“She Didn’t Know [What] She Was Talking About, Because She Was a Woman”: The Perspective of Service Providers on Rohingya Refugees’ Adjustment to US Gender Roles

Abstract

When Rohingya refugees first started to arrive to the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor (URM) Program in the USA around 2013, the service providers felt ill prepared to provide for their nuanced needs because of the lack of information available and therefore an inability to appropriately tailor services to this new minority population. Therefore, this study seeks to understand (1) how service providers navigate conflicting gender roles during the teenage years among Rohingya refugees and (2) what strategies the service providers found effective in working with individuals from patriarchal societies. The qualitative data come from 10 focus groups (consisting of 23 people) who work in URM foster care programs across the USA. Our results show that service providers note the patriarchal society and upbringing as protectionist ideology; that youth often stay within traditional gender roles; that youth need to navigate the conflicting laws and norms between Islam and US culture; that there are nuances among Islam and the role of women; and that service providers struggle to fully understand these strict traditional gender roles and how they manifest in youth behavior. Additionally, our results indicate that effective strategies in working with refugees from patriarchal societies include the need for cultural and religious welcome in public schools, and assisting youth with the adjustment to a more open society. Implications for clinical and macro social workers are provided.