Effect of premigratory exposure to political violence on the social anchorage of refugees in Montreal

This thesis introduces a conceptual framework centered around the idea of social anchorage, which is viewed as a component of the psychosocial adjustment of refugees as it enables them to recapture or redefine their social identity and, thus, to regain some control over their life. The main objective of this thesis is to estimate the effect of premigratory exposure to political violence on the social anchorage of refugees in the host country. The sample is made up of 270 Southeast Asian and Central American refugees with school-aged children who had been living in Canada for a mean of 7 years at the time of interview. Social anchorage is measured by five types of social anchor (i.e., political, professional, religious, academic and community) and by two indices of the diversity of social anchorage. Three measures of exposure to political violence are investigated personal acute (i.e., threat and torture), personal chronic (i.e., imprisonment, reeducation camp, forced labor), and family exposure (i.e., acute and chronic). In addition to the analyses focusing on the estimation of the effect of exposure to political violence, exploratory analyses are also carried out to identify other factors such as transferable skills and socio-demographic characteristics that may affect social anchorage once exposure to political violence and ethnicity are taken into account. Approximated risk ratios are calculated from the odds ratios obtained by binary and ordinal regression analyses. Data analysis shows that specific forms of political violence may act differently on the social anchorage of refugees from Southeast Asia and Central America and across ethnic groups. Overall, personal acute exposure tends to foster their social anchorage whereas personal chronic exposure tends to prevent it. Personal acute exposure appears to foster the probability of a wider range of social anchors in Southeast Asian refugees but to inhibit it in Central Americans whereas personal chronic exposure tends to have the opposite effect as it may be a driving force for Central Americans and a brake for Southeast Asians. Finally, when controlling for exposure to political violence and ethnicity, transferable skills (such as premigratory work experience compatible with an urban setting and level of schooling) and socio-demographic characteristics (in particular number of years spent in Canada, income category and age) contribute to the social anchorage of Southeast Asian and Central American refugees. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

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