From War to “Refuge”:A Case-Study of LiberianRefugees Resettled in South Bend, Indiana

By Mary Kathleen Dingeman

INTRODUCTION

• The histories of the United States and Liberia are intimately tied through the process of migration.

• Shortly after the dawn of the Liberian civil war in 1989, the United States Refugee Program began to offer legal entry and resettlement benefits to Liberian refugees.

• A community of fifty-nine Liberian refugees have been resettled into South Bend, Indiana since 2003.

© Library of Congress, Geography and

Map Division

PURPOSE STATEMENT

• Grounded in the theory of segmented assimilation and the concepts of social capital, this study employs ethnographic methods to explore the link between the characteristics of the Liberian community and the structure of American society.

• It identifies whether the community currently possesses the social antecedents necessary to surmount downward assimilation into America’s “culture of poverty.”

LITERATURE REVIEW

• “Traditional Assimilationists”:

• Park (1928)

• Warner and Srole (1945)

• Milton Gordon (1964)

• Segmented Assimilation

• Portes and Zhou (1993)

SEGMENTED ASSIMILATION

• There are three possible ways in which an immigrant group may incorporate:• Upward Assimilation

• Downward Assimilation

• Upward Economic Mobility paired with Ethnic Solidarity

• Mode of incorporation is dependent upon interaction between three factors:• Government Policy

• Societal Reception

• Co-ethnic Community© 2003 Los Angeles Times

SOCIAL CAPITAL THEORY

• The means by which an ethnic community may strengthen its co-ethnic community is through the creation of social capital.

• Social capital is defined as, “those expectations for action within a collectivity that affect the economic goals and goal-seeking behavior of its members, even if these expectations are not orientated toward the economic sphere” (Portes and Sensenbrenner 1993:1323).

© 1999 by Phillip Martin

BOUNDED SOLIDARITY

• Bounded solidarity is a form of social capital that results in:• Preference for co-ethnics in

economic transactions

• Altruistic support of community members and goals

• There must be a presence of three social antecedents for bounded solidarity creation:• Blockage of exit option

• Outside discrimination

• Preservation of an autonomous cultural repertoire

DATA AND METHODS

• Ethnographic methods on a case-study of first generation refugees resettled in South Bend, Indiana between 2003 and 2005 by Refugee and Immigration Services of South Bend.

• Purposively chose five principle informants.

• Two to three extensive interviews with each principle informant.

• Attended community functions

FINDINGS

“In the long journey of

becoming American, the

progress of immigrants

depends heavily on the

social structure of the host

society and the social

structure of the immigrant

groups” (Zhou and Bankston

1998:240).

© 2003 Los Angeles Times

FINDINGS – Community Characteristics

• Fifty-nine community members

• Equal mix of men and women

• Indigenous Liberians mostly from tribes found in west Liberia

• Speak tribal tongues and Liberian English

• Largely illiterate and not formally educated

• In Africa, mostly vendors, farmers, and other unskilled workers © 1999 b Phillip Martin

FINDINGS – Structural Barriers

• It is difficult to find full-time employment with benefits:

“I come to this country from my country where I was always working, working. Africa is hard. Now, I am here and I am just sitting. There is no work for me. I am sitting and sitting and eating and eating and my children in Africa, they are always calling me crying, crying. There is nothing I can do because I have no money to send to them.”

© 1999 by Phillip Martin

FINDINGS – Structural Barriers

• They have become dependent upon welfare and subsidized housing.

“Ah, Corby Homes? O, you mean the refugee camp!”

• They are in close proximity to African American community, a community into which they do not want to assimilate.

“I hate lazy people; people who are not trying to do better for themself and their family. The Black Americans, they are lazy people. This is why I do not like them.”

FINDINGS – Social Antecedents

• It is clear that there is a blockage of exit option and that the Liberians face structural discrimination. Do they preserve an autonomous cultural repertoire?

• Transportation

• Babysitting

• Liberian Association support

“Once you have this baby, it will not be yours. It will belong to the community. People will be coming to check up on it to make sure you are taking good care of it.”

FINDINGS – The Co-Ethnic Community

• They recognize that there are certain things that they need / would like that cannot be done within the community.

• One man states:“I am a poor man. The other Liberians, they are poor too.”

• His wife says:“Oh, [Corby Homes] is good! We help each other. Some people, they are working; others, they are watching the children.”

• He adds:“But you (referring to me) know the country. You can help to teach us things that we can’t do ourself.”

• Frequently call employees of RISSB, sponsors, members of their church, and me to address “green card” problems, tutor them in ESL, teach them to use the Internet, etcetera.

DISCUSSION • At this point, the Liberians have

established a cultural repertoire. However, it has not reached the point of autonomy.

• This can be attributed to the small number of refugees in South Bend, and the relative homogeneity of the group.

• Discrimination prevents them from accessing a lot of the country’s resources, forcing them to reach out to the few members of the “core” with whom they have established relationships.

• This could have important implications for the future of the Liberian population.

DISCUSSION• It is too early to determine how future

generations of Liberians will adapt to American society.

• It is necessary to do more research. Some suggested topics:

• Fieldwork in Liberia to analyze the diffusion of American culture and determine whether certain “American” traits were present prior to migration

• Ethnographic work analyzing the children’s experiences

• Network analysis to determine whether the few ties to the “core” will serve to be of equal or more importance then the dense network to the community

• Analysis of relations between Liberian refugees and Liberian immigrants

• Longitudinal analysis over many years