Exploring Syrian Refugees’ Access to Medical and Social Support Services Using a Trauma-Informed Analytic Framework

Neda Moayerian (), Max Stephenson, Muddather Abu Karaki and Renad Abbadi
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Neda Moayerian: School of Urban Planning, University of Tehran, Tehran 14155-6619, Iran
Max Stephenson: Institute for Policy and Governance, School of Public and International Affairs Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
Muddather Abu Karaki: Department of Media and Strategic Studies, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Ma’an 71111, Jordan
Renad Abbadi: Department of English Language and Literature, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University, Ma’an 71111, Jordan

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 3, 1-18

Abstract: Even after arrival in new countries, refugees may be exposed to traumatic events. This state is exacerbated by contextual stressors, including the resettlement process, asylum proceedings and threats of deportation. This paper is rooted in a trauma-informed framework. We interviewed 16 male Syrian refugee migrant workers employed on a Jordanian farm during crop harvesting season to explore the quality and level of medical care and mental health services they received in light of the framework’s principal dimensions (e.g., safety, trust, intersectionality). We found that this vulnerable group of individuals is living a marginal and marginalized existence and depends on the goodwill of the growers for whom they work to treat them with a modicum of dignity and respect. Second, their itinerancy makes it difficult for this population to take advantage of available medical and mental health services at the nation’s major refugee camps. Finally, our interlocutors preferred their current lives, as isolating and limiting as they are, as superior to full-time residence in the camps, because they perceive their present way of life as according a measure of dignity, self-direction and autonomy they could not enjoy in the camps.

Keywords: refugees; Syria; Jordan; trauma-informed framework; intersectionality; refugee camps (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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