{"id":33,"date":"2020-07-24T09:30:07","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T09:30:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/?p=33"},"modified":"2020-07-29T13:33:47","modified_gmt":"2020-07-29T13:33:47","slug":"life-after-refugee-resettlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/2020\/07\/24\/life-after-refugee-resettlement\/","title":{"rendered":"Life After Refugee Resettlement: Moral Agency as Creative Participation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Nadra and Ghazel first came to North America as refugees.\u00a0 Today, they are actively involved in their communities as mothers, teachers, learners, and leaders.\u00a0 I invite you to listen in with me and attend to the insights they share about life following resettlement and the responsive, expansive nature of moral agency under constraint.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 24pt\"><em>Constraint: \u201cIt\u2019s Like You\u2019re on Your Own\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">In 2009, Ghazel\u2019s family began to receive threatening notices warning them that \u201chalf-Americans\u201d were no longer safe in Iraq.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0 \u00a0<span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">They were charged with this label because of her husband\u2019s job on a U.S. military base\u2014a job that also led to their expedited resettlement to the U.S. a year later through the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\">.<a href=\"#_ftn2\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[2]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">A mother of three, Ghazel <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">speaks powerfully to the overlapping, cumulative effect of the constraints that characterized her life following the resettlement process:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\">I used to hear of lots of parties or workshops or something, but there\u2019s no childcare for them.\u00a0 So how can I go, how can I share my opinion, my ideas? \u00a0How can you listen to me and I listen to you?<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn3\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[3]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">The absence of childcare, combined with the language barrier and the stress of daily life in an unfamiliar context, left Ghazel feeling isolated and overwhelmed during her first three years in Clarkston, Georgia.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn4\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[4]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">In contrast to Ghazel, Nadra experienced a protracted process of migration and resettlement starting at a young age.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn5\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[5]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 After an outbreak of violence killed her mother when Nadra was six years-old, she and her siblings fled from Somalia to Kenya with relatives, where they lived until she was twelve.\u00a0 During that time period, her father was granted asylum in Canada.\u00a0 Resettlement eventually enabled the family to reunite near Toronto; Nadra lived there with her father and siblings until 2006, when she moved to Stone Mountain to marry her now-husband.\u00a0 Her experiences in Georgia were nonetheless strikingly similar to Ghazel&#8217;s.\u00a0 In spite of her English proficiency and her familiarity with Western culture, Nadra became isolated after her move, lacking both the social bridges (relationships with people outside of her ethnic community) and the social bonds (relationships within her community) that some scholars suggest act as essential conduits of integration<span style=\"color: #ff00ff\"><span style=\"color: #333333\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn6\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[6]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 She muses, <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\">The living here is different\u2026it\u2019s like you\u2019re on your own. It\u2019s really difficult here, but we\u2019re living.\u00a0 Life goes on. You can see that.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn7\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[7]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">With only one sibling living nearby\u2014a dramatic change for a woman who grew up with a large extended family and tribal network in close proximity\u2014Nadra explains, \u201cI felt very lonely the first couple of years here, yeah, because it wasn\u2019t the same.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t just go wherever I wanted to go to see family members, they were not home, they were working, everybody was running for their lives here.\u00a0 It was so different, so I had to adjust to that.\u00a0 It took me long, long years.\u201d<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn8\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[8]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_224\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-224\" style=\"width: 374px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-224\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-14-at-4.43.05-PM-300x278.png\" alt=\"This image lists barriers to integration the refugee women encounter in the U.S.\" width=\"374\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-14-at-4.43.05-PM-300x278.png 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-14-at-4.43.05-PM.png 562w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 374px) 100vw, 374px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-224\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Challenges women face following the resettlement process in the U.S.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Drawing on stories shared by Ghazel, Nadra, and other women who first came to the U.S. as refugees, I would posit that constraint can be defined as a situation that limits an agent\u2019s choices and opportunities against her wishes and thereby poses a threat to individual and collective flourishing.\u00a0 Whether one considers the pressure to find early employment created by U.S. resettlement policy and the premature termination of services, the prejudice refugees face in their new home communities, the histories of sexual violence and other traumas that innumerable refugee women must work to cope with once here, or the more limited access to education and vocational opportunities that women might have had in their countries of origins, it is clear that systemic and structural constraints do not just mar the resettlement experiences of women.\u00a0 Rather, constraints are embedded in the very fabric of the process.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn9\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[9]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_199\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-199\" style=\"width: 367px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-199\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-7.42.24-PM-300x183.png\" alt=\"This image graphically represents the classic &quot;death spiral&quot; in which the loss of a job or a serious health issue can lead to the other, ultimately resulting in the loss of health insurance and loss of health. \" width=\"367\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-7.42.24-PM-300x183.png 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-7.42.24-PM.png 619w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 367px) 100vw, 367px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-199\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Classic &#8220;Death Spiral&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Further, I would posit that women&#8217;s resettlement experiences highlight the way constraints frequently occur in compounding and converging patterns.\u00a0 As one constraint bumps into another, they both deepen and expand.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Susan Sered and Rushika Fernandopulle\u2019s notion of the \u201cdeath spiral\u201d is clarifying on this front.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Developed to illustrate the precarious state of healthcare in the U.S., the death spiral represents interlocking issues that each have the capacity to trigger a downward turn, trapping the individual in untenable situations and blocking key resources that might have otherwise been accessed to support coping.\u00a0 Distinguished by multiple entry points and very few exits, in the original death spiral an individual might lose his or her job, which in turn results in the loss of health insurance and heightened vulnerability to health crises.\u00a0 Alternately, he or she might experience a health crisis that then results in the loss of employment and, subsequently, of health insurance.\u00a0 Whatever the entry point, the result ultimately is loss of health and well-being.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn10\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[10]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_202\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-202\" style=\"width: 349px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-202\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-7.48.59-PM-300x177.png\" alt=\"This image shows my revised &quot;resettlement spiral&quot; in which external barriers (like lack of child care or experiences of discrimination) can compound mental health challenges, thereby deepening isolation.\" width=\"349\" height=\"206\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-7.48.59-PM-300x177.png 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-13-at-7.48.59-PM.png 494w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 349px) 100vw, 349px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-202\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">My Revised &#8220;Resettlement Spiral&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;background-color: transparent;text-align: inherit\">In the resettlement version of the spiral, an external constraint like the absence of opportunities to learn English can rapidly lead to an internal constraint like mental health challenges, fear, weariness, or despair.\u00a0 Any of these internal constraints might, in turn, make overcoming an external constraint all the more daunting.\u00a0 With each turn of the spiral, the individual is pushed further down, gradually moving closer and closer to the pit of the spiral that culminates in isolation in its most forceful and totalizing form.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 24pt\"><em>Moral Agency: \u201cWe Don\u2019t Want to Stay at Home\u201d <\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<div class=\"mceTemp\">\u00a0<\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_345\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-345\" style=\"width: 386px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-345\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-02-at-7.44.04-PM-300x244.png\" alt=\"This graphic represents the reversal of the resettlement spiral. One action (like participating in a training) leads to improved mental health, which in turn leads to actions that benefit the broader community.\" width=\"386\" height=\"314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-02-at-7.44.04-PM-300x244.png 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-12-02-at-7.44.04-PM.png 690w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 386px) 100vw, 386px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-345\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Reversing the Spiral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Attending carefully to the stories of women in the Clarkston community, <\/span><span style=\"background-color: transparent;text-align: inherit;font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">however, reveals that this spiral <\/span><em style=\"background-color: transparent;text-align: inherit;font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">can <\/em><span style=\"background-color: transparent;text-align: inherit;font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">be multidirectional.\u00a0 Agentive action can, at times, reverse the spiral. <\/span><span style=\"background-color: transparent;font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;text-align: inherit\">When they holistically and creatively participate in the education system in Clarkston and the surrounding area as mothers, learners, teachers, and community leaders, women like Ghazel and Nadra contribute to this work of reversal, causing the spiral to spin upwards instead.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 18pt\">With the help of Nadra and Ghazel, I have come to see moral agency as a form of contextualized responsiveness that moves to affirm personhood and honor connection in the face of constraints.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">By engaging in the improvisational process of making do with the resources they are able to access, they reshape their post-resettlement lives in ways that not only benefit themselves, but also their families and communities.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_151\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-151\" style=\"width: 496px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-151\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6041-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"This image shows a refugee woman participating in a community dialogue.\" width=\"496\" height=\"372\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6041-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6041-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6041-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6041.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 496px) 100vw, 496px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-151\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Timothy Moore, used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Affirming Personhood<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">I first met Ghazel at a 2014 community dialogue in Clarkston.\u00a0 She actively participated in the event, creatively imagining a community-based solution to a challenge facing the public education system: an insufficient number of multi-lingual, culturally-sensitive instructors in both schools and early learning centers.\u00a0 Ghazel recalls sharing the following during the dialogue series, which was convened by <a href=\"http:\/\/cdfaction.org\/\">CDF<\/a> (a Clarkston-based community development nonprofit) with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">We tell them that we need a job for us, we don\u2019t want to stay at home and, you know, just have a foolish time or something.\u00a0 We want to work, ok\u2026so we think that the best thing that we can do is to be a teacher in a childcare center with each other\u2026Even if we don\u2019t have the studies certificate or something, we have the experience because we are mommies.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn11\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[11]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Ghazel&#8217;s proposed solution doubles as a compelling affirmation of personhood, an insistence on her own giftedness in the face of a resettlement process that primarily perceives individuals through the lens of need.\u00a0 She speaks to this dynamic directly when telling me about how motivated she is to participate in the workforce as an Iraqi woman.\u00a0 Noting that women do not typically work outside of the home in Iraq, she quickly learned that this is not the case in the U.S.\u00a0 &#8220;You know,&#8221; she muses, &#8220;we\u2019re here in America, so I do believe that all people, all women have something that like\u2026they want to do something good.\u00a0 They want to help.\u00a0 They want to have, you know, their place in the community.\u00a0 They really want to do something\u2026It\u2019s not all about the husband, husband, husband.\u00a0 This idea needs to be changed!&#8221;<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\">[<a href=\"#_ftn12\" name=\"_ftnref1\">12]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Ghazel&#8217;s participation in the community dialogues alongside women from other countries and cultures led to significant change in the Clarkston community.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">In response to dialogue participants\u2019 requests, CDF used the Kellogg Foundation grant in partnership with Georgia Piedmont Technical College to offer training for the Child Development Associate (CDA)\u2014the credential required to work in early learning centers in Georgia\u2014in both Arabic and Somali.\u00a0 Ghazel was one of the first women to commit to the requisite 120 hours of coursework and practicum, and she encouraged other Iraqi mothers in her community to participate as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_34\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-34\" style=\"width: 540px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-34\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/CDA-Reunion-300x194.png\" alt=\"This image shows the graduates of the CDA program at a reunion.\" width=\"540\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/CDA-Reunion-300x194.png 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/CDA-Reunion-768x496.png 768w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/CDA-Reunion-624x403.png 624w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/CDA-Reunion.png 1021w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-34\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nadra (third from left) and Ghazel (seventh from left) celebrate with other CDA graduates. Photo by Roberta Malavenda, used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Nadra participated in the CDA program a year after Ghazel.\u00a0 Initially connected to CDF through her sister, Nadra found that the class provided relief from the relentless pace at home as a mother of four at the time.\u00a0 She explains, \u201cGoing to CDA class is really just \u2018me\u2019 time, that time when I go there.\u00a0 [It\u2019s] some time to clear my head, focus, enjoy those hours, right.\u201d<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn13\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[13]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 As a self-affirmation of personhood, <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Nadra&#8217;s decision to claim time to invest in herself and develop new skills should also be seen as a subtle, yet powerful, act of moral agency.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Honoring Connection<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">In contrast to the loneliness she initially experienced in Georgia, Nadra found that the CDA class provided an opportunity to connect with women who had faced experiences similar to her own, yet who came from different parts of the world.\u00a0 A few weeks into the class, she started inviting classmates over to her home in Stone Mountain\u2014 the first time she had the opportunity to engage in hospitality in the \u201cSomali way\u201d since moving here.\u00a0 Describing her conviction about the importance of this practice, Nadra says: <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">It\u2019s a fun thing that I have, that I carried from my country, from back home.\u00a0 It\u2019s a thing that I\u2019m doing now, and it\u2019s such a good thing\u2014it\u2019s helping.\u00a0 I see that it\u2019s helping a lot of people, so I\u2019m going to keep on doing it because I need it worse than them!\u00a0 When I go out, when they [invite me to] their houses and I leave the kids with my husband and I go out<strong>, <\/strong>I come back happy.\u00a0 I come back fresh.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn14\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[14]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Having her classmates over and returning their visits sustains Nadra and, in all likelihood, helps to sustain her peers as well.\u00a0 She returns from this time with other women \u201cfresh\u201d and resilient, ready to face the day-to-day challenges of being a <em>hijabi <\/em>Muslim woman in frequently homogenous, Judeo-Christian spaces and of raising her children in a context that often confronts her values.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"color: #000000\"><span style=\"color: #333333\">Nadra also consistently seeks to interweave support for her own family with support for other, more recently-arrived refugee families.\u00a0 In 2017, when I first interviewed Nadra and Ghazel as part of CDF&#8217;s community-based research initiative, this commitment was embodied in her concrete, daily actions at the READY School\u2014a multi-lingual early learning program designed by CDF in conversation with Clarkston families\u2014where she was not only teaching, but also<\/span><\/span>\u00a0offering culturally-appropriate advice to other mothers.\u00a0 Explaining her proactive approach, she stresses, <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u201cWe don\u2019t have a country that we can be successful in, where our language is spoken, where we understand each other, and where professors speak Somali; we don\u2019t have that here.\u00a0 So we have to strive, struggle to get the best out of whatever America has to offer our community.\u201d<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn15\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[15]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 In choosing to extend her network of obligation beyond her nuclear family, Nadra honors the reality of interdependence and connection and makes the struggle a little less arduous for others.\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Of her role as cultural liaison between her U.S.-born co-teacher and the parents of her students, s<\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">he explains:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">This is how I see it: it\u2019s like, you know, when you\u2019re lending a hand to somebody who is sitting on the floor who needs to get up.\u00a0 And you give them your hand and help them; you pull them up and you help them to get up.\u00a0 That\u2019s what [the READY School] is doing\u2026I want to be around for a long time, it\u2019s good for those newcomers, especially for them!\u00a0 Because when they come to this country, they don\u2019t speak the language, they feel lost.\u00a0 So, when they come to school, we talk with them, we laugh with them, we joke with them, and we tell them what letter we did today&#8230;And then they start laughing!\u00a0 And they feel so comfortable.<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[16]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_152\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-152\" style=\"width: 535px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-152\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6045-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"This image shows signs written in multiple languages that were used at a CDF community dialogue.\" width=\"535\" height=\"401\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6045-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6045-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6045-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/IMG_6045.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 535px) 100vw, 535px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-152\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by Timothy Moore, used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Ghazel, like Nadra, was able to use her CDA certificate as a springboard into meaningful employment.\u00a0 Ghazel proudly tells me of her work as an assistant teacher at the Global Montessori School soon after starting her new position in the spring of 2017.\u00a0 She shares, \u201cI go and work, and not only that\u2014I help the people who speak Arabic.\u00a0 When they bring their children, they feel safe because I\u2019m there.\u00a0 We share the same values.\u00a0 Even if we\u2019re not from the same country, our values are the same.\u201d<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn17\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[17]<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 Given how different the American public education system is from that of other countries, the value of Ghazel&#8217;s comforting, familiar presence within that system for newly arrived refugee parents cannot be overstated.<br \/><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Contextualized Responsiveness\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"color: #333333\">In both Ghazel and Nadra&#8217;s stories,<\/span> we see a commitment to responding to the particulars of the situations in which they find themselves with care and creativity.\u00a0 At the time of our initial interviews, this responsiveness took the form of their work as informal mentors to the families of children in their classrooms.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">When I reconnect with them two years later, in the fall of 2019, I find that they are continuing to act as moral agents, albeit in new, contextualized ways.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Neither are working at present, in large part because both have given birth in the past year.\u00a0 Ghazel stays busy advocating for her children in the public school system through frequent meetings with their teachers and principal.\u00a0 While she is currently in more of an interiorly-focused season of life than she was during the period of our extended conversations in 2017, she continues to dream about and plan for future opportunities.\u00a0 She is considering pursuing training as a medical assistant or interpreter once her month-old son is a little older, as she believes this might enable her to have more of a direct impact in the community.\u00a0 Ghazel once told me, \u201cI want my children to be proud of me, in the future, yes.\u00a0 But the most important thing is I want to be proud of myself.\u201d<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn18\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[18]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 This high standard will no doubt continue to fuel her creative community participation far into the future.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #333333\">Nadra, whose fifth child is now almost one, dreams of returning to school.\u00a0 In the past, she had shared hopes of becoming an elementary school teacher, of starting a daycare in her home, or of one day creating a larger version of the READY School in the Clarkston community so that children of all ages could benefit.\u00a0 As such, her aspiration to pursue higher education does not come as a surprise<\/span><span style=\"color: #333333\">.\u00a0 <span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">In actively choosing to include the Somali community as well as other \u201cnewcomers\u201d in her umbrella of concern<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u2014all the<\/span><\/span> while maintaining time for herself and her family<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">\u2014<\/span><\/span>I see Nadra adroitly practicing moral agency in her daily life.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\"><span style=\"font-size: 32px\"><i>Seedlings of Moral Agency<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_35\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-35\" style=\"width: 570px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-35\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/Tell-Me-a-Story-300x199.png\" alt=\"This image Shows Nadra speaking out at a community event.\" width=\"570\" height=\"378\" srcset=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/Tell-Me-a-Story-300x199.png 300w, https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/11\/Tell-Me-a-Story.png 612w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 570px) 100vw, 570px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-35\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nadra, far left, shares about her experience teaching at a multilingual early learning center at a community event in Clarkston.\u00a0 Photo by Virginia Reese, used with permission.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">In their journey to make space for themselves and their families in their new home communities, Nadra and Ghazel reveal the inherent promise and pitfalls of resettlement as it is currently structured.\u00a0 They highlight the need for a holistic model of integration and lend narrative weight to Morgan Poteet and Shiva Nourpanah\u2019s claim that, \u201cin the current context of increasing restrictions on refugee settlement and integration, addressing issues of exclusion and marginalization for refugees may be at least as important as trying to nurture social capital.\u201d<span style=\"font-size: 8pt\"><a href=\"#_ftn19\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[19]<\/a><\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"> Stories like these are important not only because they can help us better understand what it is like to live in the U.S. following the experience of refugee resettlement; they also speak to the role we have to play as members of receiving communities.\u00a0 In listening to stories like Nadra\u2019s and Ghazel\u2019s, we are drawn into the unfolding process of moral agency.\u00a0 As we begin to develop a richer sense of the <em>context <\/em>of constraint, the possibility of a\u00a0<em>contextualized<\/em> response emerges.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">Ghazel and Nadra\u2019s stories also reveal a hopeful truth about the nature of moral agency: just as constraints converge and compound, so too, in a way, does moral agency.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\">Nadra and Ghazel show us that acts of moral agency create the conditions necessary for the cultivation of <em>new<\/em> acts of moral agency.\u00a0 <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-246 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/files\/2019\/12\/Screen-Shot-2019-11-14-at-6.40.55-PM.png\" alt=\"Tree with sprouting plant\" width=\"370\" height=\"377\" \/><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">The initial act provides temporary shelter from the heat of constraints, allowing seedling acts of agency to sprout<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span>These &#8220;seedlings&#8221; of moral agency might take root within the original agent, within a witness of the agentive act, or within someone who was impacted by that act.\u00a0 As Nadra and Ghazel take steps to participate in the community, they simultaneously remove some of the barriers previously facing them and make those barriers a little easier to navigate for others.\u00a0 While I had previously thought about this in the metaphorical terms of the resettlement spiral, I would posit that this can be brought into generative conversation with the metaphor of the seedling as well.\u00a0 As one act of moral agency after another provides a canopy of protection to support new acts, might an ecosystem of moral agency develop?\u00a0 An ecosystem so healthy and verdant that the &#8220;weed&#8221; of the resettlement spiral is starved of the &#8220;nutrients&#8221; (i.e., constraints) that <em>it<\/em> needs to grow?\u00a0 As agents like Nadra and Ghazel creatively participate in their communities, it seems possible that they might eventually whittle away against at least some of the constraints of the resettlement landscape.\u00a0 While these are only musings at present, what I am sure of is this: as Ghazel and Nadra continue to act in ways that honor their interdependence and affirm their personhood, they wind their way out of isolation and step forward in the direction of flourishing.\u00a0 And, in so doing, they gently pull others along with them.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt\">\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 12pt\"><em>Acknowledgements<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 12pt\">Initial research for this essay (the 2017 conversations with Nadra and Ghazel) was conducted through CDF: A Collective Action Initiative, with funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.\u00a0 The \u201cPortraiture Project: Conversations in the Clarkston Community\u201d was launched with the goal of learning more about community members\u2019 experiences with CDF\u2019s programs and in the Clarkston community overall.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 12pt\">I want to thank Roberta Malavenda, CDF\u2019s executive director, who initially conceived of this community research initiative and who gave permission for data from this work to be revisited.\u00a0 Finally, I give thanks to Nadra and Ghazel, not only for allowing me to share their stories, but also for the hopeful and compelling witness they bear to the power of moral agency under constraint.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> Ghazel\u2019s name has been changed for the protection of her privacy.\u00a0 She requested that the name \u201cGhazel\u201d be used instead, as it is the name of a loved one and is common in Iraq.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref2\" name=\"_ftn1\">[2]<\/a> SIVs are reserved exclusively for individuals and families whose lives have been endangered as a result of their work with the U.S. military in Afghanistan and Iraq.<br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><a href=\"#_ftnref3\" name=\"_ftn1\">[3]<\/a> Ghazel, Interview by Janelle Moore, Clarkston, GA on March 3, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref4\" name=\"_ftn1\">[4<\/a><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">]<\/a> Clarkston, Georgia, located just 20 miles east of downtown Atlanta, has been a hub for refugee resettlement since the early 1990s, when multiple voluntary agencies identified the community as having the ideal combination of proximity to large employers, affordable housing, and access to public transportation.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref5\" name=\"_ftn1\">[5]<\/a> Nadra\u2019s name has been changed for the protection of her privacy.\u00a0 She requested the name \u201cNadra\u201d as her pseudonym, which means \u201cthe light that comes from the eyes\u201d in Somali.\u00a0 Interview by Janelle Moore, Stone Mountain, GA on March 29, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref6\" name=\"_ftn1\">[6]<\/a> Michaela Hynie, Ashley Korn, and Dan Tao, \u201cSocial Context and Integration for Government Assisted Refugees in Ontario, Canada,\u201d in <em>After the Flight: The Dynamics of Refugee Settlement and Integration<\/em>, ed. Morgan Poteet and Shiva Nourpanah (Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), 183\u2013223; see also A. Ager and A. Strang, \u201cUnderstanding Integration: A Conceptual Framework,\u201d <em>Journal of Refugee Studies<\/em> 21, no. 2 (April 18, 2008): 166\u201391, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/jrs\/fen016.<br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><a href=\"#_ftnref7\" name=\"_ftn1\">[7]<\/a> Nadra, Interview by Janelle Moore, Stone Mountain, GA on Feb. 28, 2017.<br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><a href=\"#_ftnref8\" name=\"_ftn1\">[8]<\/a> Nadra, March 15, 2017.<br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\"><a href=\"#_ftnref9\" name=\"_ftn1\">[9] <\/a><\/span>Badiah Haffejee and Jean F. East, \u201cAfrican Women Refugee Resettlement: A Womanist Analysis,\u201d Affilia 31, no. 2 (May 2016): 235, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0886109915595840; Morgan Poteet and Shiva Nourpanah, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d in After the Flight: The Dynamics of Refugee Settlement and Integration (Newcastle upon Tyne, England: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016), xxii, xvi; Fethi Keles, \u201cThe Structural Negligence of US Refugee Resettlement Policy,\u201d Anthropology News 49, no. 5 (May 2008): 6;\u00a0 Karin Wachter et al., \u201cUnsettled Integration: Pre- and Post-Migration Factors in Congolese Refugee Women\u2019s Resettlement Experiences in the United States,\u201d International Social Work 59, no. 6 (November 2016): 883; Irina Isaakyan, \u201cIntegration Paradigms in Europe and North America,\u201d in Routledge Handbook of Immigration and Refugee Studies, ed. Anna Triandafyllidou, Routledge International Handbook (Abingdon, Oxon\u202f; New York, NY: Routledge, 2016), 174; Jenny Phillimore and Lisa Goodson, \u201cMaking a Place in the Global City: The Relevance of Indicators of Integration,\u201d Journal of Refugee Studies 21 (September 1, 2008): 5; Linda L. Halc\u00f3n, Cheryl L. Robertson, and Karen A. Monsen, \u201cEvaluating Health Realization for Coping Among Refugee Women,\u201d Journal of Loss and Trauma 15, no. 5 (September 14, 2010): 409.<br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[10]<\/a> Susan Starr Sered and Rushika J. Fernandopulle, <em>Uninsured in America: Life and Death in the Land of Opportunity<\/em> (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2005), 6.<\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><a href=\"#_ftnref11\" name=\"_ftn1\">[11]<\/a> Ghazel, March 2, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref12\" name=\"_ftn1\">[12]<\/a> Ghazel, March 16, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref13\" name=\"_ftn1\">[13]<\/a> Nadra, March 15, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref14\" name=\"_ftn1\">[14]<\/a> Nadra, Feb. 28, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref15\" name=\"_ftn1\">[15]<\/a> Nadra, March 29, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[16]<\/a> Nadra, March 22, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref17\" name=\"_ftn1\">[17]<\/a> Ghazel, May 24, 2017.<br \/><a href=\"#_ftnref18\" name=\"_ftn1\">[18]<\/a> Ghazel, May 24, 2017.<br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif;font-size: 10pt\"><a href=\"#_ftnref19\" name=\"_ftn1\">[19]<\/a> Poteet and Nourpanah, \u201cIntroduction,\u201d xxiv.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/2020\/07\/26\/janelle-moore\/\" target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"undefined (opens in a new tab)\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Do you want to know more about this author? Click here! <\/a><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nadra and Ghazel first came to North America as refugees.\u00a0 Today, they are actively involved in their communities as mothers, teachers, learners, and leaders.\u00a0 I [&hellip;] <span class=\"read-more-link\"><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/moralagency2019\/2020\/07\/24\/life-after-refugee-resettlement\/\">Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6241,"featured_media":35,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[8,34,32,31,9,5,33,6],"class_list":["post-33","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-enter-the-exhibit","tag-community","tag-leaders","tag-learners","tag-mothers","tag-participation","tag-refugees","tag-teachers","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - 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