Refugee women’s experiences and needs are qualitatively different from those of men. However, women’s experiences have long been overlooked in favor of a male-centered paradigm that governs the response to survivors of warfare. To close this gap in science and practice, a needs assessment was conducted with 31 refugee women. The findings revealed the importance of considering the impact of refugee women’s sociodemographic characteristics on their experiences in resettlement and the significance of their need for basic resources. Meeting these needs may facilitate the resettlement process and ameliorate the gendered effects of resettlement on refugee women.
Ager, A. ( 1999). Perspectives on the refugee experience. In A. Ager (Ed.), Refugees: Perspectives on the experience of forced migration (pp. 10-23). New York: Pinter.
2.
Allotey, P. ( 1998). Traveling with ‘‘excess baggage’’: Health problems of refugee women in western Australia. Women & Health, 28, 63-81.
3.
Barnes, D., Harrison, C., & Heneghan, R. ( 2004). Health risk and promotion behaviors in refugee populations . Journal of Healthcare for the Poor and Underserved, 15, 347-356.
4.
Beiser, M., & Hou, F. ( 2001). Language acquisition, unemployment and depressive disorder among Southeast Asian refugees: A 10-year study. Social Science & Medicine, 53, 1321-1334.
5.
Belle, D., & Doucet, J. ( 2003). Poverty, inequality, and discrimination as sources of depression among U.S. women. Psychology of Women Quarterly , 27, 101-113.
6.
Benson, J. ( 1994). Reinterpreting gender: Southeast Asian refugees and American society. In L. A. Camino & R. M. Krulfeld (Eds.), Reconstructing lives, recapturing meaning: Refugee identity, gender, and culture change (pp. 22-45). New York: Gordon & Breach.
7.
Chung, R.C., Bemak, F., & Kagwa-Singer, M. (1998). Gender differences in psychological distress among Southeast Asian refugees. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 186, 112-119.
8.
Cockburn, C. ( 2001). The gendered dynamics of armed conflict and political violence. In C. O. N. Moser & F. C. Clark (Eds.), Victims, perpetrators or actors? Gender, armed conflict and political violence (pp. 13-29). New York: Zed Books.
9.
Comas-Diaz, L., & Jansen, M.A. ( 1995). Global conflict and violence against women. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 1, 315-331.
10.
Davis, R. ( 2000). Refugee experiences and Southeast Asian women’s mental health. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 22, 144-168.
11.
Dona, G., & Berry, J.W. ( 1999). Refugee acculturation and reacculturation. In A. Ager (Ed.), Refugees: Perspectives on the experience of forced migration (pp. 211-222). New York: Pinter.
12.
Ha, P., & Mesfin, E. ( 1990). Refugee women in the Houston metropolitan area. In W. H. Holtzman & T. H. Bornemann (Eds.), Mental health of immigrants and refugees (pp. 95-110). Austin, TX: Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
13.
Hintze, J. ( 2001). NCSS and PASS 2002. Kaysville, UT : Number Cruncher Statistical Systems.
14.
Hynes, M., & Cardozo, B.L. ( 2000). Sexual violence against refugee women. Journal of Women’s Health & Gender-Based Medicine, 9, 819-823.
15.
Indra, D.M. ( 1991). Some anthropological qualifications on the effects of ethnicity and social change on mental health. Sante Culture Health, 13, 7-31.
16.
Jaccard, J., & Wan, C.K. ( 1996). LISREL approaches to interaction effects in multiple regression. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
17.
Jentsch, B., Durham, R., Hundley, V., & Hussein, J. ( 2007). Creating consumer satisfaction in maternity care: The neglected needs of migrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 31, 128-134.
18.
Kaufman, R., Rojas, A.M., & Mayer, H. ( 1993). Needs assessment: A users guide. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications .
19.
Kulig, J. ( 1994). Old traditions in a new world: Changing gender relations among Cambodian refugees. In L. A. Camino & R. Krulfeld (Eds.), Reconstructing lives, recapturing meaning: Refugee identity, gender, and culture change (pp. 67-87). New York: Gordon & Breach.
20.
Lipson, J., Weinstein, H., Gladstone, E., & Sarnoff. (2003). Bosnian and Soviet refugees’ experiences with healthcare. Western Journal of Nursing, 25, 854-874.
21.
McDonough, P., & Berglund, P. ( 2003). Histories of poverty and self-rated health trajectories . Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 44, 198-214.
22.
Miller, K.E., Weine, S.M., Ramic, A., Brkic, N., Bjedic, Z.D., Smajkic, A., et al. (2002). The relative contribution of war experiences and exile-related stressors to levels of psychological distress among Bosnian refugees. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 15, 377-387.
23.
Pumariega, A., Rothe, E., & Pumariega, J.B. (2005). Mental health of immigrants and refugees. Community Mental Health Journal, 41, 581-597.
24.
Reinharz, S. ( 1992). Feminist methods in social research. New York: Oxford University Press.
25.
Roberts, H. (Ed.). (1990). Doing feminist research (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.
26.
Sideris, T. ( 2003). War, gender and culture: Mozambican women refugees. Social Science & Medicine, 56, 713-724.
27.
Siefert, L., Heflin, N., Corcoran, M., & Williams, P. ( 2001). Food insufficiency and the physical and mental health of low-income women. Women & Health, 32, 159-177.
28.
United Nations High Commission for Refugees. ( 2007). Protecting refugees and the role of the UNHCR. Retrieved January 21, 2008, from http://www.unhcr.org/basics/BASICS/4034b6a34.pdf
29.
United Nations High Commission for Refugees. ( 2008). Asylum levels and trends in industrialized countries, 2007: Statistical overview of asylum applications lodged in Europe and selected non-European countries. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/STATISTICS/47daae862.pdf
30.
Weinstein, H.M., Sarnoff, R.H., Gladstone, E., & Lipson, J.G. ( 2000). Physical and psychological health issues of resettled refugees in the United States. Journal of Refugee Studies , 13, 303-327.
31.
Willis, M., & Nkwocha, O. ( 2004). Health and related factors for Sudanese refugees in Nebraska . Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 8, 19-35.
