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Title: communicative characteristics and integration of refugees
Start: may 1st. 1999. End: may 30th. 2000.
Short project description: The central question of
the research is: which characteristics of identity in communication
of refugees can favor or hinder integration.
Therefore 20 refugees (10 Iranian, 10 Somali) will be interviewed
in depth on how they experience(d) starting a new live in the
Netherlands.
In this research the concepts identity and integration will
be looked at in the way they are constructed and talked about
in interpersonal communication. Integration is a proces which
perhaps never ends and is discussed about and evaluated all
the time. So integration is a very difficult concept. Therefore
the perception on integration of these refugees and the perception
on integration of organisations working with refugees will be
taken into account (next to more formal ways of measuring integration).
A list of aspects of integration will be constructed, accounting
these 3 sources. Using this list, the group will be devided
in a more or less well integrated group (10) and a not so well
integrated group(10).
To analyse the interviews different theories will be used:
theories concerning life stories (for example Gabrielle Rosenthal's
thematic field analysis1993), social psychological theories
(for example about identification), the positioning theory (see
for example Rom Harre en Luk van Langenhove, 1999). The interviews
will be analysed to reveal patterns of interpretation by these
refugees of the relationship between themselves (the narrator/respondent)
and social reality. These patterns of interpretation I call
characteristics of identity in communication. Part of this percieved
relationship between the narrator/respondent and social reality
is how people percieve their personal integration into society.
Eventualy it will be analysed if there is a differents in characteristics
of identity in communication between the two groups.
Research methods: interviews.
Planned output: articles in journals and a book.
Supervisor: dr. Robert Maier.
External partners: VluchtelingenWerk.
Funding organisationL C.W. Mills fund, social faculty University
of Utrecht.
references: G., Rosenthal (1993), Reconstructing life stories,
principles of selection in generating stories for narrative
biographical interviews, in: R. Josselson, A. Lieblich. (1993),
The narrative study of lives. Newbury Park, london, New Dehli,
Sage Publications
R. Harre, L. Van Langenhove (1999), Positioning theory, Oxford:
Blackwell Publishers Ltd
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