The Glue that Binds: an exploration of the way resettled refugee communities define and experience social capital

Abstract

This article is a result of collaboration between the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors, a refugee torture and trauma rehabilitation agency, and the UNSW Australia Centre for Refugee Research. The research used a participatory methodology and established a community advisory group to explore how resettled refugees explore and experience social capital. Consistent with other studies, it found that refugees’ experience of social capital is shaped by both the destruction of social capital in their home countries as a result of war and persecution, and by the socio-political environment of the resettlement country. The article articulates a definition of social capital from a refugee perspective, including social capital ‘enablers’, which are the individual capacities, community capacities and socio-political factors identified by refugee participants in the research that are critical for enabling refugee individuals and communities to access existing social capital, and to build and strengthen social capital by extending social connections and networks and establishing new links in settlement. Implications for community development practice are discussed.