Connecting Refugees in a Nontraditional Resettlement Destination: The Role of Social Institutions

Abstract

Transportation serves as the linchpin that enables refugees to enter the job market, find gainful employment, and both receive necessary services and access useful goods and services, essential to basic survival and social integration. The lack of transportation options means that refugees depend largely on the services and schedules of others, especially in the nascent months of resettlement. Recently arrived refugees who settle in traditional gateway cities like New York, Chicago, and Miami generally learn to navigate their way, as these cities have extensive public transit systems and refugee services as well as large coethnic communities in place. The trend in the United States, however, is to resettle refugees in nontraditional, automobile-dependent destinations that do not have the same density of social institutions. This study explores how resettlement agencies, transportation systems, and social networks interact as social institutions in refugee resettlement in Colorado Springs, Colorado, a nontraditional resettlement destination and an automobile-dependent city. The study uses semistructured, in-depth interviews with twenty recently arrived refugees and a resettlement agency official. The results speak to the potential for long-term integration of refugees in Colorado Springs, and more generally to the effectiveness and long-term potential of policies that resettle refugees in nontraditional destinations.