The Canterbury Earthquakes and refugee communities

Authors

  • Jay Marlowe Senior lecturer at the School of Counselling, Human Services and Social Work at the University of Auckland.
  • Lucy Lou Master of Social Work (Professional) student at the University of Auckland.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol25iss2id81

Keywords:

canterbury earthquakes, christchurch earthquakes, disaster, refugees, diversity, social work practice, disaster risk reduction,

Abstract

The Canterbury earthquakes and subsequent aftershocks have presented a number of challenges forresettled refugee communities living in this region. These events highlight the need to recognise the diversity within culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) populations for effective disaster preparedness and response initiatives. This paper presents a pilot study of focus groups conducted with the Ethiopian, Afghan and Bhutanese communities about their perspectives and responses to this particular disaster. The participant comments illustrate both the forms of resilience and potential vulnerabilities within these distinct communities and reveal how social work can play an important role in disaster risk reduction strategies.

References

Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing grounded theory. London, UK: Sage Publications.

Christchurch Migrant Inter-Agency Group. (2011). Christchurch Migrant Inter-Agency Group: Lessons learned following the earthquakes of 22 February 2011. Christchurch, NZ: Christchurch Migrant Inter-Agency Network.

Christchurch Resettlement Services. (2011). Annual Report 2011/12. Christchurch, NZ.

Corin, C. (2011). Practice notes: The Christchurch Hospital Social Work Service response in the first hours after the Christchurch earthquake of 22nd February 2011. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 23(4), 58-62.

Desai, A. (2007). Disaster and social work responses. In L. Dominelli (Ed.), Revitalising communities in a globalised world (pp. 297-314). Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing.

Fenta, H., Hyman, I., & Noh, S. (2004). Determinants of depression among Ethiopian immigrants and refugees in Toronto. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 192, 363-372. doi: 10.1097/01.nmd.0000126729.08179.07.

Ferguson, B. (2011). The Bhutanese refugee resettlement journey – Part 3: Settlement. Wellington, NZ: Department of Labour.

Fozdar, F. (2009). “The Golden Country”: Ex-Yugoslav and African refugee experiences of settlement and “depression”. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35, 1335-1352. doi: 10.1080/13691830903123120.

Fozdar, F. (2012). Social cohesion and skilled Muslim refugees in Australia: Employment, social capital and discrimination. Journal of Sociology, 48(2), 167-186. doi: 10.1177/1440783311413482.

Goenjian, A. K., Steinberg, A. M., Najarian, L. M., Fairbanks, L. A., Tashjian, M., & Pynoos, R. S. (2000). Prospective study of posttraumatic stress, anxiety, and depressive reactions after earthquake and political violence. American Journal of Psychiatry, 157(6), 911-916.

Gozdziak, E. M. (2004). Training refugee mental health providers: Ethnography as a bridge to multicultural practice. Human Organization, 63(2), 203-210. doi: 10.1016/0277-9536(89)90281-5.

Hamilton, J. (2011). New Zealand national progress report on the implementation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (2009-2011). Wellington, NZ: Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management.

Harris, V., & Marlowe, J. (2011). Hard yards and high hopes: The educational challenges of African refugee students in Australia. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23(2), 186-196.

Kayser, K., Wind, L., & Shankar, R. A. (2008). Disaster relief within a collectivistic context: Supporting resilience after the tsunami in South India. Journal of Social Service Research, 34(3), 87.

Kirmayer, L., & Kienzler, H. (2010). Trauma and disasters in social and cultural context. In D. B. Craig Morgan (Ed.), Principles of Social Psychiatry (2nd ed.). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons.

Marlowe, J. (2009). Conceptualising refugee resettlement in contested landscapes. Australasian Review of African Studies, 30(2), 128-151.

Marlowe, J. (2011). Sudanese settlement: Employing strategies of intercultural contact and cultural maintenance. Australasian Review of African Studies, 32(2), 101-117.

Marlowe, J. (2012). “Walking the line”: Southern Sudanese masculinities and reconciling one’s past with the present. Ethnicities, 12(1), 50-66. doi: 10.1177/1468796811419605.

Marlowe, J., & Adamson, C. (2011). Teaching trauma: Critically engaging with a troublesome term. Social Work Education, 30(6), 623-634.

McLean, I., Oughton, D., Ellis, S., Wakelin, B., & Rubin, C. B. (2012). Review of the civil defence emergency management response to the 22 February Christchurch earthquake. Wellington, NZ: Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management.

Ministry of Health. (2012). Refugee health care: A handbook for professionals. Wellington, NZ: Author.

Osman, M., Hornblow, A., Macleod, S., & Coope, P. (2012). Christchurch earthquakes: How did former refugees cope? The New Zealand Medical Journal, 125(1357).

Pyles, L. (2007). Community organizing for post-disaster social development: Locating social work. International Social Work, 50(3), 321-333.

Refugee ServicesAotearoa New Zealand. (n.d.). Nationalities of refugees resettled in New Zealand (1944-2008) (Table).

Rousseau, C., & Measham, T. (2007). Posttraumatic suffering as a source of transformation: A clinical perspective. In L. Kirmayer, R. Lemelson, & M. Barad (Eds.), Understanding trauma: Integrating biological, clinical, and cultural perspectives (pp. 275-293). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Sampson, R., & Gifford, S. (2009). Place-making, settlement and well-being: The therapeutic landscapes of recently arrived youth with refugee backgrounds. Health & Place, 16(1), 116-131.

Searle, W., Prouse, E., L’Ami, E., Gray, A., & Gruner, A. (2012). New land, new life: Long-term settlement of refugees in New Zealand – main report. Wellington, NZ: Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment.

Thomas, T., Ott, J. S., & Liese, H. (2011). Coproduction, participation and satisfaction with rehabilitation services following the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, India. International Social Work, 54(6), 751.

Tilbury, F. (2007). “I feel I am a bird without wings”: Discourses of sadness and loss among East Africans in Western Australia. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, 14, 433-458.

UNHCR. (2012). UNHCR Global Appeal 2012-2013. Geneva, Switzerland: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

UNISDR. (2005, January). Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters. World Conference on Disaster Reduction. Kobe, Japan: United Nations, International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

Wylie, S. (2012). Best practice guidelines: Engaging with culturally and linguistically diverse(CALD) communitiesin times of disaster. Christchurch, NZ: Community Language Information Network Group (CLING).

Downloads

Published

2016-05-15

How to Cite

Marlowe, J., & Lou, L. (2016). The Canterbury Earthquakes and refugee communities. Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work, 25(2), 58–68. https://doi.org/10.11157/anzswj-vol25iss2id81

Issue

Vol. 25 No. 2 (2013)

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

By completing the online submission process, you confirm you accept this agreement. The following is the entire agreement between you and the Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) and it may be modified only in writing.

You and any co-authors

If you are completing this agreement on behalf of co-authors, you confirm that you are acting on their behalf with their knowledge.

First publication

By submitting the work you are:

  1. granting the ANZASW the right of first publication of this work;
  2. confirming that the work is original; and
  3. confirming that the work has not been published in any other form.

Once published, you are free to use the final, accepted version in any way, as outlined below under Copyright.

Copyright

You assign copyright in the final, accepted version of your article to the ANZASW. You and any co-authors of the article retain the right to be identified as authors of the work.

The ANZASW will publish the final, accepted manuscript under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This licence allows anyone – including you – to share, copy, distribute, transmit, adapt and make commercial use of the work without needing additional permission, provided appropriate attribution is made to the original author or source.

A human-readable summary of the licence is available from http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0, which includes a link to the full licence text.

Under this licence you can use the final, published version of the article freely – such as depositing a copy in your institutional research repository, uploading a copy to your profile on an academic networking site or including it in a different publication, such as a collection of articles on a topic or in conference proceedings – provided that original publication in Aotearoa New Zealand Social Work is acknowledged.

This agreement has no effect on any pre-publication versions or elements, which remain entirely yours, and to which we claim no right.

Reviewers hold copyright in their own comments and should not be further copied in any way without their permission.

The copyright of others

If your article includes the copyright material of others (e.g. graphs, diagrams etc.), you confirm that your use either:

  1. falls within the limits of fair dealing for the purposes of criticism and review or fair use; OR
  2. that you have gained permission from the rights holder for publication in an open access journal.