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Factors impacting life satisfaction of refugees in Australia: A mixed method study

Individuals from war-torn countries seek refuge in Australia. Their life satisfaction, which depends on a range of personal and contextual factors, is not fully understood. The present study used a mixed method approach to explore the life satisfaction of former refugees in Australia. In the first phase, former refugees (N=197) from Ethiopia, Congo and Burma completed a battery of questionnaires with the help of interpreters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to investigate the effect of demographic factors on life satisfaction. Life satisfaction of the participants differed on the basis of country of origin, employment status, and English proficiency. Multiple regression analysis indicated that although age, length of stay, presence of acculturation, absence of acculturative stress and resilience accounted for 40% of the variability in life satisfaction, resilience emerged as the most significant factor. In the second phase another sample comprising 47 former refugees from the three countries were interviewed. Themes emerging from the qualitative analysis supported the quantitative data. The Ethiopian and Congolese participants were relatively more satisfied with their lives than participants from Burma. Those with good problem solving and language skills, and an ability to find resources, services, support and employment, reported experiencing better well-being and life satisfaction. The study has implications for mental and allied health professionals, who work with former refugees. The findings highlight personal and contextual factors that can be enhanced to increase the life satisfaction of former refugees settled in Australia.

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Keywords

Australia, acculturation, demographics, life satisfaction, refugees, resilience.

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Acknowledgements

This research project is supported by a two-year Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant LP120200076. The authors would like to thank the research assistants (Jane Wotherspoon, Dr. Yulin Liu, Lorena Hernandez, Mairead MacKinnon, and Georgia Stein), and partner organization (Access Community Services Ltd.) employees in the data collection process.

Author

  • Nigar G. Khawaja
    Queensland University of Technology
  • Aparna Hebbani
    University of Queensland

Author Biographies

Dr Nigar G Khawaja is an Associate Professor at the School of Psychology & Counselling, Queensland University of Technology. She is the Director of the Clinical Psychology program and teaches in the Master of Clinical Psychology. Her research interests are clinical, transcultural and cross-cultural psychology.

Dr Aparna Hebbani is a Lecturer at the School of Communication & Arts, The University of Queensland, Australia. She researches refugee settlement, and the media representation of Muslims, asylum seekers, and refugees in Australia.

i In this paper, we refer to refugee participants as ‘former refugees’ as many have themselves pointed out to us that upon arrival they have permanent residency status or Australian citizenship. They do not want to carry the stigma attached to the term ‘refugee’ forever but at the same acknowledge that it was once their identity.

ii University of Queensland ethics approval #2009000415; Queensland University of Technology