How Refugees Conceptualise Success: Grounding Definitions and Examining Heterogeneity

Abstract

The global refugee system prioritises self-sufficiency as a prime objective, but refugees may have different views of their success. To assess how refugees across varying contexts of exit and reception conceptualise success, this study draws on in-depth interviews with 36 adult refugees from Iraq and Democratic Republic of Congo resettled in Denver, Colorado, and St Louis, Missouri. This article makes four main contributions to the refugee resettlement literature. First, we find that refugees have multidimensional and contextually situated understandings of success that extend beyond self-sufficiency or economic performance. Secondly, when refugees did define success in terms of economic performance, their conceptualisations were more holistic than conventional views of financial independence or social mobility. Thirdly, most refugees defined success in terms of their ability to give back to their extended families and communities—a facet of social connectedness that receives little attention in existing scholarship. Lastly, using these definitions of success, most (89 per cent) participants considered the period of resettlement to be the most successful in their lives. Findings underscore the achievements of refugees but also the limits of resettlement policies and practices that prioritise expedient economic self-sufficiency over the development of strong social ties and sustainable community support systems.