The hopes of West African refugees during resettlement in northern Sweden: a 6-year prospective qualitative study of pathways and agency thoughts

The primary study population comprised 56 adult refugees and 13 resettlement professionals. Qualitative data were collected from the refugees by questionnaires on arrival and 6 years later. Data were collected from the resettlement professionals by interview about 3 years after arrival of the refugees. Snyder's cognitive model of hope was used to inform the comparative data analyses.Hopes regarding education were in focus for the refugees shortly after arrival, but thoughts on family reunion were central later in the resettlement process. During the later stages of the resettlement process, the unresponsiveness of the support organization to the family reunion problem became as issue for the refugees. The professionals reported a complex mix of "silent agency thoughts" underlying the local resettlement process as a contributing reason for this unresponsiveness.Hopes regarding education and family reunion were central in the resettlement of West African refugees in Sweden. These thoughts were not systematically followed up by the support organization; possibly the resources for refugees were not fully released. More studies are needed to further investigate the motivational factors underpinning host community support of refugees' hopes and plans.With an estimated 214 million people on the move internationally and approximately 750 million people migrating within their own country, population mobility is among the leading policy issues of the 21st century. If internal and international migrants comprised a nation, it would be the third most populous country in the world, just after China and India [1]. The West African nations Liberia and Sierra Leone produced a considerable number of refugees as a result of a brutal civil war in 1991-2002 [2,3]. Rival factions were responsible for the deaths of more than 300,000 civilians (250,000 in Liberia; 50,000 in Sierra Leone), including an estimated 50,000 children. Mass terrorization of entire villages and towns was routine.