Children and Youth Services Review
Volume 94, 2018, Pages 606-616

Voices of refugee children in Korea (Article)

Nho C.R.* , Yoon S. , Ko J.
  • a Department of Social Welfare, College of Social Science, Ewha Womans University, 52 Ewha Yeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 03760, South Korea
  • b Research Center for Child Welfare, ChildFund Korea, 9th Fl.ChildFund Bldg., 20 Mugyo-ro, Jung-gu, Seoul, 04522, South Korea
  • c Sharing Business Team, Gangwon Regional Office, ChildFund Korea, 5F Sinyeong Bldg., 1502 Chiak-ro, Wonju-si, Gangwon-do, 26452, South Korea

Abstract

Little is known about refugee children in Korea, making it challenging to work with this population for social work and human service agencies. Employing thematic analysis method for individual in-depth and focus group interviews, this study examined difficulties of refugee children's past in their mother land, refugee camps (pre-displacement) and current experiences in Korea (post-migration) to draw implications for social work policy and practices. Five children for individual in-depth interviews and 10 children (five each from two separate ethnic groups) for focus group interviews were recruited. Their ages were between 9 and 18 years. Five main themes emerged: chaos, daily hassles, changed life, helping hands, and dreams along with their displacement process. This study addresses partnership between the Korean government and private agencies to meet basic and psychosocial needs of refugee children based on United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd

Author Keywords

South Korea Thematic analysis Forced displacement Refugee children

Index Keywords

ethnic group government female South Korea voice United Nations dream thematic analysis clinical article refugee camp Social Work Article interview human experiment human adult Adolescent Child
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85053010002&doi=10.1016%2fj.childyouth.2018.09.001&partnerID=40&md5=5e00078b26cafde9a8953920d5352d67
DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.09.001
ISSN: 01907409
Cited by: 1
Original Language: English