Community-Based Organisations' Role in Refugee Integration
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Community-Based Organisations’ Role in Refugee Integration A Case Study in Kristiansand, Norway. Hirosha Lakmali Kalupe Supervisors Hanne Haaland & Hege Wallevik University of Agder, 2018 Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Global Development and Planning Exploring the Role of Community-Based Organisations in Refugee Integration A case study of three selected CBOs in Kristiansand, Norway By Hirosha Lakmali Kalupe Supervisors Hanne Haaland & Hege Wallevik This master’s thesis is carried out as a part of the education at the University of Agder and is therefore approved as a part of this education. However, this does not imply that the University answers for the methods that are used or the conclusions that are drawn. University of Agder, 2018 Faculty of Social Sciences Department of Global Development and Planning i Abstract Refugees is one of the major concentration of the world without considering the borders or economic level of the country. Recently, Europe also has received large number of refugees. Norway has also received many refugees from conflict zones recently. When refugees arrive to the host country it is the country responsibility to start and conduct the refugee integration process. Norway has its own refugee integration plan, and municipalities are given more responsibilities in refugee integration process. I have selected the Kristiansand municipality as my research area which is one of the municipalities in Norway which have received many refugees. Refugees as forced migrants, face different kinds of challenges in their everyday life. I wanted to explore what these challenges were for refugees in Kristiansand, and research how the community-based organisations (hereby known as CBO) helps to address the challenges of refugees with their programmes and activities. I have selected three CBOs in Kristiansand: LUNAR’s women’s group in Kristiansand, Natteravnene organisation and KIA organisation Kristiansand. I used qualitative research methodology to find answers to my research questions. Ethnographic data collection method was used in order to collect the data. The challenges of refugees which I found during my fieldwork, have been categorised into three major themes: A feeling of lack of belonging to the Norwegian society, feeling lack of safety and the stress of maintaining their own cultural identity and family responsibilities. As I discovered, the selected CBOs try to help refugees, especially on increasing their social capital. Three of the organisations give refugees an opportunity to expand their social network, improve their language and to find friends. Refugees see these organisations as a good place for them to meet local Norwegians, and get to practice their Norwegian language skills. At the same time, they could find Norwegian references for their CV as well. As I have identified, some refugees join these organisations after they failed to find jobs in the Norwegian job market, as well as discovering the benefits they can gain and get from these CBOs. The majority of my research participants have identified CBOs as helpful in their everyday integration in Kristainsand, Norway. Keywords: CBOs, Refugees, Refugee Integration and Social Capital ii Acknowledgement I would like to thank University of Agder (UIA) for giving me an opportunity to study the master program of Development management, and I would like to thank Dr Sumanarathne, head of the department of economics, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, for granting me the scholarship to study in Norway. I would also like to thank my two supervisors, Hanne Haaland and Hege Wallevek, for your invaluable guidance throughout my thesis. Both of you motivated and supported me psychologically, giving me invaluable comments, feedback and encouragement for me to be an independent thinker. I highly appreciate both of your feedback and the trust you kept of my work. I would like to thank all the volunteers at LUNAR CBO, where I volunteered for two years. I cannot mention all the people by names here, but I am happy that all of you become good friends of mine. I especially thank May Linda Magnussen, Gullale Palani, Lene Mordal, Natalia Hefner, Amina Hijabi for being good friends to me and thank you for the support you gave me. I would also like to thank Jannik, Siv Iren, Ida for your support throughout the stay in Norway. Special thanks and appreciation to Mary K. Evjen Olsen and her family for giving me the sense of home in Norway. I would also like to thank Amir Arefjell Hayek, for your care and support, as well as help with proofreading of my thesis. I wish to thank all of my informants and participants for sharing their honest thoughts with me. I acknowledge the trust you had in me when you shared your experiences, opinions and ideas. Last, but not least, I would like to give my most sincere thanks to all of my friends, Especially my fellow students and friends in the master programme: Alhassan, Nulu, Andrea, Emma, Ronny, Deepika, Naomi, you all encouraged and supported me. My sincere friends Sasha, Aji, Gibran and Philemon, thank you for your friendship and motivation. Finally, I thank my family for all the support throughout my life. Especially my dad, my mom, my sister and brother, you always supported me. Thank you for everything. iii Declaration by candidate I, Hirosha Lakmali Kalupe, hereby declare that the thesis “CBOs role in refugee integration; a case study in Kristiansand, Norway” has not been submitted to any other universities than the University of Agder, Norway, for any type of academic degree. Hirosha Lakmali Kalupe May of 2018 iv Table of Contents Acknowledgement ................................................................................................................................ iii Declaration by candidate ..................................................................................................................... iv Table of Figures ................................................................................................................................... vii Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................................................................ viii 1 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 Problem Statement ................................................................................................................ 2 1.3 Research Objectives and Research Questions .................................................................... 3 1.4 Research Area ........................................................................................................................ 4 1.5 Importance of The Research ................................................................................................ 5 1.6 Methodology in Brief............................................................................................................. 6 1.7 Conceptual Framework ........................................................................................................ 6 1.8 Key Terms and Definitions ................................................................................................... 7 1.9 Thesis outline ......................................................................................................................... 8 2 CHAPTER TWO: CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ELABORATION 10 2.1 Integration in Norway ......................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Acculturation ....................................................................................................................... 11 2.3 Refugee Integration ............................................................................................................. 12 2.4 Social Integration ................................................................................................................ 13 3 CHAPTER THREE: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND ...................................................... 15 3.1 Berry’s Acculturative Stress ............................................................................................... 16 3.2 Ager & Strang’s Model of Refugee Integration ................................................................ 20 3.3 Putnam and the Social Capital Theory ............................................................................. 23 3.3.1 Importance of Social Connections ............................................................................. 25 3.3.2 The connection between trust and prejudices ........................................................... 26 3.4 Fukuyama’s Views on Social Trust ................................................................................... 27 3.5 CBOs and Voluntary Organisations as Agents of Social Capital ................................... 28 4 CHAPTER FOUR: METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 31 4.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 31 4.2 Positioning ............................................................................................................................ 31 4.3 Planning My Research .......................................................................................................