BHUTANESE REFUGEES: ON UNDERSTANDING THE LINKS BETWEEN TRAUMA, DISPLACEMENT, AND COMMUNITY RESILIENCE

Abstract

Through a unique community based participatory action research project with Bhutanese refugees and immigrants in the Triad area of North Carolina (Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem), the authors explore the links between trauma, displacement, and community resilience. The social experience of displacement and relocation create impacts felt in the entire community. How do we understand and map these impacts and use them to transform community ills? While limited understanding of trauma and displacement among both the newly arrived and long-time citizens acts to limit the pro-social opportunities that trauma creates, the lack of mental health services and support for refugees allows post-traumatic growth in refugee communities to atrophy. While reviving trauma may seem counter-intuitive, we argue that the engagement of collective historical memory is a critical necessity for achieving change. As the United States’ largest community of South Asian refugees, the Bhutanese refugee experience, replete with a high rate of suicide, heart disease, and diabetes is a story largely left untold. This article aims to give voice to the experience of Bhutanese refugees so as to co-create community driven solutions to this community’s unique problems.