illustrate a more specific and agentic
process of cultural appropriation with a flexible orientation.
Keywords
immigrant youth, identity, acculturation, emerging adulthood, Sudanese
refugees, African
At the beginning of the new millennium, the United States is once again witnessing a historical wave of immigration. Included in the growing population
of immigrants are a number of refugees fleeing from war, political oppression,
or religious persecution in their home countries, and seeking a new home in
the United States. Their experiences are often markedly different from those
of immigrants who choose to move to the United States in search of a better
life or to be reunited with family members. Recent statistics show that there
were 2.6 million refugee arrivals in the period 1980 to 2011 (Department of
Human Services, 2011). The last two decades have witnessed growing research
on the experiences of children after migration or resettlement. However,
nearly all of this research focuses on children who arrive in the country with
their parents. We know little of the unique experiences of refugee youngsters
who come to this country without parental accompaniment.
Family, as “a primary agency in the immigrant saga” (Gil & Vega, 1996, p.
436), is instrumental in helping children adapt after migration and overcome barriers in the new society (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). In particular, research has
shown that parents provide the closest link to immigrant children’s native culture
(Lee & Chen, 2000). What happens to children when they do not have the support
of their parents in a totally unfamiliar land? How do they maintain their native
culture? Is their native culture important to them? How do they negotiate the differences between their native culture and the culture of their new home in the
absence of parents? In this article, we examine such issues of acculturation and
adaptation using data from in-depth interviews with a group of Sudanese emerging adults who came to the United States as unaccompanied refugee minors.
Adaptation by Sudanese Unaccompanied Refugee
Minors
An unaccompanied minor is a “person who is under the age of majority and
not accompanied by a parent, guardian, or other person who by law or custom
Qin et al.
215
is responsible for him or her” (Ressler, Boothby, & Steinbock, 1988, p. 7).
Some recent examples of large-scale efforts to resettle unaccompanied minors
include those involving the Cuban children in Operation Pedro Pan (Conde,
1999), the boat people from Southeast Asia (Caplan, Choy, & Whitmore,
1991), and children displaced by wars in Korea and other countries (see
Ressler et al., 1988, for an overview of the resettlement of unaccompanied
minors). The United States is one of the developed nations that have provided
asylum to unaccompanied refugee minors. One group that has been resettled
in the United States are the Sudanese unaccompanied refugee minors, mostly
male and often referred to as the Lost Boys in popular media, who were
largely resettled here after 2000 due to civil war in their homeland.
As a result of the Second Sudanese Civil War, which erupted in 1983,
more than 2 million people were killed and millions more were displaced
(Bixler, 2005). Many Sudanese children were separated from their parents
during this conflict and trekked in peer groups for several weeks or months to
refugee camps in Ethiopia, a hazardous journey during which many perished.
Without their families’ support, the children struggled to obtain basic necessities such as food, clean water, and medical care. In 1991, due to a regime
change in Ethiopia, the children were violently expelled from the refugee
camps. While fleeing back to Sudan, they again witnessed the deaths of many
peers who either drowned in the Gilo River that borders Sudan or were killed
by the Ethiopian army. In Sudan, the children came under attack again by
Northern Sudanese government forces and had to make another arduous trek
to the Kakuma refugee camp established by the United Nations in Kenya
(Hecht, 2005).
The majority of the Lost Boys lived apart from their parents in refugee
camps in Ethiopia (late 1980s to May 1991) and Kenya (June 1992 to 2001)
and in displacement camps in Sudan (Bixler, 2005). Interviews with 147 Lost
Boys from the Dinka tribe in 1993, a little more than a year after they arrived
at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, revealed that 72% of the boys were
uncertain if they would ever see their families again (Jeppsson & Hjern,
2005). In the absence of parental care, the children banded together in peer
groups, with older males generally providing leadership for their younger
cohorts. For humanitarian reasons, the U.S. government decided to provide
refugee status and resettle youths whose parents were deceased or untraceable. Eventually, about 3,500 were resettled in the United States (Bates et al.,
2005). Compared with those left behind in the refugee camps, these youths
who were able to leave with opportunities to start a new life were the fortunate ones.
The Sudanese emerging adults’ experience of living as displaced persons
for more than a decade and being resettled without parental support makes
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them a very unique group of refugees. Most research on refugee children has
focused on those who live with at least one of their parents (e.g., Zhou &
Bankston, 1998), and one of the most consistent findings is that refugee children’s adjustment is related to the support they receive from their parents and
how well their parents cope with adverse circumstances (Farwell, 2001; Joshi
& O’Donnell, 2003; Shaw, 2003; Singer & Wilson, 2006). When children do
not have their parents, how do they maintain their culture? How does this
influence their adaptation? Refugee children who are separated from their
parents benefit from establishing supportive relationships with alternative
caregivers (Moskovitz, 1985; Ressler et al., 1988) and close relationships
with peers (Freud & Dann, 1951; Goodman, 2004). The values and expectations parents passed on to their children prior to separation may also influence the youths during their parents’ absence (Ressler et al., 1988).
Theoretical Consideration of Immigrant
Adaptation and Assimilation
The study of immigrant and refugee children and youths is relatively new—
until recently, the majority of research on immigrants has been done on adults
(Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Previous models of immigrant
adaptation and assimilation have been largely based on the experiences of
earlier European immigrants, emphasizing the “unilinear, nonreversible, and
continuous” process of acculturation and structural assimilation that moves
toward the finishing line of “the middle-class, white, Protestant, European
American framework of the dominant society” (Suárez-Orozco, 2000, p. 8).
The majority of these immigrants, in the process of assimilation, gradually
lose their ethnic language and culture; as some scholars put it, ethnicity is
eventually reduced to something primarily “symbolic” (Gans, 1979) and
“optional” (Alba & Nee, 1997).
A central premise in current research on immigration, assimilation, and
mobility suggests, contrary to earlier models, that preserving ethnicity, for
example, parental culture, language, and ties to the ethnic community, in the
process of acculturation can actually facilitate successful adaptation (Gibson,
1988; Portes & Zhou, 1993; Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova,
2010; Waters, 1996). First generation immigrants often maintain “immigrant
optimism” and have a “dual frame of reference,” comparing the circumstances in the host country with those of their countries of origin. This comparison enables many immigrants to remain upbeat about the improvement
over their past circumstances and optimistic about their future prospects
(Ogbu & Simons, 1998). Studies published in the last two decades have
Qin et al.
217
provided convincing evidence that preserving immigrant parents’ language
and culture is positively linked to children’s educational and psychosocial
outcomes. For example, drawing on a sample of 163 Cambodian American
students in Massachusetts, Dinh, Weinstein, Kim, and Ho (2008) found that
retaining a Cambodian cultural orientation has positive benefits for
Cambodian students.
However, maintaining the native culture alone is not enough. It is also
important for immigrants and refugees to learn new ways of life, as demonstrated by other research showing that a bicultural orientation is associated
with positive educational and psychosocial outcomes (Lutz, 2004; Nguyen &
Benet-Martínez, 2013; Portes & MacLeod, 1996; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2010;
White & Glick, 2000; Zhou & Bankston, 1998). A study on Spanish speaking
students by Lutz and Crist (2009) found that biliterate students, especially
boys, reported higher grade point averages (GPA) than those with limited
Spanish proficiency. In addition, compared with their assimilated peers,
bicultural and bilingual immigrant youths have fewer behavioral or psychosocial problems. Similarly, a number of studies on Latino middle school students show that a bicultural orientation and a strong ethnic identity are
positively related to high levels of academic achievement and low levels of
externalizing behaviors or drug use (Epstein, Botvin, & Diaz, 2001; Gonzales
et al., 2008; S. J. Schwartz, Zamboanga, & Jarvis, 2007).
Further, biculturalism has also been shown to have a negative influence on
depression and other psychosocial adjustment problems. For example, drawing on a sample of 246 seventh- and eighth-grade Mexican American adolescents, Love and Buriel (2007) found that for boys, biculturalism (measured
by extrafamilial language use, familial language use, and ethnic social relations) has a significantly negative correlation with depression levels.
Compared with their peers with a bicultural orientation, youths who were
more assimilated to the U.S. culture reported more problematic behaviors
and less parental monitoring. Moreover, drawing on a sample of 315 Hispanic
adolescents and their primary caregivers, Coatsworth, Maladonado-Molina,
Pantin, and Szapocznik (2005) found that bicultural youths showed significantly higher levels of academic competence, peer competence, and parental
monitoring than all other groups. These results are consistent with other studies that found the bicultural lifestyle to be the most adaptive (Berry, 2003;
Organista, Organista, & Kurasaki, 2003).
Much of the above research examines issues of assimilation and adaptation for immigrant children who came to this country with their parents. In
particular, research has shown that having a bicultural orientation, especially
a strong ethnic identity rooted in the parents’ culture of origin, is associated
with decreasing parent-child conflict and better parent-child relations
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(Sullivan et al., 2007). Indeed, parents are seen as the primary transmitter of
cultural knowledge for immigrant children (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). What
about children who grew up in another country but came to the United States
without their parents, as unaccompanied minors? How do they adapt to life in
the United States? How do they maintain their culture? Do they also develop
a bicultural identity, or are they more likely to be assimilated into U.S. culture? Will their different cultural orientations have implications for their education and adaptation after resettlement?
Emerging Adulthood and Resilience
Emerging adulthood (ages 18-25; see Arnett, 2000) also provides an important and unique developmental context within which to examine the cultural
adaptation of the Sudanese refugees in our study. Demographic and economic
shifts in Western industrial nations in the past 40 years have afforded 18- to
25-year-olds an extended period of identity exploration (cf. Erikson, 1968, on
the psychosocial moratorium) in the areas of love, work, and worldviews
(Arnett, 2006; S. J. Schwartz, 2001). Specifically, the theory of emerging
adulthood posits that five features mark this distinct developmental period:
identity exploration, instability, self-focus, a feeling of being in-between, and
a sense of possibility or potential (Arnett, 2006). These five characteristics
represent important socio-contextual factors that influence the course (see
Steinberg & Avenevoli, 2000) of adaptation in youths between the ages of 18
and 25.
Identity exploration is particularly salient for immigrants and minority
emerging adults because they must negotiate the achievement of not only
individual identity (see Marcia, 1980) but also ethnic identity, which is often
of more central importance to them (Phinney & Alipuria, 1990). Research
suggests that ethnic identity exploration extends throughout the 20s (and
often beyond) and, in many cases, is further prolonged for immigrants and
minorities as a reaction to conflicting messages about their ethnic identity
disseminated by majority American culture (Phinney, 2006). The developmental path and timing of ethnic identity achievement are now largely viewed
as a product of dynamic interactions between individual and contextual factors (cf. Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), with emerging adulthood seen as an
influential socio-contextual component. In accordance with the model of
equifinality (many paths, but one common outcome), empirical results suggest that an “integration profile” of acculturation (with high investment in
both ethnic and mainstream cultures; see Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder,
2006) leads to the best psychological and socio-cultural adaptation outcomes
(Phinney, Horenczyk, Liebkind, & Vedder, 2001).
Qin et al.
219
Resilience (positive adaptation in the presence of risk; see Luthar,
Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000) is also a prominent issue for refugee emerging
adults, as they are faced with adapting to developmental transitions and
stressors in emerging adulthood (e.g., work, romantic relationships) that are
embedded within new cultural roles and expectations. Further, refugees often
have experienced physical and/or psychological trauma prior to immigration,
which not only adds to the stressors of emerging adulthood but also introduces maladaptive patterns developed under those earlier traumatic conditions (see Luster, Bates, & Johnson, 2006). There is strong evidence to
suggest continuity between prior patterns of adaptation and resilience developed in adolescence and future resilience in emerging adulthood (see Masten
et al., 2004), but there are also documented instances in which maladaptive
patterns are dramatically altered by subsequent positive opportunities (e.g.,
Werner & Smith, 2001).
What has not been examined in this body of literature is how non-Western
(e.g., Sudanese) 18- to 25-year-old immigrants negotiate the transition into a
Western culture where a protracted period of emerging adulthood is developmentally normative. This gap in understanding is especially salient for unaccompanied refugees, who have often lived without parents for many years.
Thus, the current study seeks to clarify these issues by examining the adaptation patterns of unaccompanied Sudanese refugees who were resettled in the
United States during adolescence and emerging adulthood after experiencing
protracted periods of physical and psychological trauma as children and
adolescents.
Method
This study is part of a larger research project on Sudanese Lost Boys first
started in 2001, focusing on risk, resilience, and adaptation to a new culture
among unaccompanied refugee youths resettled in the mid-Michigan area.
Data for this article were drawn from in-depth interviews with Sudanese
emerging adults.
Participants
Between November 2000 and April 2001, 89 unaccompanied refugee minors
from Sudan resettled in Lansing and neighboring communities in Michigan
through the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program. Children in this program are placed in foster homes and receive services to help them adapt to
their new life until the age of 20. Emerging adults older than 18 may transition into supervised independent living. Youths as well as their foster parents
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receive financial assistance, monitoring, and other necessary services through
home visits by caseworkers and group meetings.
During a previous phase of the research project, 15 American foster parents of Sudanese refugees were interviewed. We then asked these parents to
provide contact information for their Sudanese foster children. With this
information and the assistance of a Sudanese cultural consultant and the
resettlement agency, we invited 24 emerging adults to participate in this
study, and 19 agreed to do so. Two males and three females declined to participate in the study, and no further information is known about these individuals or why they chose not to participate. The 19 participants in our sample
represent 21% of the 89 unaccompanied minors resettled in the mid-Michigan area. It is important to note that the emerging adults who participated in
our study were likely, on average, better adapted than those who did not.
Many emerging adults whom we did not invite to participate could not be
contacted or interviewed because they had lost touch with or become
estranged from their foster parents or had serious mental health issues.
At the time of the interviews, all of the Sudanese refugees were emerging
adults, ranging in age from 18 to 26 years (M = 22 years; SD = 2.31). Of the
19 participants we interviewed, 17 were male and 2 were female (only 13
females were resettled in the Lansing area, and of the 3,800 Lost Boys resettled in the United States, only 89 were female; Bureau of Population,
Refugees, and Migration, 2005). Eighteen identified themselves ethnically as
Dinka, the largest ethnic group in Southern Sudan1, and one identified himself as from another, smaller tribe. At the time of resettlement, the mean age
of the youths was 15 years (SD = 2.34), and the youngest child was 11. Some
did not know their exact age, and in those cases, we used the age estimated
by the United Nations based on their level of physical maturity when examined in the refugee camp. At the time of the interviews, 12 participants were
enrolled in college, 2 had graduated from 4-year universities, 1 had obtained
a training certificate from a community college, and 4 were not currently
enrolled but planned to return to school. Four of the emerging adults were
parents themselves, including both females.
Procedures
We conducted semi-structured interviews with the emerging adults, which
took approximately 2 hours to complete. The interviews focused on their
adaptation and adjustment in the United States, their experiences in foster
care, and their identity. Data for this article were drawn mainly from the first
section, which asked the participants about their general adaptation, challenges, educational experiences, and future goals. More specifically, we
Qin et al.
221
asked the participants what helped them in their adjustment and why some of
the Sudanese emerging adults seemed to be adjusting well while others were
experiencing more challenges. The interviews were conducted in English by
four researchers (two European American men and two Asian women), three
of whom are authors of this article. All of the interviews were taped with the
consent of the participants and later transcribed verbatim by paid research
assistants. The transcripts of the interviews were sent to the original interviewers to be examined for accuracy before they were coded.
Data Analysis
The goal of this study was to describe and understand the lived experience of
a group of unaccompanied refugee Sudanese minors adjusting to living in the
United States from a cultural perspective. As such, the authors took the phenomenological inquiry approach, which focuses on understanding and describing the human experience in the contexts of families, communities, and
cultures (Gilgun, 2005; Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003). The authors followed the
steps of phenomenological inquiry as outlined by Giorgi (1985): First, the
three coders read the interview transcripts in their entirety to begin developing
an overall sense of the participants’ experiences. Next, natural meaning units
(i.e., portions of the text that were judged to relate to an identifiable theme
across many interviews) were identified and transformed into codes. For
example, “I’ve become like a hybrid between here, two cultures you know and
these two cultures make me” and “so you have to adjust to it and actually take
a little bit of each [culture] and then put it together” are words of the participants that were considered natural meaning units. These meaning units were
coded as “being a hybrid” and “combining cultures.” Then, these codes, along
with others, were further grouped into a theme (e.g., “cultural appropriation”),
which helped interpret each participant’s experience and the collective experience of the group. Following this, the three coders met 3 times to discuss
emergent themes. During these meetings, the authors reached consensus on
the dominant themes and found direct quotes to exemplify each. Finally, the
main findings of the inquiry were presented to the larger team of researchers
(including all those who had conducted and transcribed the interviews) for
further refinement, interpretation, and confirmation. Demographic data were
also used to better place the participants’ experiences in context.
Trustworthiness of the Data
The trustworthiness of data in qualitative research is defined by the standards
that should be met in order to ensure the quality and accuracy of the data
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(Morrow, 2005). In this study, a number of methods were used to ensure the
trustworthiness of the data and findings. Themes and interpretations that
could not be sufficiently supported (as determined by the first and second
authors) via direct quotes and thick descriptions were not pursued or included
in the findings. The authors attempted to engage in bracketing—the suspension of prior knowledge or belief about a phenomenon under study (Powers
& Knapp, 1995)—but this approach was deemed impractical considering the
authors’ extensive exposure to the participants and data set and to related
immigration experiences. In response to this, the authors employed the more
contemporary understanding of bracketing as a “dialectic between fresh
experience and prior conceptions” (LeVasseur, 2003, p. 419). Thus, the
authors not only remained open-minded with regard to possible and unexpected interpretations of the data but also integrated this “open curiosity”
with personal experiences and views and extant theory. The relative diversity
among the data analysts (one Chinese American female, one European
American male, and one Asian Indian female) provided a balanced conversational context for the dialectical process. To monitor researcher bias and
check the reliability of the codes and categories, we carefully documented
our coding process and cross-checked our analysis throughout the process.
Discrepancies were discussed in meetings, which helped redefine the codes
and categories.
Findings
Like all immigrants and refugees who resettle in another country, the
Sudanese participants in our study experienced many challenges in their
adaptation to a completely different linguistic, social, and cultural setting. All
immigrants encounter challenges such as language barriers, acculturation difficulties, cultural conflicts, and the loss of the supportive network in the
home country. However, this group of emerging adults faced a range of additional challenges related to their distinctive experiences. First, all of our participants had experienced horrendous and protracted episodes of trauma
before arriving in the United States, and many had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other health concerns. In fact, in another study of Sudanese
refugees, Foa, Johnson, Feeny, and Treadwell (2001) found that the children
in their sample had mean PTSD scores twice those of children who had experienced a single traumatic event. Coping with past traumatic memories and
survivor guilt was very difficult for many. During interviews, nearly all of the
foster parents voiced concerns that the mental health of the youths was a challenge to their adjustment. Second, ambiguous loss was a major struggle for
the great majority of our participants, who did not know if their family
Qin et al.
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members were alive or dead when they first arrived in the United States (see
Luster, Qin, Bates, Johnson, & Rana, 2009). Third, after efforts to locate their
loved ones after arriving in the United States, many emerging adults found
their family, but faced the burden of sending money to their home country to
support their remaining family members. Foster parents mentioned that the
participants received many requests for remittances from Africa, and responding to all those requests would have required much more money than any of
the youth had. Balancing education, work, and the pressure to send money
home was a challenge for most of our participants.
Over time, there were emerging adults who adapted quite well and those
who continued to struggle in their life here. The majority of our participants
in this study adapted well. All the emerging adults we interviewed completed
their high school education and all but three were enrolled in college. For this
article, we use our participants’ standards to differentiate well-adapted from
less well-adapted emerging adults: (a) participants who took advantage of
opportunities for education and work to earn money to support family back
home were considered by their peers as well adapted; (b) participants were
considered well adapted by peers when they took steps to succeed in the U.S.
context, for example, seeking out mentors, taking advice from experienced
people, and maintaining a good credit rating; (c) moving across borders and
becoming transnational citizens were also viewed as a mark of success by
some participants (also see Luster, Qin, Bates, Rana, & Lee, 2010).
When asked what helped them adapt in the new land, our participants
discussed the following four themes: (a) staying connected to home and preserving their culture, (b) making good choices and not becoming too
Americanized, (c) accommodating to the U.S. culture, and (d) engaging in a
process of what we call cultural appropriation. Below, we discuss how these
four themes helped their adaptation after resettlement. In presenting the data,
we have chosen to use direct quotes from the participants, without editing for
grammar, to present the original voices of our interviewees.
Staying Connected to Home and Preserving the Culture:
“Remembering Where We Came From”
In their process of adaptation, the great majority of emerging adults in our
sample actively preserved memories of their experiences before coming to
the United States (e.g., their pre-war life in Sudan as young children and the
traumatic events that sent them into refugee camps) and maintained a strong
connection with their native Sudanese culture. When asked what helped them
adapt, 12 of the 19 emerging adults interviewed mentioned the importance of
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“remembering where we came from.” This connection to their home country
provided a sense of “immigrant optimism” and motivated them to use the
opportunities available here to succeed. For example, Daniel2 said,
Yeah I think what helped me to be successful was the thing that I went through
you know . . . and my high expectation was if I get a chance to go to school, I
will do what I can to be educated person. Yeah . . . so whenever I do something
I think about my background, how did I come here and why am I here? So all
these questions helped me to, to formulate what I will do.
Similarly, another participant, Mareng, commented,
One of the other thing that helps somebody to be successful . . . that just looking
back where you came from. That motivates you to go farther away . . . so you
want to say well I have the opportunity now. I am in the U.S. . . . I want to be
the best as I can be, cause now I have this opportunity, I don’t want to let it go.
The lack of educational opportunities and resources in the refugee camps
motivated the emerging adults to take advantage of educational opportunities
available in the United States. Some participants also noted that now that they
no longer had to focus on basic necessities, such as obtaining food and finding a place to sleep, they could focus their attention on education. For example, Deng said, “I think that the reason some of them are adjusting OK is that
here you got one place to sleep, you got food to eat. You can go to school and
get your education.” Focusing on education helped the emerging adults stay
on the right track and also gave them more opportunities for upward mobility
down the road.
Our participants’ remarks clearly illustrate a “dual frame of reference,”
which enabled many of our participants to view their new circumstances with
a strong sense of immigrant optimism. As a result, they tended to value the
newfound opportunities here and overcome whatever challenges they faced
to succeed in the new land. A number of participants noted that some Sudanese
youths struggled more in their adaptation when they tried to forget about the
past. While the past could be negative and traumatic for our participants, it
also served to motivate them to do better.
Their strong sense of optimism originated both from their inner strength,
which may have helped them to survive the horrendous traumas in the first
place, and the favorable comparison of their current situation with past challenges. During interviews, our participants expressed their strong sense of
optimism despite challenging circumstances after migration. For example,
David, who experienced a lot of discrimination after resettlement, commented
Qin et al.
225
about his future: “Most of the time I always say tomorrow will always be better.” Similarly, Ezekiel, another participant who had experienced considerable
obstacles during resettlement, said, “you be optimistic, you think, OK, maybe
something good will happen, we don’t know.”
Second, in addition to optimism, the connection to and memory of home
gave them a strong sense of focus, cause, and purpose in their lives in the
United States. The emerging adults who adjusted wel
research-article2014
JARXXX10.1177/0743558414547097Journal of Adolescent ResearchQin et al.
Article
“My Culture Helps Me
Make Good Decisions”:
Cultural Adaptation
of Sudanese Refugee
Emerging Adults
Journal of Adolescent Research
2015, Vol. 30(2) 213–243
© The Author(s) 2014
Reprints and permissions:
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DOI: 10.1177/0743558414547097
jar.sagepub.com
Desiree Baolian Qin1,
Andy Saltarelli2, Meenal Rana3, Laura Bates1,
Jungah Ah Lee4, and Deborah J. Johnson1
Abstract
The last two decades have witnessed growing research on the experiences
of children and youth after migration or resettlement. However, nearly all
of this research focuses on children and youth who arrived in the country
with their parents. We know little of the unique experiences of refugee
youngsters who came to this country without parental company. How do
they negotiate the different cultures in the absence of parents? In this article,
we draw on in-depth interview data with 19 Sudanese emerging adults who
came to the United States as unaccompanied refugee minors to examine
issues of acculturation and adaptation. Our findings show that having a strong
root in their native culture and identity helped them make good choices,
maintain focus, and avoid distractions associated with negative aspects of
the U.S. youth culture. Our participants also discussed the importance of
learning the new ways. As a result, those who maintained their native culture
1Michigan
State University, East Lansing, USA
University, CA, USA
3Humboldt State University, CA,USA
4PCCPJ, South Korea
2Stanford
Corresponding Author:
Desiree Baolian Qin, Michigan State University, 103A Human Ecology, East Lansing, MI 48824,
USA.
Email: dqin@msu.edu
214
Journal of Adolescent Research 30(2)
and combined it with the positive aspect of the U.S. culture were the ones
who did best in their adaptation. Our research confirms previous findings on
immigrant and refugee youth with parents that a bicultural orientation is the
best for adaptation. Our findings also illustrate a more specific and agentic
process of cultural appropriation with a flexible orientation.
Keywords
immigrant youth, identity, acculturation, emerging adulthood, Sudanese
refugees, African
At the beginning of the new millennium, the United States is once again witnessing a historical wave of immigration. Included in the growing population
of immigrants are a number of refugees fleeing from war, political oppression,
or religious persecution in their home countries, and seeking a new home in
the United States. Their experiences are often markedly different from those
of immigrants who choose to move to the United States in search of a better
life or to be reunited with family members. Recent statistics show that there
were 2.6 million refugee arrivals in the period 1980 to 2011 (Department of
Human Services, 2011). The last two decades have witnessed growing research
on the experiences of children after migration or resettlement. However,
nearly all of this research focuses on children who arrive in the country with
their parents. We know little of the unique experiences of refugee youngsters
who come to this country without parental accompaniment.
Family, as “a primary agency in the immigrant saga” (Gil & Vega, 1996, p.
436), is instrumental in helping children adapt after migration and overcome barriers in the new society (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). In particular, research has
shown that parents provide the closest link to immigrant children’s native culture
(Lee & Chen, 2000). What happens to children when they do not have the support
of their parents in a totally unfamiliar land? How do they maintain their native
culture? Is their native culture important to them? How do they negotiate the differences between their native culture and the culture of their new home in the
absence of parents? In this article, we examine such issues of acculturation and
adaptation using data from in-depth interviews with a group of Sudanese emerging adults who came to the United States as unaccompanied refugee minors.
Adaptation by Sudanese Unaccompanied Refugee
Minors
An unaccompanied minor is a “person who is under the age of majority and
not accompanied by a parent, guardian, or other person who by law or custom
Qin et al.
215
is responsible for him or her” (Ressler, Boothby, & Steinbock, 1988, p. 7).
Some recent examples of large-scale efforts to resettle unaccompanied minors
include those involving the Cuban children in Operation Pedro Pan (Conde,
1999), the boat people from Southeast Asia (Caplan, Choy, & Whitmore,
1991), and children displaced by wars in Korea and other countries (see
Ressler et al., 1988, for an overview of the resettlement of unaccompanied
minors). The United States is one of the developed nations that have provided
asylum to unaccompanied refugee minors. One group that has been resettled
in the United States are the Sudanese unaccompanied refugee minors, mostly
male and often referred to as the Lost Boys in popular media, who were
largely resettled here after 2000 due to civil war in their homeland.
As a result of the Second Sudanese Civil War, which erupted in 1983,
more than 2 million people were killed and millions more were displaced
(Bixler, 2005). Many Sudanese children were separated from their parents
during this conflict and trekked in peer groups for several weeks or months to
refugee camps in Ethiopia, a hazardous journey during which many perished.
Without their families’ support, the children struggled to obtain basic necessities such as food, clean water, and medical care. In 1991, due to a regime
change in Ethiopia, the children were violently expelled from the refugee
camps. While fleeing back to Sudan, they again witnessed the deaths of many
peers who either drowned in the Gilo River that borders Sudan or were killed
by the Ethiopian army. In Sudan, the children came under attack again by
Northern Sudanese government forces and had to make another arduous trek
to the Kakuma refugee camp established by the United Nations in Kenya
(Hecht, 2005).
The majority of the Lost Boys lived apart from their parents in refugee
camps in Ethiopia (late 1980s to May 1991) and Kenya (June 1992 to 2001)
and in displacement camps in Sudan (Bixler, 2005). Interviews with 147 Lost
Boys from the Dinka tribe in 1993, a little more than a year after they arrived
at the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, revealed that 72% of the boys were
uncertain if they would ever see their families again (Jeppsson & Hjern,
2005). In the absence of parental care, the children banded together in peer
groups, with older males generally providing leadership for their younger
cohorts. For humanitarian reasons, the U.S. government decided to provide
refugee status and resettle youths whose parents were deceased or untraceable. Eventually, about 3,500 were resettled in the United States (Bates et al.,
2005). Compared with those left behind in the refugee camps, these youths
who were able to leave with opportunities to start a new life were the fortunate ones.
The Sudanese emerging adults’ experience of living as displaced persons
for more than a decade and being resettled without parental support makes
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Journal of Adolescent Research 30(2)
them a very unique group of refugees. Most research on refugee children has
focused on those who live with at least one of their parents (e.g., Zhou &
Bankston, 1998), and one of the most consistent findings is that refugee children’s adjustment is related to the support they receive from their parents and
how well their parents cope with adverse circumstances (Farwell, 2001; Joshi
& O’Donnell, 2003; Shaw, 2003; Singer & Wilson, 2006). When children do
not have their parents, how do they maintain their culture? How does this
influence their adaptation? Refugee children who are separated from their
parents benefit from establishing supportive relationships with alternative
caregivers (Moskovitz, 1985; Ressler et al., 1988) and close relationships
with peers (Freud & Dann, 1951; Goodman, 2004). The values and expectations parents passed on to their children prior to separation may also influence the youths during their parents’ absence (Ressler et al., 1988).
Theoretical Consideration of Immigrant
Adaptation and Assimilation
The study of immigrant and refugee children and youths is relatively new—
until recently, the majority of research on immigrants has been done on adults
(Suárez-Orozco & Suárez-Orozco, 2001). Previous models of immigrant
adaptation and assimilation have been largely based on the experiences of
earlier European immigrants, emphasizing the “unilinear, nonreversible, and
continuous” process of acculturation and structural assimilation that moves
toward the finishing line of “the middle-class, white, Protestant, European
American framework of the dominant society” (Suárez-Orozco, 2000, p. 8).
The majority of these immigrants, in the process of assimilation, gradually
lose their ethnic language and culture; as some scholars put it, ethnicity is
eventually reduced to something primarily “symbolic” (Gans, 1979) and
“optional” (Alba & Nee, 1997).
A central premise in current research on immigration, assimilation, and
mobility suggests, contrary to earlier models, that preserving ethnicity, for
example, parental culture, language, and ties to the ethnic community, in the
process of acculturation can actually facilitate successful adaptation (Gibson,
1988; Portes & Zhou, 1993; Suárez-Orozco, Suárez-Orozco, & Todorova,
2010; Waters, 1996). First generation immigrants often maintain “immigrant
optimism” and have a “dual frame of reference,” comparing the circumstances in the host country with those of their countries of origin. This comparison enables many immigrants to remain upbeat about the improvement
over their past circumstances and optimistic about their future prospects
(Ogbu & Simons, 1998). Studies published in the last two decades have
Qin et al.
217
provided convincing evidence that preserving immigrant parents’ language
and culture is positively linked to children’s educational and psychosocial
outcomes. For example, drawing on a sample of 163 Cambodian American
students in Massachusetts, Dinh, Weinstein, Kim, and Ho (2008) found that
retaining a Cambodian cultural orientation has positive benefits for
Cambodian students.
However, maintaining the native culture alone is not enough. It is also
important for immigrants and refugees to learn new ways of life, as demonstrated by other research showing that a bicultural orientation is associated
with positive educational and psychosocial outcomes (Lutz, 2004; Nguyen &
Benet-Martínez, 2013; Portes & MacLeod, 1996; Suárez-Orozco et al., 2010;
White & Glick, 2000; Zhou & Bankston, 1998). A study on Spanish speaking
students by Lutz and Crist (2009) found that biliterate students, especially
boys, reported higher grade point averages (GPA) than those with limited
Spanish proficiency. In addition, compared with their assimilated peers,
bicultural and bilingual immigrant youths have fewer behavioral or psychosocial problems. Similarly, a number of studies on Latino middle school students show that a bicultural orientation and a strong ethnic identity are
positively related to high levels of academic achievement and low levels of
externalizing behaviors or drug use (Epstein, Botvin, & Diaz, 2001; Gonzales
et al., 2008; S. J. Schwartz, Zamboanga, & Jarvis, 2007).
Further, biculturalism has also been shown to have a negative influence on
depression and other psychosocial adjustment problems. For example, drawing on a sample of 246 seventh- and eighth-grade Mexican American adolescents, Love and Buriel (2007) found that for boys, biculturalism (measured
by extrafamilial language use, familial language use, and ethnic social relations) has a significantly negative correlation with depression levels.
Compared with their peers with a bicultural orientation, youths who were
more assimilated to the U.S. culture reported more problematic behaviors
and less parental monitoring. Moreover, drawing on a sample of 315 Hispanic
adolescents and their primary caregivers, Coatsworth, Maladonado-Molina,
Pantin, and Szapocznik (2005) found that bicultural youths showed significantly higher levels of academic competence, peer competence, and parental
monitoring than all other groups. These results are consistent with other studies that found the bicultural lifestyle to be the most adaptive (Berry, 2003;
Organista, Organista, & Kurasaki, 2003).
Much of the above research examines issues of assimilation and adaptation for immigrant children who came to this country with their parents. In
particular, research has shown that having a bicultural orientation, especially
a strong ethnic identity rooted in the parents’ culture of origin, is associated
with decreasing parent-child conflict and better parent-child relations
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Journal of Adolescent Research 30(2)
(Sullivan et al., 2007). Indeed, parents are seen as the primary transmitter of
cultural knowledge for immigrant children (Portes & Rumbaut, 2001). What
about children who grew up in another country but came to the United States
without their parents, as unaccompanied minors? How do they adapt to life in
the United States? How do they maintain their culture? Do they also develop
a bicultural identity, or are they more likely to be assimilated into U.S. culture? Will their different cultural orientations have implications for their education and adaptation after resettlement?
Emerging Adulthood and Resilience
Emerging adulthood (ages 18-25; see Arnett, 2000) also provides an important and unique developmental context within which to examine the cultural
adaptation of the Sudanese refugees in our study. Demographic and economic
shifts in Western industrial nations in the past 40 years have afforded 18- to
25-year-olds an extended period of identity exploration (cf. Erikson, 1968, on
the psychosocial moratorium) in the areas of love, work, and worldviews
(Arnett, 2006; S. J. Schwartz, 2001). Specifically, the theory of emerging
adulthood posits that five features mark this distinct developmental period:
identity exploration, instability, self-focus, a feeling of being in-between, and
a sense of possibility or potential (Arnett, 2006). These five characteristics
represent important socio-contextual factors that influence the course (see
Steinberg & Avenevoli, 2000) of adaptation in youths between the ages of 18
and 25.
Identity exploration is particularly salient for immigrants and minority
emerging adults because they must negotiate the achievement of not only
individual identity (see Marcia, 1980) but also ethnic identity, which is often
of more central importance to them (Phinney & Alipuria, 1990). Research
suggests that ethnic identity exploration extends throughout the 20s (and
often beyond) and, in many cases, is further prolonged for immigrants and
minorities as a reaction to conflicting messages about their ethnic identity
disseminated by majority American culture (Phinney, 2006). The developmental path and timing of ethnic identity achievement are now largely viewed
as a product of dynamic interactions between individual and contextual factors (cf. Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000), with emerging adulthood seen as an
influential socio-contextual component. In accordance with the model of
equifinality (many paths, but one common outcome), empirical results suggest that an “integration profile” of acculturation (with high investment in
both ethnic and mainstream cultures; see Berry, Phinney, Sam, & Vedder,
2006) leads to the best psychological and socio-cultural adaptation outcomes
(Phinney, Horenczyk, Liebkind, & Vedder, 2001).
Qin et al.
219
Resilience (positive adaptation in the presence of risk; see Luthar,
Cicchetti, & Becker, 2000) is also a prominent issue for refugee emerging
adults, as they are faced with adapting to developmental transitions and
stressors in emerging adulthood (e.g., work, romantic relationships) that are
embedded within new cultural roles and expectations. Further, refugees often
have experienced physical and/or psychological trauma prior to immigration,
which not only adds to the stressors of emerging adulthood but also introduces maladaptive patterns developed under those earlier traumatic conditions (see Luster, Bates, & Johnson, 2006). There is strong evidence to
suggest continuity between prior patterns of adaptation and resilience developed in adolescence and future resilience in emerging adulthood (see Masten
et al., 2004), but there are also documented instances in which maladaptive
patterns are dramatically altered by subsequent positive opportunities (e.g.,
Werner & Smith, 2001).
What has not been examined in this body of literature is how non-Western
(e.g., Sudanese) 18- to 25-year-old immigrants negotiate the transition into a
Western culture where a protracted period of emerging adulthood is developmentally normative. This gap in understanding is especially salient for unaccompanied refugees, who have often lived without parents for many years.
Thus, the current study seeks to clarify these issues by examining the adaptation patterns of unaccompanied Sudanese refugees who were resettled in the
United States during adolescence and emerging adulthood after experiencing
protracted periods of physical and psychological trauma as children and
adolescents.
Method
This study is part of a larger research project on Sudanese Lost Boys first
started in 2001, focusing on risk, resilience, and adaptation to a new culture
among unaccompanied refugee youths resettled in the mid-Michigan area.
Data for this article were drawn from in-depth interviews with Sudanese
emerging adults.
Participants
Between November 2000 and April 2001, 89 unaccompanied refugee minors
from Sudan resettled in Lansing and neighboring communities in Michigan
through the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program. Children in this program are placed in foster homes and receive services to help them adapt to
their new life until the age of 20. Emerging adults older than 18 may transition into supervised independent living. Youths as well as their foster parents
220
Journal of Adolescent Research 30(2)
receive financial assistance, monitoring, and other necessary services through
home visits by caseworkers and group meetings.
During a previous phase of the research project, 15 American foster parents of Sudanese refugees were interviewed. We then asked these parents to
provide contact information for their Sudanese foster children. With this
information and the assistance of a Sudanese cultural consultant and the
resettlement agency, we invited 24 emerging adults to participate in this
study, and 19 agreed to do so. Two males and three females declined to participate in the study, and no further information is known about these individuals or why they chose not to participate. The 19 participants in our sample
represent 21% of the 89 unaccompanied minors resettled in the mid-Michigan area. It is important to note that the emerging adults who participated in
our study were likely, on average, better adapted than those who did not.
Many emerging adults whom we did not invite to participate could not be
contacted or interviewed because they had lost touch with or become
estranged from their foster parents or had serious mental health issues.
At the time of the interviews, all of the Sudanese refugees were emerging
adults, ranging in age from 18 to 26 years (M = 22 years; SD = 2.31). Of the
19 participants we interviewed, 17 were male and 2 were female (only 13
females were resettled in the Lansing area, and of the 3,800 Lost Boys resettled in the United States, only 89 were female; Bureau of Population,
Refugees, and Migration, 2005). Eighteen identified themselves ethnically as
Dinka, the largest ethnic group in Southern Sudan1, and one identified himself as from another, smaller tribe. At the time of resettlement, the mean age
of the youths was 15 years (SD = 2.34), and the youngest child was 11. Some
did not know their exact age, and in those cases, we used the age estimated
by the United Nations based on their level of physical maturity when examined in the refugee camp. At the time of the interviews, 12 participants were
enrolled in college, 2 had graduated from 4-year universities, 1 had obtained
a training certificate from a community college, and 4 were not currently
enrolled but planned to return to school. Four of the emerging adults were
parents themselves, including both females.
Procedures
We conducted semi-structured interviews with the emerging adults, which
took approximately 2 hours to complete. The interviews focused on their
adaptation and adjustment in the United States, their experiences in foster
care, and their identity. Data for this article were drawn mainly from the first
section, which asked the participants about their general adaptation, challenges, educational experiences, and future goals. More specifically, we
Qin et al.
221
asked the participants what helped them in their adjustment and why some of
the Sudanese emerging adults seemed to be adjusting well while others were
experiencing more challenges. The interviews were conducted in English by
four researchers (two European American men and two Asian women), three
of whom are authors of this article. All of the interviews were taped with the
consent of the participants and later transcribed verbatim by paid research
assistants. The transcripts of the interviews were sent to the original interviewers to be examined for accuracy before they were coded.
Data Analysis
The goal of this study was to describe and understand the lived experience of
a group of unaccompanied refugee Sudanese minors adjusting to living in the
United States from a cultural perspective. As such, the authors took the phenomenological inquiry approach, which focuses on understanding and describing the human experience in the contexts of families, communities, and
cultures (Gilgun, 2005; Giorgi & Giorgi, 2003). The authors followed the
steps of phenomenological inquiry as outlined by Giorgi (1985): First, the
three coders read the interview transcripts in their entirety to begin developing
an overall sense of the participants’ experiences. Next, natural meaning units
(i.e., portions of the text that were judged to relate to an identifiable theme
across many interviews) were identified and transformed into codes. For
example, “I’ve become like a hybrid between here, two cultures you know and
these two cultures make me” and “so you have to adjust to it and actually take
a little bit of each [culture] and then put it together” are words of the participants that were considered natural meaning units. These meaning units were
coded as “being a hybrid” and “combining cultures.” Then, these codes, along
with others, were further grouped into a theme (e.g., “cultural appropriation”),
which helped interpret each participant’s experience and the collective experience of the group. Following this, the three coders met 3 times to discuss
emergent themes. During these meetings, the authors reached consensus on
the dominant themes and found direct quotes to exemplify each. Finally, the
main findings of the inquiry were presented to the larger team of researchers
(including all those who had conducted and transcribed the interviews) for
further refinement, interpretation, and confirmation. Demographic data were
also used to better place the participants’ experiences in context.
Trustworthiness of the Data
The trustworthiness of data in qualitative research is defined by the standards
that should be met in order to ensure the quality and accuracy of the data
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Journal of Adolescent Research 30(2)
(Morrow, 2005). In this study, a number of methods were used to ensure the
trustworthiness of the data and findings. Themes and interpretations that
could not be sufficiently supported (as determined by the first and second
authors) via direct quotes and thick descriptions were not pursued or included
in the findings. The authors attempted to engage in bracketing—the suspension of prior knowledge or belief about a phenomenon under study (Powers
& Knapp, 1995)—but this approach was deemed impractical considering the
authors’ extensive exposure to the participants and data set and to related
immigration experiences. In response to this, the authors employed the more
contemporary understanding of bracketing as a “dialectic between fresh
experience and prior conceptions” (LeVasseur, 2003, p. 419). Thus, the
authors not only remained open-minded with regard to possible and unexpected interpretations of the data but also integrated this “open curiosity”
with personal experiences and views and extant theory. The relative diversity
among the data analysts (one Chinese American female, one European
American male, and one Asian Indian female) provided a balanced conversational context for the dialectical process. To monitor researcher bias and
check the reliability of the codes and categories, we carefully documented
our coding process and cross-checked our analysis throughout the process.
Discrepancies were discussed in meetings, which helped redefine the codes
and categories.
Findings
Like all immigrants and refugees who resettle in another country, the
Sudanese participants in our study experienced many challenges in their
adaptation to a completely different linguistic, social, and cultural setting. All
immigrants encounter challenges such as language barriers, acculturation difficulties, cultural conflicts, and the loss of the supportive network in the
home country. However, this group of emerging adults faced a range of additional challenges related to their distinctive experiences. First, all of our participants had experienced horrendous and protracted episodes of trauma
before arriving in the United States, and many had posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other health concerns. In fact, in another study of Sudanese
refugees, Foa, Johnson, Feeny, and Treadwell (2001) found that the children
in their sample had mean PTSD scores twice those of children who had experienced a single traumatic event. Coping with past traumatic memories and
survivor guilt was very difficult for many. During interviews, nearly all of the
foster parents voiced concerns that the mental health of the youths was a challenge to their adjustment. Second, ambiguous loss was a major struggle for
the great majority of our participants, who did not know if their family
Qin et al.
223
members were alive or dead when they first arrived in the United States (see
Luster, Qin, Bates, Johnson, & Rana, 2009). Third, after efforts to locate their
loved ones after arriving in the United States, many emerging adults found
their family, but faced the burden of sending money to their home country to
support their remaining family members. Foster parents mentioned that the
participants received many requests for remittances from Africa, and responding to all those requests would have required much more money than any of
the youth had. Balancing education, work, and the pressure to send money
home was a challenge for most of our participants.
Over time, there were emerging adults who adapted quite well and those
who continued to struggle in their life here. The majority of our participants
in this study adapted well. All the emerging adults we interviewed completed
their high school education and all but three were enrolled in college. For this
article, we use our participants’ standards to differentiate well-adapted from
less well-adapted emerging adults: (a) participants who took advantage of
opportunities for education and work to earn money to support family back
home were considered by their peers as well adapted; (b) participants were
considered well adapted by peers when they took steps to succeed in the U.S.
context, for example, seeking out mentors, taking advice from experienced
people, and maintaining a good credit rating; (c) moving across borders and
becoming transnational citizens were also viewed as a mark of success by
some participants (also see Luster, Qin, Bates, Rana, & Lee, 2010).
When asked what helped them adapt in the new land, our participants
discussed the following four themes: (a) staying connected to home and preserving their culture, (b) making good choices and not becoming too
Americanized, (c) accommodating to the U.S. culture, and (d) engaging in a
process of what we call cultural appropriation. Below, we discuss how these
four themes helped their adaptation after resettlement. In presenting the data,
we have chosen to use direct quotes from the participants, without editing for
grammar, to present the original voices of our interviewees.
Staying Connected to Home and Preserving the Culture:
“Remembering Where We Came From”
In their process of adaptation, the great majority of emerging adults in our
sample actively preserved memories of their experiences before coming to
the United States (e.g., their pre-war life in Sudan as young children and the
traumatic events that sent them into refugee camps) and maintained a strong
connection with their native Sudanese culture. When asked what helped them
adapt, 12 of the 19 emerging adults interviewed mentioned the importance of
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Journal of Adolescent Research 30(2)
“remembering where we came from.” This connection to their home country
provided a sense of “immigrant optimism” and motivated them to use the
opportunities available here to succeed. For example, Daniel2 said,
Yeah I think what helped me to be successful was the thing that I went through
you know . . . and my high expectation was if I get a chance to go to school, I
will do what I can to be educated person. Yeah . . . so whenever I do something
I think about my background, how did I come here and why am I here? So all
these questions helped me to, to formulate what I will do.
Similarly, another participant, Mareng, commented,
One of the other thing that helps somebody to be successful . . . that just looking
back where you came from. That motivates you to go farther away . . . so you
want to say well I have the opportunity now. I am in the U.S. . . . I want to be
the best as I can be, cause now I have this opportunity, I don’t want to let it go.
The lack of educational opportunities and resources in the refugee camps
motivated the emerging adults to take advantage of educational opportunities
available in the United States. Some participants also noted that now that they
no longer had to focus on basic necessities, such as obtaining food and finding a place to sleep, they could focus their attention on education. For example, Deng said, “I think that the reason some of them are adjusting OK is that
here you got one place to sleep, you got food to eat. You can go to school and
get your education.” Focusing on education helped the emerging adults stay
on the right track and also gave them more opportunities for upward mobility
down the road.
Our participants’ remarks clearly illustrate a “dual frame of reference,”
which enabled many of our participants to view their new circumstances with
a strong sense of immigrant optimism. As a result, they tended to value the
newfound opportunities here and overcome whatever challenges they faced
to succeed in the new land. A number of participants noted that some Sudanese
youths struggled more in their adaptation when they tried to forget about the
past. While the past could be negative and traumatic for our participants, it
also served to motivate them to do better.
Their strong sense of optimism originated both from their inner strength,
which may have helped them to survive the horrendous traumas in the first
place, and the favorable comparison of their current situation with past challenges. During interviews, our participants expressed their strong sense of
optimism despite challenging circumstances after migration. For example,
David, who experienced a lot of discrimination after resettlement, commented
Qin et al.
225
about his future: “Most of the time I always say tomorrow will always be better.” Similarly, Ezekiel, another participant who had experienced considerable
obstacles during resettlement, said, “you be optimistic, you think, OK, maybe
something good will happen, we don’t know.”
Second, in addition to optimism, the connection to and memory of home
gave them a strong sense of focus, cause, and purpose in their lives in the
United States. The emerging adults who adjusted wel
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