Realizing Translations: Exploring Social Environments of Somali Bantu Refugee Children in the United States

This paper explores the relationship between the social environments in which a Somali Bantu refugee child in resettlement in the United States interacts. By viewing these environmental elements, the resources they have, and their interaction with the refugee children I inquire about how different perceptions affect the child’s ability to engage their agency to discover well-being. I term the different associations and methods used to achieve well-being by each environment ‘cultural translations’. Through unstructured interviews and participant observation I look for missing elements that inhibit the Somali Bantu refugee child from accessing and participating in activities that could affect their process of acculturation. As members of multiple environments the Somali Bantu child must mediate the cultural translations that exist into a personal understanding of how to attain well-being. Through the process I discover that the child is not the only benefactor in their developmental process. The communities within which they interact, in this case Charlottesville, VA, are in a unique position to have the opportunity to host these children. It is our cultural translation/our perception of the effects of new populations in our community that can impact the attitudes, the commitment to helping, and success of the resettlement process. The research process guided me to the realization of children as translators for their social environments. For this research these environments are identified as school, family, community organizations, and resettlement services. Ultimately the children are also translators for themselves in their new environments, in their process of acculturation and adaptation, in discovering current and future happiness and the methods to achieve this. The aim of this research is to open areas for further exploration into the process of resettlement for refugee children, to look for avenues that could increase feelings of security and space for access to opportunities.