UT-505 Kalupe Hirosha Lakmali

115 Pages·2017·2.22 MB·English

CBOS ROLE IN SOCIAL
INTEGRATION OF REFUGEES

Case study in Kristiansand, Norway.

HIROSHA LAKMALI KALUPE

SUPERVISORS

Hanne Haaland and Hege Wallevek

University of Agder, 2017
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Global Development and Planning
Exploring the role of CBOs in the social
integration of refugees.
Case study in Kristiansand, Norway.

By
Hirosha Lakmali Kalupe

Supervisors
Hanne Haaland and Hege Wallevek

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, 2017
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Global Development and Planning
Abstract

The arrival of refugees to European countries have increased with the conflicts around the
world. However, the influx of more migrants in search of safety, better lives and work in the
developed world continues to create a deep social cleavage. This thesis investigates some
commonly neglected dimensions of forced migration and refugee integration. It examines the
challenges refugees face in their everyday lives, and how CBOs address the challenges
through their social integration programs and activities. Norway has a refugee integration
plan and most of the responsibilities of the integration has been given to the municipalities.
Municipalities get the support from the civil society, as the refugee integration should be a
bottom up plan. The thesis explores the importance of social connections, networks, the trust
for increase of social capital for refugees, which helps them to overcome some of the
challenges they face in their everyday life. It contributes to the theorization of social capital
theory of Putnam and Fukuyama, Ager and Strang’s refugee integration model, Berry’s
acculturative theory. The study feeds into the broader debate on making social bonds and
bridges of the refugees’ social integration programs. My aim is to find out how these refugees
accommodate to the new environment, and what are the best practices of CBOs to integrate
them into the society, and the importance of social integration as a solution to their
challenges they face in the host country. The thesis is divided into seven chapters. The first
chapter gives the background for the research. The second chapter is explaining key concepts
of the thesis. The third chapter analyses the theoretical background and literature which
supports my research. The fourth chapter describes the methodology I have used in my
research. The fifth chapter provides a micro-analysis of the challenges of refugees, and the
sixth chapter is explaining how the selected three CBOs contribute for the refugee
integration, challenges of CBOs. Finally, I summarize my research findings.

Keywords: Refugees, social integration, CBOs.

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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. B.M
Sumanarathne, head of the department of economics, University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, for
giving 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 your support.

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 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 opinions and ideas.

Last, but not least, I would like to give my most sincere thanks to all of my friends, you all
encouraged and supported me. Finally, I thank my family for all the support throughout my
life.

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Declaration by candidate

I, Hirosha Lakmali Kalupe, hereby declare that the thesis “CBOs role in refugees, social
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 December 2017

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Table of Contents
Abstract .................................................................................................................................................................i
Acknowledgement ........................................................................................................................................... ii
Declaration by candidate .............................................................................................................................. iii
List of figures .................................................................................................................................................. vii
Abbreviations and acronyms .................................................................................................................... viii
Chapter one: Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Introduction............................................................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Background of the research problem ............................................................................................. 2
1.3 Problem statement, purpose and research questions .................................................................. 3
1.4 Research area ........................................................................................................................................ 4
1.5 The importance of CBOs in refugee’s social integration ......................................................... 6
1.6 Importance of the research ................................................................................................................ 7
1.7 Methodology in brief .......................................................................................................................... 8
1.8 Conceptual framework ....................................................................................................................... 8
1.9 Key terms and definitions .................................................................................................................. 9
1.10 Thesis outline .................................................................................................................................... 10
Chapter two: Conceptual background and Context Elaboration ...................................................... 12
2.1 Integration in Norway ....................................................................................................................... 12
2.2 Acculturation ....................................................................................................................................... 13
2.3 Refugee integration ........................................................................................................................... 14
2.4 Social integration ............................................................................................................................... 15
2.5 Social integration creates social cohesion................................................................................... 16
Chapter three: Theoretical background ................................................................................................... 17
1.3 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 17
3.1 Acculturation theory .................................................................................................................... 18
3.1.1 Acculturation strategies .......................................................................................................... 19
3.1.2 Psychological level of integration ................................................................................... 21
3.2 Acculturation stress...................................................................................................................... 22
3.3 Ager & Strang model of refugee integration ........................................................................ 24
3.4 Social capital and CBOs role in refugee integration .......................................................... 25
3.6. Putnam and social capital theory .................................................................................................. 26
3.6.1 Bonding and Bridging of Putnam’s social capital ............................................................ 26
3.6.2 Importance of social connections .......................................................................................... 27
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3.6.3 Reciprocity, honesty, and trust .............................................................................................. 28
3.6.4 Honesty ......................................................................................................................................... 28
3.6.5 Connection between trust and prejudices ........................................................................... 28
3.6.7 Religious group participation in integrations .................................................................... 29
3.7 CBOs and social capital ................................................................................................................... 29
3.8 Francis Fukuyama in social capital ......................................................................................... 30
3.8.1 How refugees build social bonds and bridges, Fukuyama's view of social capital 31
3.8.2 "Radius of trust” and Fukuyama ........................................................................................... 31
3.8.3 Low trust and high trust ........................................................................................................... 33
3.8.4. Multiculturalism and Fukuyama ......................................................................................... 33
Chapter four: Methodology ......................................................................................................................... 35
4.1 Research paradigm ............................................................................................................................ 36
4.2 Epistemology ....................................................................................................................................... 36
4.3 Ontology ............................................................................................................................................... 37
4.4 Research strategy............................................................................................................................. 37
4.5 Data gathering ................................................................................................................................... 38
4.5.1 Qualitative case study methodology ................................................................................ 38
4.5.2 Selecting the organisations ..................................................................................................... 38
4.6 Research design: Mini ethnography ............................................................................................. 39
4.6.1 Mini-ethnography ...................................................................................................................... 40
4.7 Data collection methods ................................................................................................................... 41
4.7.1 Unstructured interviews ........................................................................................................... 41
4.7.2 Participant observation ............................................................................................................. 41
4.8 Research choices ................................................................................................................................ 41
4.9 Data analysis........................................................................................................................................ 42
4.10 Ethical considerations .................................................................................................................... 42
4.11 Challenges in the field .................................................................................................................... 43
Chapter Five: Findings and Discussion ................................................................................................... 45
5.1 Prejudices and discrimination ........................................................................................................ 45
Dress ......................................................................................................................................................... 46
Nationality .............................................................................................................................................. 47
Religion ................................................................................................................................................... 48
Skin colour ............................................................................................................................................. 49
Languages ............................................................................................................................................... 51
The stress of learning a new language ........................................................................................... 52
Stresses of learning dialect and pronunciation............................................................................. 54
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Name ........................................................................................................................................................ 55
Discriminations in the job market ................................................................................................... 56
Qualifications are not sufficient for the new job market .......................................................... 56
‘’Immigrant only villages’’ and areas (discrimination against the refugees) ..................... 57
Refugees also have different prejudgments on different refugees ......................................... 58
5.2 Stress ...................................................................................................................................................... 59
Home countries connections and social integration of refugees............................................. 59
Religious organization’s view on integration and spreading Christianity (acculturative
stress from the host country) ............................................................................................................. 59
The stress of keeping cultural practices ......................................................................................... 60
Perspective on interracial marriage ................................................................................................. 61
Building one’s identity in the host culture .................................................................................... 62
Fear of the future of their children and themselves .................................................................... 63
Clash of children’s and refugee parent’s expectations in the host culture........................... 63
Importance of sports and Norwegian leisure activities ............................................................. 64
The stress of finding friends and neighbours ............................................................................... 65
The stress of being asylum seeker ................................................................................................... 66
The challenge of making decisions ................................................................................................. 67
5.3 Identity crisis ....................................................................................................................................... 68
Trying to be like a Norwegian .......................................................................................................... 68
Weather as a factor for integration .................................................................................................. 68
The stress of finding reputed people who can make recommendations ............................... 69
Stress caused by lack of awareness of Norwegian laws ........................................................... 70
The difficulty of reading and understanding the facial expressions ...................................... 71
Stress of having strict bureaucratic system and more paperwork .......................................... 71
Stress of family responsibilities ....................................................................................................... 72
5.4 Fear ......................................................................................................................................................... 73
The fear of lack of security ................................................................................................................ 73
Chapter Six: CBO’s contribution to address the challenges of refugees ....................................... 75
6.1 LUNAR ................................................................................................................................................. 75
6.2 How does LUNAR address the challenges refugees face in their everyday life? ........... 77
6.2 Natteravnene’s organization ........................................................................................................... 79
6.2.1 Natteravnene activities ............................................................................................................. 80
6.3 KIA international organisation ....................................................................................................... 81
6.3.1 How the CBOs address the challenges for refugees ........................................................ 82
Chapter seven: Concluding remark .......................................................................................................... 85
7.1 Approaches .......................................................................................................................................... 85
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7.2 Findings ................................................................................................................................................ 86
7.3 Limitations of the study ................................................................................................................... 89
7.4 Recommendations for future study ............................................................................................... 90
References ........................................................................................................................................................ 91

List of figures

Figure 01 Kristiansand municipality ............................................................................. 03
Figure 02 Refugee integration in Norway......................................................................04
Figure 03 Refugee arrival in Norway.............................................................................14
Figure 04 Theories of the research................................................................................15
Figure 05 General framework of understanding acculturation.....................................16
Figure 06 Maintain heritage and identity......................................................................17
Figure 07 Psycological components and activities in acculturation strategies..............18
Figure 08 Cognitive activities in acculturative strategies...............................................18
Figure 09 Culture level meaning of multiculturalism.....................................................19
Figure 10 Factors affecting acculturative stress.............................................................20
Figure 11 Ager and Strangs refugee integration model.................................................21
Figure 12 Network of trust.............................................................................................32
Figure 13 Overview of research methodology...............................................................36
Figure 14 Major themes of the discussion.....................................................................46

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Abbreviations and acronyms

ADB Asian Development Bank
CBO Community Based Organization
CSO Civil Society Organisations
CV Curriculam Vitae
ECBO Ethnic Community Based Organization
EU European Union
HL Senteret Holocoaust center
ICMC Europe International Catholic Maigration Commision Europe
IMDi integrerings- og mangfoldsdirektoratet
IOM International Organization for Migration
KIA Christian International Arbreid
LUNAR Likestilling, Utvikling, Nettverk, Aktivitet og Relasjon
NGO Non Governmental Organisations
PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
SSB Statistics Norway
UDI The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration
UN United Nations
UNESCO, United Nations Educational Social, Cultural Fund
UNHCR United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees

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