Overview

In Refugee Pathways to Peace: Escaping the Chaos of War, Janet Mancini Billson provides perspectives of Vietnamese, Syrian, Congolese, Liberian, and Ukrainian refugees, and the resettlement agencies that smooth their transition into a new life context. Despite welcoming refugee policies, challenges arise in Canada’s uniquely positive context. Participants discuss how they overcome displacement and cope with the trauma of leaving home and family behind. As they craft viable new lives, refugees remain vulnerable to marginality and delays in economic independence. Following Refugee Pathways to Freedom, Billson details how refugees are double victims of conflict and a glacially slow resettlement process, and places the refugee experience into a human rights framework. She offers recommendations for improving a global refugee system that is creaking as displacement escalates. She calls for limiting the sojourn in refugee camps to two years to help reduce negative impacts and maximize newcomer well-being. She concludes that the true “epidemic” is conflict (displacing 100,000,000 persons annually). Shifting the focus toward diplomacy and peacebuilding before minor conflicts become “hot spots” is crucial, as is streamlining refugee selection processes to reduce despair and lost years. Participants make specific policy suggestions that would enhance rather than degrade refugee well-being during resettlement.

Full Product Details

9781666925555

Table of Contents

Reviews

""Janet Mancini Billson's cross-cultural approach is laudable, and her trans-cultural approach draws upon a rich and humane history of the reception of immigrants in Canada. The choices of Vietnam, Syria, DR Congo, Liberia, and Ukraine -- with a special chapter on gender and refugees -- make for a well-balanced total work. This book makes a significant contribution to the literature relating to resettlement and building a new life after mainly traumatic circumstances affecting these communities."" --Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, Rhode Island College

Author Information

Janet Mancini Billson is former professor of sociology and women’s studies at Rhode Island College and The George Washington University.

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