Migration Traumatic Experiences and Refugee Distress: Implications for Social Work Practice

Each step of the refugee migratory journey has its own unique characteristics and mental health consequences, which require much attention from social work service providers. In an effort to provide quality service delivery for refugees, their premigration, migration and post-migration traumatic experiences need to be examined and understood beyond current narrow formulations. Integrating the concepts derived from refugee trauma and psychological distress literature, the author presents in this paper group-based interventions grounded in cultural competency, spirituality and strengths which will enable social workers to provide efficient service delivery and adopt a leadership role among service providers as advocates for refugees.